Conscience, Environment: rave takes first green step.

Brisbane street music magazine, Rave, have taken their first step into the Carbon Neutral arena by committing advertising dollars to the planting, maintenance and protection of trees for up to 70 years. The initiative, called Green-Ads, began this year and pledges to fund one Australian native tree for every page of advertising in each issue of Rave Magazine. According to publisher Colin Rankin, Green-Ads ”is an ongoing commitment to our environment in partnership with our advertisers and carbonneutral.com.au”. Funding is made directly from the sale of advertising space, which in effect means Rave is committing money from their own financial margins. While advertisers don’t currently contribute a monetary amount for tree planting in addition to purchasing advertsing space, Colin hasn’t ruled this out as a next step. He adds “As a magazine we are obviously concerned with our source of stock and regardless of the debate at the moment about tree planting, we just wanted to start doing something”. Rave is also printed totally on recycled paper (no gloss) and all ads published are Green-Ads. I believe advertisers would identify with making contributions to Rave’s initiative and I’ll keep an eye on the evolution of this project, as well as the weekly local and international music talent.