Nearly 200 Presbyterians decided last June at the PCUSA General Assembly in Detroit to donate a carbon offset as part of their General Assembly experience. While we all continue to try to conserve energy, to support the development of renewable energy sources, and to care pro-actively for God’s creation, purchasing a carbon offset means also putting some of our money voluntarily into projects that are making a difference in sequestering carbon (and hopefully building up the economic development of a community at the same time).
I am thankful to those who helped to make this faithful contribution to care for God’s creation as part of GA! The organization we chose for this GA was MACED’s Appalachian Carbon Partnership project. MACED has a long, good reputation of economic development in Appalachia.
Below is the certificate showing that together we were able to offset over 99 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from the Assembly. This amount includes the personal travel and housing emissions of 190 Presbyterians plus the carbon emissions of running the exhibit hall, plenary space, and committee rooms at the convention center. While we cannot gather as Presbyterians without having some negative impact on God’s creation (producing paper, using energy, consuming goods), it does make a difference to “give back” when we’re able.
