A: Having earned a bad name in the Nineties for its association with sweatshops in the developing world and exploitative relationships with the unfortunate souls making our Capri pants and stripy shirts, Gap’s moment has arrived.

A new report by the campaign group Labour Behind the Label (labourbehindthelabel.org) says that it is leading the high street with its supply chain transparency. Take a look at its social responsibility page on gapinc.com. There’s news of environmental improvements — monitoring and reducing energy consumption in stores — as well as ethical progress.

The Frequently Asked Questions section tackles why Gap doesn’t pay more to its workers and how it prevents child labour being used.

While it might not yet be time to bear-hug your local store manager and introduce a classic all-American twist to your autumn wardrobe, it could be worth reassessing long-held grudges.

To open the debate you could transpose any number of multinationals into your question; try BP or Virgin, for recent examples of companies that have flexed their eco-muscles. You’d be faced with the same dilemma: should we trust corporate behemoths that play the green card? My feeling is that it depends on their commitment. The odd recycled envelope and tweak to company policy is not enough. But if it is done properly, and in a way that is tailored to an individual company’s environmental impact, we should not blinker ourself to the benefits of big companies putting their considerable weight behind green change. There is also the fact that if you turn your back on high street retailers that are cleaning up their act, but still want to dress responsibly, you’re left in a sticky spot.

By all means, turn to top-notch ethical designers (I hear that the fairtrade label Noir stole the show at London Fashion Week) but don’t be surprised if your good intentions ebb away when you see the price tag.

Sometimes you need basics and if there’s a way of getting them on the high street, while supporting retailers that are addressing ethical questions, I’m all for it.

Q: Is it better to make a cup of tea using an electric kettle or to boil the water on the hob?

A: What happened to those nice questions you used to send in about how to recycle egg boxes? Even the eco-auditor Donnachadh McCarthy, who carries out green audits for homes and businesses, was stumped by this one. He sighed deeply and told me that it is virtually impossible to say, without taking into account what kind of hob you have, how efficiently you heat the water on it, and how much water you’re boiling.

McCarthy, as a dark green example-to-us-all kind of chap, is the first to point out that using a plug-in-the-wall kettle is electricity-greedy. It uses on average 3,000 watts every time you fancy a cuppa, which is why we’ve all been told a million times to boil only the water we need. But he admits that it probably does a better job of heating water than a gas or electric hob, which heats the pan or kettle to heat the water.

Figures provided by the Energy Saving Trust back this. On average, an electric kettle will produce 50g of carbon dioxide per use; less if you boil only what you need. By comparison, an electric hob uses 300g to boil water, and a gas one 170g. One way to be sure that you’re doing the right thing is to invest in an Eco Kettle (www.ecokettle.com, £39.95). This has a measuring button to release the exact amount of water into a separate chamber for boiling.

Far be it for me to deny you the satisfaction of clearing up these eco-irritations, but your home probably harbours more significant energy sins. A prowl around the house looking for appliances left on standby or swapping standard light bulbs to energy-efficient versions would be time better spent.

And it could also be just the thing to take your mind off that cuppa.