Mennonite Weekly Review

AKRON, Pa. — Less air travel and improved energy efficiency in buildings are among Mennonite Central Committee’s goals as it aims to shrink its carbon use.

Arli Klassen, MCC executive director, has committed to ride a bicycle instead of driving to work, for a total of 621 miles this year, as part of an MCC effort to reduce its carbon use. — Photo by Silas Crews/MCC

MCC has committed to lowering its carbon emissions by 20 percent over the next 10 years, thereby reducing its contribution to climate change.

The commitment arises from MCC’s Care for Creation Task Force, which has identified air travel and inefficient buildings as the primary contributors to MCC’s carbon footprint. Climate scientists name those two sources as driving climate change.

The task force, which has been meeting for about two years, is committed to helping MCC’s staff in Canada and the United States make environmentally conscious choices, both personally and organizationally.

“One of the reasons why these kinds of changes are important is that the people we are called to serve are being disproportionately impacted by climate change,” said Dan Wiens, MCC’s water and food coordinator and co-chair of the task force.

“This is because they have fewer resources to cope with a changing climate, and they tend to live in mid-tropical zones, where climate change is more extreme.”

On Jan. 1, MCC partnered with Sustainable Waterloo, a nonprofit that helps organizations reduce their carbon footprints. MCC will be accountable to Sustainable Waterloo to meet its goal of reducing carbon emissions by 20 percent over the next 10 years. The organization provides computer-based tracking tools, analyzes data and creates reports for MCC.

“Tracking carbon output is like doing financial accounting,” said Susan Wenger, administrative assistant to the MCC executive office and co-chair of the task force. “To be good stewards, we need to monitor what we emit and determine where we have room for improvement.”

In 2009 and 2010, MCC made travel cutbacks for budget reasons. These cutbacks may be continued as a way to meet the goals for reduced carbon outputs, Wenger said.

There are 12 MCCs in Canada and the United States with multiple offices, many with staff members that travel by air regularly to carry out its programming.