Top Eco Friendly Magazines


By Luanne Bradley

You'd be surprised by which magazines use recycled paper these days. While it's expected from from publications like Plenty and Ode (and many on our list below), there are plenty of others using recycled content in addition to publishing articles on conscious and environmental topics. Here are nine magazines worth plunking down cash for in the age of online media.
1. Mother Jones


Never the mother of convention, Mother Jones seeks not just to expose but to move to action, as witnessed in its recycled pages and commitment to pressing planet-worthy issues. Environmental coverage ranges from asking how green your Thanksgiving menu is to the next frontier in natural gas wars.

2. Audubon


Audubon Magazine stays off the endangered list by staying current when it comes to fish and fowl play, tracking stewards of the planet who are protecting forests and swamps from urban encroachment, serving up responsible seafood guides and measuring solar power in the southwestern deserts.

3. Shape


Once limited to hot yoga bodies and the best bob cut, Shape is not ready to ship out yet, discovering glossy is sustainable on recycled paper. Being attached to the health and fitness network for the publication has come to mean both pumping iron and peddling good green gift guides, organic and local eating, non-toxic cosmetics and and stress-free tips for going green.

4. Ms. Magazine


The feminist movement has been a slippery slope for women yet Steinem's Ms. Magazine has grown up to be an unflagging feminist-environmentalist platform that speaks out about green jobs, oil policies, the link between toxins and breast cancer, and LEED progress in our cities. This commitment to issues that concern us all reflect the movement's global view that what is good for women of the planet is good for humanity.

5. Inc.


Inc. Magazine, a business journal has introduced The Green 50 - a collection of entrepreneurial companies that are profiting the new-fashioned way - prioritizing sustainability and responsibility over the bad boy behavior which led to the occupation of Wall Street. This sort of content keeps Inc. afloat and admirable in the sea of boring financial chronicles.

6. Outside


The hike to high ground lets Outside do its business on recycled paper while National Geographic comes up disappointingly short in this department despite its worldly title. (According to the Daily Green,the excuse is that recycled paper doesn't fit into the overall plan to cut carbon emissions?) We also applaud Outside's green coverage which steps outside of its usual range in fresh topical features - ranging from Hollywood glam to curbing the excesses of football stadiums.

7. Adbusters


Busting capitalism-driven affluenza is just part of the picture when it comes to Adbusters which goes one step further than Alternet to also bust the powers that be in new articles like Suppressing Nonviolent Dissent which exposing the crimes we are witnessing on our home turf but failing to see broadcast as crimes by conventional media. One of the first to switch to recycled paper, Adbusters is more timely than Time could ever be.

8. Sierra


Sierra magazine stays on the right path, giving us a big dose of natural habitat along with excellent content such as ranking the greenest colleges, gauging farmer's carbon footprints and even rounding up the most sustainable soups. Counting more than a million active readers, the Sierra Club's magazine reflects its readers passion to "explore, enjoy and protect the planet."

9. Nylon


An unlikely publication to use recycled content paper for their magazine, especially with the name Nylon, but editors feature eco-focused stories lauding green makeup routines, healthier cosmetics and include accessories such as time pieces that run on solar power.

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Images: Robert Couse-Baker;Mother Jones; Audubonmagazine; Vegetarianstar;wonkette;Inc. Magazine;Outside;Rachel Ray;Adbusters;Sierraclub; Nylon, Joel Bedford