MCEA’s work holds corporations, agencies and individuals accountable for their environmental decisions. We know that carbon offsets are a petroleum fuel marketing term, where you give a token amount to excuse lavish carbon-producing activities. Rather than greenwashing, our hope is that the Carbon Counterpoint initiative gives people a way to directly impact the environmental health of Minnesota through real, systemic change.
As our board member Chris Heeter says,
“I’m heartened and frankly relieved to make Carbon Counterpoint donations in addition to my annual giving to MCEA. Travel is an inevitable part of my life as a professional speaker and even as a wilderness guide, and while some travel can be reduced, there will always be special events or work demands that require me to drive, take a train, or fly. I know I’m not alone in the discomfort and misalignment I feel regarding the additional carbon footprint associated with my travel. Carbon Counterpoint donations acknowledge and, in a small way, address the dissonance I feel between travel and my deep environmental values.
To help me address this, I think about whether travel is necessary, I keep track of my carbon use and make additional donations to MCEA throughout the year to help keep me pointed to my True North. I’ve landed on $40 for each trip by car or rail and $60 for each flight. It’s not scientific, but it’s enough of a stretch that it keeps me paying attention and offers a counterpoint. If you prefer to accurately track your carbon emissions, there is a formula to use at the end of this page.
In a complicated world where carbon emissions are built into our every day, these contributions ARE my version of an offset, my counterpoint that says that there is a better way forward. I’m concerned as hell about the climate. And I will make my stand here, with an organization that I know makes meaningful change and holds systems accountable for the impossible choices we have to make as we move through each day.
Chris Heeter is the Founder of The Wild Institute, Leadership/Keynote Speaker, Sustainable Events Advocate, Wilderness Guide, Poet, Dog Musher, Mushroom Hunter, Wild Rice Harvester, and grower of more vegetables in a year than she consumed in her entire childhood.
When you have to travel you have better things to do than stew in your seat and feel guilty about carbon emissions. We appreciated the advice in the 2024 New York Times article linked here, which included, “Calculate the equity-weighted carbon cost of the flights you do take, and if you can afford to, donate that amount to a good cause that you’ve vetted yourself.”
MCEA would be honored to be that cause.
We directly address climate change throughout our projects, working to eliminate fossil fuels and bring about the energy revolution that this moment demands.
If you’d like to learn more about how to more accurately determine the equity-weighted social cost of carbon, we invite you to look at the tremendous research and methodology of the University of California Santa Cruz. There are many carbon calculators that estimate the social cost of carbon per passenger on a specific flight. While none is perfect, we encourage you to use a simple calculator like the TIM model that will give you an average emissions amount for travel. Once you know the emissions estimated for your flight (enter in the TIM calculator here) you can multiply the kilograms by 0.19 to get the estimated social cost of carbon for your flight.*
*To estimate the actual social cost of carbon, MCEA uses the 2024 EPA suggested cost and 2025 GIVE model amounts of approximately $190 per metric ton of emissions.
Thanks for thinking about ways we can build a healthier, cleaner, and greener future. We’re grateful for your support.