Here's one more reason to love Aveda [1]: Last month, the company introduced a new award at the Folio Show [1] – a.k.a. the Oscars of the magazine industry – honoring “Best practices in environmental sustainability [1] within the magazine production processes.” The Aveda Environmental Award [2] went to Natural Health [3], Utne [4], and the Sustainable Industries Journal [5] – all of which print their magazines on post-consumer recycled (PCR) paper and in some cases use chlorine-free bleaching and soy inks.

According to Joel Makower [5], who covered Aveda's powerful influence on publishing practices [6] in his blog, the company began investigating the environmental practices of the magazines where it runs ads several years ago. That gave way to a company-wide advertising policy requiring magazines to have a minimum of 10 percent PCR content to qualify for Aveda’s ads.

Better yet, Aveda shared its survey with other eco-minded companies, such as Patagonia [7], Seventh Generation [8], and Timberland [8], who are adopting the policy. It's about time that the magazine industry be pressured to clean up its act: A 2001 white paper revealed [9] that magazine production consumes 35 million trees annually.