Environmental Leader

Rolling Stone is devoting its June 28 issue to global warming, but it’s facing criticism over not using recycled paper, The New York Times reports.

The magazine is announcing that it will be printed on what’s called “carbon neutral paper” from Catalyst Paper which is made through a process that the magazine claims adds no carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Catalyst offsets the small amount of carbon that is released.

But the new paper has no recycled content. “Are the steps that Rolling Stone is taking good and important ones?” Frank Locantore, director of the Magazine Paper Project at Co-op America asked. “Yes. But what I’m afraid they are doing in the process is diverting attention away from the need to use recycled paper.”

“We think recycled paper is great. But we’re publishing some of the world’s greatest photographers and artists,” and the print quality on recycled paper does not do them justice, said Eric Bates, deputy managing editor of Rolling Stone.

Mansueto Ventures, which publishes Inc. and Fast Company, announced last week that it had switched both its publications to 100 percent recycled paper.