A Paper Drop in the Global Bucket

Digging into the question of sustainable magazine publishing practices, I stumbled across some very excited progress in the use of sustainable paper productions for magazines. For the past 10 years magazines have merely talked about making the change or starting to think about sustainability, but in the past year with rising pressure, there have been many new advances. One can only wonder, is it too little too late in the fight?
We have always been mildly content with the baby steps that magazines have taken in using sustainable methods in printing, but in reading some recent mission statements from high profile magazines, the heat is on. Once I loooked at Time, Inc.’s sustainability report I was excited to learn that they are taking some real efforts to change their 127 publications to a more positive image and effect. There is no doubt that the recent shift in global eco-concerns have made the magazines sweat on whether or not they can afford to sustain themselves in an eco-threatened market.
For many years magazines have gotten away with only publishing a “green” issue about once a year, but some have missed the goal of the whole agenda. If gigantic magazines are unable to commit to publishing just one green issue a year, then they are not setting a good reputation that they will pay for it in the long run. Although the green issues have not been selling that well, they might have to make the sacrifice for the sake of the environment not just a fleeting trend. However as Jeff Bercovici points out in several articles that magazine ethos and practices are in fact an oxymoron. Vanity Fair within the past couple of years have put out journalistic hard hitting “green issues” but did not even put it on recycled paper. Also by putting Madonna on the cover trivializes the real images that should be at the forefront of global warming and greenhouse emissions. Without any real commitment to the simple cut down to paper used, is there any way to take this issue seriously. According to Co-op America there are every increasing magazine that do make the jump, and not just for one issue but make the commitment.
With all the heat on publishers the pressure on advertisers have become very realistic, but not good enough. With the Aveda Corporation going green meant more than paper, when in 2003-04 Aveda established an environmental media strategy that meant that their advertisers had to fill out a survey about their own environmental practices. If more publishers were to follow suit there would be an evolution in the way we view eco-friendly practices. It would not be for the few, but rather for the masses.
Also the introduction last year to ReMix, Recycling Magazines is Excellent, made a mockery of magazines own responsibility. All the information is focused on the consumer to just recycle their magazines. This however falls short when the thousands of magazines in production every day are unable to use recycled paper. I will admit that if everyone recycled more, hence creating more efficient recycling practices; however beneficial more education is to recycling, it is not just the consumer that needs to think about these issues.
With all of this considered there is the influence of technology and the Internet that has helped in the production, however the age of Internet users is still fairly young. If magazine publishers can commit to using green paper and mission statement that affects advertisers, consumers and the issues, then a wider range of ages will have no choice but to pay attention to the stand they are making.
With many other magazines pulling through on the challenge, Time, Inc for example, there is no reason for other major players to get left in the trash bin. If they do, it may be the antiquity of paper production and the gradual end of outdated production. More pressure needs to be put on the publishers themselves:
And if not now, then when?