Sustainability Watch: Time Magazine

The current issue of Time magazine looked like a promising contender for the
sustainability watch – with a nine-page spread devoted to alternative and clean energy, I thought the issue may even have more than one-fifth of its ads focused on sustainable energy, as in last month’s Atlantic Monthly.

However the issue is a disappointment – excluding the prerequisite Beyond Petroleum ads, the only other sustainable advertisements were a Ford spread on hybrid models and an ad for the EPA’s Energy Star program.

Remarkably, the issue did feature several SUV ads, including one for Jeep’s Grand Cherokee – five pages away from an article titled How to Kick the Oil Habit. The US auto industry still seems precariously out of sync with current consumer concerns and the way things are going, it seems doubtful that this will be a hot year for SUV sales. Perhaps it will take another year of dismal sales before they can catch up with such mainstream magazines as Time.