Image is everything in the race to save the world

Eco-consumers have a bit of an image problem. The diverse ranks of teenage activists form a remarkable, huge group making waves, gaining traction among their peers and changing the world.

But the adults seem to come in two flavours. Either they are aging semi-rural hippies, or they’re achingly cool 22-year-old Notting Hill types, endlessly insta-documenting days of stone-washed linen and sun-drenched wooden washing-up brushes.

One tribe does tie-dye and batik, the other lives in organic cotton dungarees. One won’t think twice about getting on a plane to Bali, the other claims to have shunned chemicals but has perfectly dyed hair and whitened teeth.

One lot should not be crossed when holding forth across a stripped pine kitchen table after a late-night gin and kombucha too many, the other doesn’t seem to know any alternative form of address than “Heeeey guys...” and only then to their followers on pre-recorded clips in exceptional light.

All seem to be female. You catch my drift.

I mention this because I looked in the mirror this morning as if for the first time. Neither of those groups looked back at me. But nor was I that thrilled with the woman who did.

Maybe it’s because I’ve hit 40. Maybe it’s because I’m working crazy hours doing a day job while simultaneously trying to turn a conventional farm into a broadleaf woodland and the largest agroforestry project in the country. Maybe the horrible sleeping habits of small people are now permanently etched on my face.

Whatever it really is, I might start to blame zero waste, because just when I could have done with a bit of artificial enhancement, we ditched the lot.

I’ve babbled on before about our zero waste bathroom, with its soap bars rather than shower gels, its toothpaste in jars, metal razors, deodorant sticks in cardboard tubes and, naturally, wooden toothbrushes. Plus, there are the homemade cleaning products to scrub it all with.

But zero waste has also meant DIY exfoliators and skin toners, “moisturisers” which translate to “whatever vegetable oil is in the kitchen cupboard”, cucumbers for the increasingly frequent dark circles only when cucumber is in season, and homemade make-up.

I don’t dye my hair because the packaging and the product are too often unsustainable, with the former heading to landfill and the latter down the drain to poison our besieged waterways just that little bit more.

I had promised myself that I would always be on top of the haircuts, at least – booking in at exactly three-month intervals to secure a sharp, deliberate style.

I had hoped the natural stripe of bright white that has now appeared at my parting might give me a bit of a Caitlin Moran vibe. Instead, I seem to be cultivating a salt and pepper version of Morticia Addams. It’s not a strong look.

In short, I don’t really fit the visuals, age or even location of either eco-tribe, nor do I particularly want to. I’m happy with “normal”, to be honest. But that seems quite hard to achieve if you’re trying your damnedest to have as little environmental impact as you can. It all gets a bit... wholemeal. If you’re not careful. And not everyone is up for the crinkled, whimsical look. Me included.

Eco-consumers just don’t seem to be people like me, and that’s weirdly disconcerting. Even off-putting. In the grand scheme of climate catastrophe and biodiversity implosion, I guess this all seems like a ridiculous exercise in navel-gazing.

But if you want an entire nation, an entire species, to take action to halt and reverse those fatal trajectories on an individual, personal basis, they surely have to be confident that the message is for and about people like them. Like us.

It is surely crucial – as we’re all increasingly encouraged, coerced, guilted, taxed and cajoled to adopt the habits and behaviours of a more sustainable life – that such an approach is something we can associate with.

We know we all have to take decisive action and deliver permanent, widespread and dramatic change across every walk of life. But to do that, we have to be able to identify with that change from day one.

A greener life can’t be something other people embrace, people we don’t know and will probably never meet. We have to feel like we are part of the tribe, like we are the kind of people who do these things and so do them.

My fear is that if even some of us don’t, the rest won’t have the momentum to turn this thing around in time.