The 'ideal' day to do your spring cleaning is said to be March 31st, so it you're reading this now and haven't yet done it, you'd better get down to it asap. To help you do this in an ecologically-sound manner, Hippyshopper's green answer to Kim and Aggie, Ben Keningale, is here to get you on the right track.

So it’s that time of year again when you’ve realised that the inch-thick build up of grease on your cooker NEEDS to go and that there are new life forms lurking at the back of the cupboards that really shouldn’t exist.

But spring cleaning invariably involves using household cleaners that contain chemicals that are harmful to both us and the environment - I highlighted some of the dangers associated with them last week. So are there alternatives? There certainly are...

The big eco-news today is the launch of the Green Barometer by the Energy Savings Trust. This report explores the attitudes of a sample of UK citizens to climate change and the lifestyle choices required to address it.

The results are depressingly predictable. While 75% of people believe they should make some lifestyle changes, very few are prepared to make major changes like "not buying a plasma TV" (21%) and "only taking one foreign holiday a year rather than two" (22%). Barely half think that they should walk occasionally rather than driving. Only 4% say they have made major lifestyle changes already.

Palm oil seems to be one of the most controversial cooking products around, whether it's the health implications of its sky-high fat content, the environmental concerns of cultivating the crop on rainforest land, or the whole biofuel minefield, there's a lot to say about it, and the chances are you'll already have ingested quite a lot of this 'vegetable oil' this week. Here's Ben's take on it.

Globally, palm oil is now the most widely produced edible oil, having surpassed Soybean as the cooking oil of choice. Used in literally hundreds of thousands of products, it can be found in almost one in ten products in your local supermarket. It’s cheap, extremely easy to grow and very versatile. In addition, non-edible palm oil, derived from the same source, is leading the way in a new generation in bio-fuels – cleaner fuels that produce far less carbon than their fossil based cousins.

Ben Keningale explores the hidden dangers lurking in the products found in most homes.

Power stations, factories, airports. All major sources of pollution that have damaging affects on the environment. Yet, in our quest to reduce emissions, cut waste and limit use of non-renewable energy, we seem to have forgotten that we, as humans, are also part of that environment.

And even when we are aware of harmful chemicals that could affect us directly – It was the main factor for me when considering going organic – we are still are not seeing the full picture.

The fact is that we are continually being bombarded with nasty compounds everyday of our lives, and they often come from the most unexpected places.

If you take a look in any of your kitchen or bathroom cupboards and you will find what you already know are pretty horrible chemicals. You only have to smell them! But the fact is that there are more insidious chemicals lurking in your home. Read on, if you dare...

Meet our new contributor, Gareth Kane.

Gareth will be giving a weekly view on news and current affairs for Hippyshopper. As the Director of environmental and sustainability consultancy Terra Infirma, Gareth has a very hands-on insight into green issues. Terra Infirma works with companies, organisations and individuals to improve their environmental performance. Gareth has worked in the environmental sector for nine years and has recently renovated his Victorian house in an eco-friendly manner. He also writes the Eco-living Blog. In today's post, Gareth will be giving his predictions on this Wednesday's budget, and just how green Gordon will be willing to go. Read on after the jump.

Today is No Smoking Day. I can't imagine any of the hardcore nicotine-lovers I know stubbing their cigarettes out for the afternoon, let alone for good, but I thought this would be a good time to think about the environmental impacts of smoking.

We're constantly reminded that lighting up is bad for our health, our wallets and the health of people around us, but what about the planet?

We started the day at Shiny Towers in a way we often do; by putting the world to rights in the way that only six women in an office are capable of. And since the topic seemed to provoke vigorous nods of agreement all round, it seemed only fair to put the proposition to a wider audience: People who won't eat vegetables are stupid. Agree or disagree?

Let's illustrate the statement with a bit of background. We've all met the guy who thinks vegetables are 'scary'. Let's call him 'Simon'. Simon hasn't touched broccoli (or peas, or carrots, or indeed anything containing vitamin C) since his Mum stopped nagging him about eating it when he was 20. He can't tell an artichoke from an aubergine and thinks 'kale' is a sort of dance. Simon's in his late twenties or early thirties; (it's hard to tell since he looks so tired and unhealthy). He likes tomatoes, but only if they're on pizza or in some other sanitised form, and if it wasn't for Ribena, he'd probably have died of scurvy by now. If Simon had a girlfriend, she'd probably nag him in the way he's used to his mother doing, but let's face it - it's not an immediate liklihood...

It seems like every email newsletter I get now has a reminder at the end to consider the planet before printing it, which makes me feel good about all the years I spent haranguing family and colleagues for wasting resources printing every dull four-line missive they received.

It never occurred to me that I might have to start telling people not to print text messages.

Nobody gives healthy eating quite such a bad press as Gillian McKeith, the nutritionist who today finally agreed to drop the "Dr" title from her publicity. The quinoa-loving, self-acredited dietry dominatrix seems to revel in the self-denial and pain of eating well, and never makes it look as enjoyable and easy as it can be. Just looking at her is enough to make me want to reach for the Krispy Kremes, and I'm someone who actively prefers healthy options...

This week, Katie Lee, editor-in-chief of Shiny Shiny, swaps energy guzzling halogen for some long life LED alternatives - but do they really offer a usable alternative?

When I saw Gabrielle's post the other week about GU10 bulbs I headed straight over to the grammatically ambivalent Your Welcome website to make a quick purchase. Until recently I hadn't even heard of these damn GU10 halogen bulbs, and I could have quite happily kept it that way had I known just how evil they are.

It all started when I foolishly bought a light for our bedroom. I'd looked at quite a few lights in our local 2nd hand furniture store, but all of them seemed on the dodgy side (requiring a full service from an electrician and various wire checks). After too long spent dithering and living without a bedside light, I eventually made an impulse purchase on a trip to the hell that is Ikea, picking up a lamp with two movable spot lights and separate flick switches. And boy did I come to regret it.

In the first of a new series of columns, Katie Lee, editor-in-chief of Shiny Shiny, discusses her attempts to live a greener life. This week, she looks at the thorny issue of carbon off-setting.

I read Adam (aka, the Green Guy)'s post about off-setting his New York flights with no small amount of interest. I was on that very same press trip, feeling similarly guilty about the environmental unfriendliness of it all. And a few weeks afterwards, I trebled my sins with a trip that involved a return flight to Japan with a return flight from Seoul to Tokyo sandwiched in between. So when I finally got my act together to go some way to counteracting the effects of my trans-planet trips, Adam's run down of the offsetting options available made for helpful reading. Following Adam's lead, I plumped for Climatecare, which is the offsetting option beloved of BA and The Guardian (other options include Carbonneutral. Treeflights and CO2Balance) and I duly handed over the £35 or so that will go towards research into energy efficiency, renewables and tree-planting projects.