Green guide to ethical shopping

I can’t claim my carbon footprint’s been wiped clean. Indeed, as a sometimes jet-setting journalist, it might even be yeti-sized. And I don’t answer to the epithet of eco-nut, no matter how ‘lovingly/teasingly’ uttered. But I do rather fancy myself a bit of a Trendy Tree-hugger.

Trouble is, it still takes a shake and sometimes a jolt for most of us to wake up and smell the ozone, most days of the week. Yes, I buy my fruit and veg organic, resolutely; I read e-papers to save the trees; I walk, carpool and Metro every chance I get (secret blush: I never learnt to bike). And yet, my closet is stuffed with cotton — yep, that natural fibre we all love, the same one redolent with pesticides in every locally grown crop! If I won’t eat chemicals, why should I wear them? And in bright, sunny India, what business have I even considering a washing machine without a cold wash option, never mind a dryer! (Especially since cool water’s kinder to my vegetable dyed handlooms too.)

It’s such win-win, lose-lose, who’s-the-lesser-evil questions that Tamsin Blanchard’s new edition of Green is the New Black addresses. Drawing on her own industry experience (Blanchard’s a fashion editor for The Telegraph Magazine), she tells you not only why green is cool, but how to stay green without being uncool.

Every earth-child should put this on her reading list (if you buy it, recycle it after reading like the cover exhorts). There are websites to explore, labels to hunt down, guides to vintage buying, letters to print and send to your favourite store, insider info from big names in the industry (the foreword’s by a model!), debates and DIY stuffed full in a stylish little paperback that looks as good as it reads. Bet you didn’t know mighty M&S is one of your greenest ‘cheap chic’ options!

Go paint the town — and especially your wardrobe and favourite shops — green!

Green is the New Black: How to change the world with style, by Tamsin Blanchard, Hodder, Rs 700, available in bookshops countrywide.