Experience Life Magazine Recognized with Aveda Environmental Award

Experience Life magazine has won the 2011 Aveda Environmental Award for Magazines in the Best Distribution category. The pioneering healthy way of life magazine joins a roster of honorees that has included Mother Jones, Utne Reader, Mother Earth News, Natural Health and other industry leaders. The award, founded in 2005 by Aveda, a leader in corporate environmental sustainability and responsibility, and Green America, the nation’s leading green economy organization, highlights environmental innovation in the consumer and business-to-business magazine industry.

Experience Life was recognized for its many initiatives to reduce waste and increase distribution efficiency, including offering reduced subscription rates for its digital edition and for new and renewing print subscribers who pay online. Unsold newsstand copies of the magazine are shredded and sold to paper recyclers. And, in 2009, the magazine began to allow members of parent company Life Time Fitness to opt out of receiving the magazine — conserving thousands of pounds of paper each year.

Rachael Ostrom, Aveda’s executive director, consumer engagement, called Experience Life one of the "clear leaders in environmentally responsible magazine publishing.”

Green America Better Paper Project director Frank Locantore noted that Experience Life and other Aveda Award winners stand out in an industry in which less than 2 percent of North American magazines use any recycled paper content at all. "Despite attempts by some in the paper and printing industry to confuse the issue,” he said, "these magazines understand the environmental benefits of using recycled paper.”

Published by Life Time Fitness, Inc. (NYSE: LTM), Experience Life has been a leader in environmental stewardship since its launch in 2001. The magazine uses recycled paper (currently, minimum 30-percent post-consumer recycled and 90-percent de-inked fiber, processed without chlorine) that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, an independent organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests.

"Our whole team is delighted and honored to receive the Aveda Environmental Award,” said Pilar Gerasimo, Editor in Chief of Experience Life. "As a health-focused magazine, we see ecological health as a prerequisite to human vitality, and we understand that both our individual and collective well-being rely on the sustainable vitality of a healthy, thriving planet. In addition to our distribution efforts, we’ve put a great deal of attention on choosing papers, printing methods, digital and operational initiatives that help us walk our talk in this area. We are grateful for the recognition this award represents and excited to be part of what we see as a positive, crucially important evolution in our industry.”

For more information about Experience Life visit ExperienceLife.com. The May issue, featuring competitive climber Alex Puccio, hit newsstands April 19.

About Experience Life
First published in 2001, Experience Life is an award-winning, healthy-lifestyle magazine committed to helping its readers improve their health and fitness while enjoying more satisfying, authentic and meaningful lives. It covers a wide variety of quality-of-life topics, including health and nutrition, fitness and athletics, personal wisdom, stress-management, sustainable lifestyle, active adventures and more. Published 10 times a year, Experience Life is available by subscription and on select newsstands nationwide, including many Whole Foods and Barnes and Noble stores. It currently enjoys a circulation of more than 600,000, with an MRI-estimated reach of 2.7 million. For more information about Experience Life, including seven years of archived content, please visit the award-winning ExperienceLifeMag.com.

About Life Time Fitness, Inc.

As the Healthy Way of Life Company, Life Time Fitness (NYSE: LTM) delivers the certified professionals, comprehensive businesses and incredible destinations that help people positively change their lives every day. The Company’s healthy way of life approach enables its customers to achieve their health and fitness goals by engaging in their areas of interest – or discovering new passions – both inside and outside of Life Time’s distinctive and large sports, professional fitness, family recreation and spa destinations. As of May 10, 2011, the Company operated 92 centers under the LIFE TIME FITNESS^® and LIFE TIME ATHLETIC^SM brands primarily in suburban locations in 21 states and 26 major markets. Additional information about Life Time centers, programs and services is available at lifetimefitness.com.