Care for the environment

A couple of years ago I initiated measurement of United Mission to Nepal's organisational carbon footprint.

Since then it has been included in the glossy Annual Report which is distributed widely and available on the website.

Last year when I reported the detail of the emissions to UMN's directors for discussion I included the suggestion that we might consider offsetting to demonstrate that our commitment to 'Care for the Environment' was real.



Last week I got the opportunity to ask for a formal decision on this and the response was positive, so I'm now working on a proposal that will explain our calculation and the activities we can do to take our emissions out of the atmosphere.

We already have our own programmes which help remote villages with improved cooking stoves, so the potential is there to expand that work.


Nepal is considered one of the countries most at risk from climate change, as glaciers melt and the seasons change bringing storms, flooding and disruption to the centuries old agricultural cycles.

However, even among the educated people of the city awareness and understanding is very low.

At UMN we’re helping our staff to learn about climate change, and hopefully this can be shared with the local groups we work with.

But for the people who will really feel the impact such discussion seems to be from another world.

At the church prayer meeting on Wednesday (see photo) the basic needs of food and healthcare felt much more immediate and real.

Martin Butterworth