Green Living Enterprises to launch chic Eco Options

Since he sold most of his Key Publishers assets to St. Joseph Corporation in 2002 Michael de Pencier has not been standing still. He has been building a portfolio of "green" ventures. At first, it was Investco Capital Corporation, private equity funds that invest in wind power, organic foods and water purification projects.

Then it was Green Living Enterprises, with a shift back into publishing and Green Living magazine, a consumer magazine promoting sustainable practices.

This led inevitably to other opportuntities with a greenish veneer, including such contract publications as the nationally distributed Healthy Home magazine for the Healthy Indoor Partnership, the City of Toronto’s annual Clean & Beautiful publication, the World Wildlife Fund Canada’s quarterly National Council newsletter, and the Clean Water Foundation’s guide to water conservation. And now it is about to move into more mainstream custom publishing with Eco Options magazine
According to a story in mastheadonline (sub req'd) one million copies of Eco Options will be distributed starting this month through Home Depot’s chain of 142 stores. The large format, 82-page premier edition is the first of they're not sure how many issues annually (frequency apparently depending on uptake).

Green Living president Laurie Simmonds says “They are considering [publishing] quarterly and binannually, but they have not confirmed,” says Simmonds. Company spokesman Rob McEwan says a rate card is in the process of being developed to accommodate appropriate third-party advertisers. In the premier issue, which contains mostly editorial, the few ads that do jump out are for Honeywell (thermostats), Venmar (air filtration systems) and Waterpik (shower heads)—not quite third-party ads as they are complementary to the in-store “Eco Options” merchandizing program.

Eco Options is designed by Donna Braggins (creative director), Gary Hall (art director) and Ken Rodmell (Green Living's VP Creative). Braggins and Hall will be remembered as the design team at Maclean's. Rodmell is one of the deans among publication designers and, for many years taught today's art directors at the Ontario College of Art & Design.