I got my last look at the proofs for Eco-Shopper yesterday. A couple of tiny tweaks and that was it, finito. The book’s going to press as I write; no more chances to correct anything or update the content. It’s a relief to finally let go of it, but scary, too. In just over six weeks (7 August, to be exact) it will be out there, no longer my baby but public property. People think it’s cool when you tell them you write books; what they don’t realise is that I’m in a permanent state of freaked-out-ness about it. It’s not just the worry that I might have got something wrong; the green scene is changing so rapidly that by the time the first copies of my book hit the shops there’s a risk that some of the content could be old news already.

Of course, that’s good news for the environment (most of the time), but impossible to keep pace with when you’re working in the tortoise-slow plod of book publishing. That’s why I’m writing this blog, which I aim to keep as dynamic and up to date as possible. Not only will it keep you abreast of my personal progress with my ‘eco-challenges’ (there are almost 40 of them in the book, and I plan to do more) but it will also update the sections of the book where relevant, for example if a news story breaks about supermarkets or Fairtrade or ethical shopping.
 
I’m not claiming for one moment that I’ll catch everything, and if you spot a story or have some news, tips, feedback or something helpful to share about the subjects covered in my book, then I would be delighted to hear from you (email me at Kate@ecosmartshopper.co.uk). And I’d love to know how people get on doing the eco-challenges. Let me know about your experiences and I’ll post them on the blog. Who knows where this could lead? We might even be able to start an Eco-Smart Shoppers’ movement! That would really allow us to bring pressure to bear for change.
 
This book is a collaborative enterprise – I roped in friends, neighbours, family, colleagues and even a few complete strangers to assist me with my challenges – so it would be great to keep up that collective approach. I’m still learning about what it takes to be green and trying to pick my way through all the complex (and often contradictory) issues involved. I didn’t come at this book as an expert, but rather as an intelligent customer who asks the sort of questions that most people want answers to. It’s all very well saying, ‘Do this’, and there are plenty of books that tell you how to go green. What’s different about Eco-Shopper is that I actually did it, and I give you the nitty gritty – and there’s plenty of the gritty – about how I got on.
 
Writing the book turned out to be a voyage of discovery for me. It’s not that I was a total eco-slut before; I had the political will and I was concerned about the environment, but it hadn’t really translated into much by the way of practical action in the way I led my life. I was an avid consumer of clothes, beauty products and shoes, I hated cycling, loved supermarkets and I didn’t think too hard about what I threw in the bin. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was definitely weak. I didn’t want to think too hard about what my actions involved because that would require changes, effort, initiative, resolve, breaking old habits and, quite possibly, deprivation, not to mention hard work. My eco-consciousness definitely needed raising.

Confessions of an Eco-Shopper came about because I wrote a Saturday column in my local paper, The Press in York, in which I regaled readers with stories about my life (you can read a selection of the more recent ones by clicking on The Press Columns in the left-hand sidebar). The columns began to take a greener tinge after I was persuaded to take part in a composting trial following a piece I’d written about recycling, and the idea of the ‘eco-challenges’ took off from there. I tried to get a publisher interested in doing it as a book but, at that stage, no-one wanted to know.
 
I carried on doing the challenges anyway because they had become important to me, and continued to write about them from time to time in The Press. Then, in 2007, public interest in climate change and ethical living rocketed and publishers wanted to source ‘green books’ for their lists. Suddenly there was a market for Eco-Shopper. When I landed the deal with my publisher, Hodder, the elation I felt that my ambition – which had, by then, become a personal mission – was finally going to be realised was tempered by a humbling sense of responsibility.
 
I had the chance to make a difference. It had better be good.
 
Well, I hope you think it is. The mission continues here, in this blog. I’m passionate about the subject, as you can tell, but I’m realistic, too. You can’t do everything, but we can all do something and what I’ve discovered is that that those things are probably a lot more than we originally thought, if you just give them a go. And the little things add up to bigger things so that, before you know it, you find you’ve made substantial changes to the way you live and the carbon savings are significant. So let’s get started . . .