Marie Claire Nails Green Cover Girl With Cate Blanchett
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
It’s good to know there’s still someone 
out there in the magazine industry particularly concerned with who should grace the cover of their “eco issueâ€. After duds from mags like Elle, Vanity Fair, and Complex, we were starting to wonder whether getting people truly involved in environmental initiatives to grace the front page was a priority anymore.
Thankfully, the UK version of Marie Claire is featuring the beautiful actress/environmental activist Cate Blanchett. In the interview, Blanchett speaks of her quest to push the climate change issue forward for Australians — as well as her efforts in greening the Sydney Theater Company and personal home, and her charity work for Solar Aid. Here’s a bit from the magazine,
“‘We would have greened the internal offices anyway,’ she says as we stroll along the balcony outside the building, the harbour waters sparkling in the sunlight below. ‘But then Andrew said, “This place is perfect to put solar panels on and take it off the grid completely.â€â€˜ If they manage it, theirs will be the first public building on Sydney Harbour to do so.
‘Our house is progressing now,’ says Blanchett. ‘But I was horrified to see how uncommon greening practices for the home are. We’ve had solar panels installed, but they’re still seen as a left-field idea. We’ve also got rainwater tanks and we’re using natural air flow to cool the house.’â€
For their part, Marie Claire is delivering the mag wrapped in a recyclable brown paper bag. A stunt to be sure, since we’re confident next month’s issue will be back to its plastic-wrapped self. We will lightly applaud, however, the fact that magazine has transitioned to using paper from sustainable forests.
Marie Claire’s editor, Marie O’Riordan, has not made the shift to recycled paper because she feels “it just isn’t glossy enough.†Damn trees. Oh well, one step at a time.
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