Green Guide magazine hits the stands

National Geographic's now out to green the average magazine reader. Today, National Geographic Green Guide magazine hit newsstands around the country, sporting this subhead: "The Resource for Consuming Wisely."

While the focus on consumption might make some environmentalists raise an eyebrow, many pieces in Green Guide's premiere issue are about buying and spending less. Articles like "Save $60 a Week -- and Save the Planet" and "Products We Can Live Without" encourage reducing and reusing. In fact, the Green Guide reads much like an Eco-living 101 booklet, with a primer on CFL bulbs, tips on green cleaning, and other basic green lifestyle advice.

Of course, the magazine has an eco-shopping section showcasing pretty new goods hitting the market -- like a $1,698 Les Paul SmartWood Electric Guitar made with Rainforest Alliance-certified wood, a $60 Loomstate T-shirt, and a $112 recycled glass necklace.

But more practical green shopping tools are included too, like a punch-out "Smart Shopper's Card" that explains all the different little recycling symbols on plastic packaging. Green thinking shoppers could ostensibly whip out this wallet-sized card while in the grocery store to make sure they pick out the most eco-packaged products.

Green Guide includes a photographic essay that follows Wal-Mart's plastic bag recycling program. Unfortunately, while the piece mentions that only a paltry 0.6% of plastic bags get recycled in the U.S., consumers are simply encouraged to recycle these flimsy things, not reuse more durable shopping totes. Somewhat paradoxically, an organic cotton reusable tote was included in the little press package for the Green Guide ...

The most useful article for me was a thorough piece on improving indoor air quality. I'm now determined to clean my furnace filter -- tomorrow. I'm planning to turn my pilot light off in preparation for warmer days ahead --

Find National Geographic Green Guide at a newsstand near you, or subscribe online to get 4 issues for $15. A $12 annual e-subscription's available for enviros who want to cut out paper consumption -- though Green Guide is printed on FSC-certified paper with 10% post-consumer recycled content and with inks from renewable sources. Can't afford the subscription fee? Lots of related content's available for free at thegreenguide.com.

Comments

[Little Green House]

cool! thanks!

[Kate]

Is it just hitting the streets today? I bought mine over the weekend.

[Siel]

It was supposed to hit the stands yesterday (Tues), but maybe some newsstands got their shipments early and went ahead and started selling them over the weekend --