Things have got so bad lately that earlier this year even George Bush acknowledged that: "It's in America's interest to diversify its energy supply having been too long dependent on foreign oil".

But before we criticise, perhaps we should all be looking closer to home. The seemingly innocent acts of lighting and heating our homes are having a massive impact on the environment.

An eco-friendly home is likely to have certain features such as high levels of insulation to keep in heat, big windows to let in lots of daylight, renewable energy sources like south-facing solar roof panels or wind turbines, energy-efficient heating systems and water collection facilities such as outdoor water-butts.

However, an eco-friendly house is not the same thing as a 'carbon-zero' home that, by definition, must literally generate the same energy as it spends creating a net 'zero emission' of carbon dioxide. The vast majority of existing homes are simply not built to achieve this state - however environmentally-aware its occupants. So where can you find an eco-friendly home? Greenmoves.co.uk is an online 'broker' for green homes, either from developers or private individuals.