Media companies have published numerous articles on global warming and greenhouse emissions in recent years. Now, a couple of large publishers are starting to think about their own impact on the environment.

Time is seeking ways to reduce its effect on the environment. Time Inc. participated in a study published this year by the Heinz Center that calculated the amount of carbon dioxide emissions produced over the entire process of publishing Time and In Style.

Other magazine companies, including the Hearst Corporation, now say they are studying the Heinz report to consider the implications for their magazines, and Rupert Murdoch recently announced that the News Corporation is developing a plan to become entirely carbon neutral, meaning the company will reduce its carbon emissions and try to offset the emissions left over.

“We ve recognized that these are issues that are important to our readers and, increasingly, important to our advertisers,” said David J. Refkin, the director of sustainable development for the Time Inc. division of Time Warner and a member of the board of the Heinz Center. “We re starting to see a movement where becoming carbon neutral is something many companies are considering.”

•Large-scale manufacturing is, of course, better known as a source of the greenhouse gases that many scientists say cause global warming. Electric power production represents about 40 percent of emissions in the United States, and private motor vehicle use accounts for about 20 percent, said Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences at Princeton University.

Still, the paper industry is not without its impact. Because of its consumption of energy, the industry — which includes magazines, newspapers, catalogs and writing paper — emits the fourth-highest level of carbon dioxide among manufacturers, according to a 2002 study by the Energy Information Administration, a division of the Department of Energy. The paper industry follows the chemical, petroleum and coal products, and primary metals industries.

“Few people realize the sheer scale and magnitude of activities it takes to produce millions of copies of a magazine,” said Donald Carli, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Communication, a nonprofit group in New York that is working to help advertisers estimate their ads’ greenhouse emissions. “There’s a hidden life that products have, and one of the challenges of sustainability is to make these lives known.”

The life of a magazine or a newspaper starts with trees being cut down in a forest and ends with the burning or recycling of old magazines or papers. The most harmful part of the process is paper production. Breaking down wood fiber to make paper consumes a lot of energy, which in many cases comes from coal plants.

Time Inc. and the News Corporation are ahead of most publishers in their public commitment to reducing carbon emissions. Other media companies contacted for this article— including Dow Jones, The New York Times Company and Condé Nast — would not comment on the levels of emissions produced by their publications.

“It s something new to the industry, apparently,” said Jan Angilella, spokeswoman for Newsweek, which is owned by the Washington Post Company. “We re working with printers and paper mills to see if there s something more to be done.”

Recent reductions in paper size at many newspapers and declining circulation at many newspapers will, of course, also reduce the level of carbon emissions at paper mills. Numerous publications have taken steps to use more recycled paper — which helps decrease the number of trees used.

Time Inc. s study found that greenhouse emissions from one of its paper mills accounted for 61 percent of the emissions from Time magazine and 77 percent of In Style s emissions. In May, Time Inc. announced that it had asked the company s paper suppliers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2012.

Mr. Refkin said the idea of sustainability — an emphasis on improving society and the environment for future generations — had come up recently in discussions with advertisers like Aveda, a beauty products company owned by Estée Lauder. Aveda sends sustainability surveys to publications to help decide where to place its ads. The surveys include questions about greenhouse emissions.

“As a company that advertises in magazines, we play an important role in encouraging publishers to better their environmental practices,” said Tanya Rogosheske, an advertising manager for Aveda. “Magazine publishers pay close attention to our interests and are receptive to environmental concerns. They become more receptive when they realize how important it is to their advertising revenue.”

A number of companies, including General Electric, Home Depot, Ford Motor, BP and Wal-Mart Stores, have been putting greater emphasis on reducing the environmental impact of their products. And Time Inc. admits that environmentally focused companies are particularly interested in advertising in Time Inc. magazines when they run articles and special editions about the environment.

Consumers are also becoming more aware of the impact of greenhouse emissions. Mr. Refkin of Time Inc. said he thought some of that awareness came from Al Gore s recent movie “An Inconvenient Truth” and from coverage of Hurricane Katrina that said the hurricane s extreme force might have been related to global warming.
“Probably five years ago, if somebody said something about carbon, the average consumer wouldn’t know what you were talking about,” said Tom Pollock, project manager at Metafore, a nonprofit environmental group. Metafore helped organize the Paper Working Group, which is trying to change paper-buying practices.

“CO2 and other greenhouse gases are subjects that people are looking to now since global warming is more and more in the public eye,” Mr. Pollock said.

Time Inc. is the only media company that is a member of the Paper Working Group, which also includes McDonald s, Starbucks and Bank of America.

One way companies can become carbon neutral is to buy offsets: guarantees that carbon-lowering actions like planting trees will take place to make up for greenhouse emissions. If Time Inc., for example, wanted to buy offsets to make up for the emissions from Time magazine, it would cost about $2,500 weekly, Mr. Refkin said. Time s study found that an average copy of Time caused about 0.29 pound of greenhouse gas emissions.

It is unclear whether In Style s and Time magazine s levels of greenhouse gas emissions are representative of other publications because emissions depend heavily on the source of paper. Time does not currently plan to become completely carbon neutral in the future, Mr. Refkin said.

•One In Style advertiser is currently creating a way for it to pay for its own carbon offsets. John Hardy, a luxury jewelry company based in Bali, has formed a partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Communication to request that publishers release information on their paper and printing sources. Mr. Carli of the institute will then estimate the total carbon emissions for all of John Hardy s advertising across several publications.

Mr. Carli plans to develop a repository of information about many publications practices so that he can give greenhouse gas estimates to any other advertiser that also wishes to offset the emissions from its ads.

Mr. Carli estimates that John Hardy s advertisements this year account for roughly 451 metric tons of greenhouse gases. To convert enough carbon dioxide into oxygen to offset the company s magazine ads, the company plans to plant bamboo on the Balinese island of Nusa Penida. The bamboo needed will cover an area about the size of four football fields.
(Por Louise Story, The N.Y.Times, 25/10/2006)