It's hysterical. Every day, at the moment, there's a new 'green' story. If it's not a major multiple's daft new reusable bag stunt (apparently Justin King told Richard Desmond he needed to stand in line like everyone else if he wanted one), it's the Daily Mail launching a 'War on Packaging' in which it finds - oh, the irony - that Asda, as opposed to one of its suppliers that it's promised to crack down on - is individually wrapping its own-label dried apricots. Incidentally, this 'war' is being waged by the same Daily Mail Group that's littering London's streets every day with throwaway freesheets.

But ironies like this are inevitable. Why? Because consumerism will always be environmentally unfriendly. I read the other day that a packet of ginger biscuits uses as much energy as a one-mile journey in your car. Start computing from there on the 20,000-odd SKUs in an average supermarket. The measures that are being put in place, commendable as they are, will limit the damage, but they won't save the planet.

If we really wanted to do that, we'd need to make some pretty stark, and frankly backward, choices such as barely moving outside our neighbourhood, growing our own fruit and veg and becoming self-sufficient. Organic fairtrade T-shirts from Malaysia? Forget it.

We'd also have to cut out meat. The rearing of animals for human consumption takes 100 times more water, 10 times more land and 10 times more fuel than plant-based foods.

That last stat puts Alpro, the soya milk and yoghurt company, in a better place than most to talk about its green credentials, however. This week Alpro became the first food and drink manufacturer to announce it was going carbon neutral. I wish it well. But why aren't bigger manufacturers embracing the PR opportunity in the same enthusiastic squeeze as the supermarkets?

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