Still, I never seriously considered upgrading my standard of living until the other day when I saw my friend Marissa wearing an extremely cute sweater.

Imagine a close-fitting, red cashmere sweater with a V-neck, cropped at the waist with a ruffle hem. I hesitate to try describing the heart-shape, pink peace-sign applique because ''applique'' is traditionally accepted as a synonym for ''cutesy,'' but in this case it looked just right.

''Where did you get it?'' I greeted Marissa.

''It's made from recycled material,'' she said. ''My friend sells them.''

I failed to register fully the implication of the words ''recycled material,'' concentrating instead on how soon I could log on to the hipandzen.com Internet site where the sweater was for sale ($140).

There, alongside its appliqued siblings -- the Flower Power, Butterfly and Cross sweaters -- the Peace model was featured with other organic, handmade, fairly traded and natural products, including candleholders and camisoles.

Who am I to refuse to save the planet? Buying ''recycled material'' is virtuous. And if I happened to improve my wardrobe as a side effect of taking a stand against depleting the earth's resources, so be it.

There I was, ready to say yes to a sustainable future -- finger poised to click the ''order'' button -- when an annoying little voice in my head said, ''Wouldn't it be more environmentally friendly just to wear last year's sweater?''

Clearly, Voice has not been shopping recently. Otherwise it would know that buying socially conscious products is a respectable consumer trend. Last year 62 million U.S. households used organic products, according to the Natural Marketing Institute, with sales of organic food and vegetables in particular increasing 18 percent over the previous year to $10.9 billion.

There are two main reasons to shop green, said Jeanie Pyun, the editor of Organic Style magazine, which advocates reducing landfill waste by using a lipstick brush to dig ''25 to 30 percent more makeup out of every tube.''

''There's a health benefit to organic food, and there's also a feel-good component to buying eco-friendly products like organic cotton or furniture made from sustainably grown wood,'' Pyun, said. ''You know that decisions were made in the harvesting of those materials to make sure we're not depleting resources to the point where we can't keep producing products and food to live on.''

These days you can buy a socially conscious version of almost any product online. At ecos.com, a purveyor of environmentally friendly cleaning products, the home page proclaims, ''There's clean and then there's honest clean.'' Apparently all that stood between me and honest cleanliness was $3.49, the price of ecos.com's 16 ounce container of nonabrasive Creamy Cleanser for kitchen and bath.

No merchandise category is exempt. For pet owners smithindustries.com sells a cat scratching post made of a tree branch from a ''salvaged naturally felled tree'' ($86). At greengirlbasics.com, you can buy cruelty-free vegetable soaps, lip balms and lotions. (''NO animal testing!!!'') At www.vivav.com I could buy a Spider side table ($530) made with nontoxic water-based adhesives.

I wondered about the toxicity of the rest of my furniture. I shifted uneasily in my chair.

This pleased Voice, who said it was foolish to think I could justify the rest of my wasteful lifestyle with a single purchase of a sweater like Marissa's. Voice said unless I was willing to raise my own vegetables, mix my own house paint and stop wasting fossil fuels to barbecue chicken, I should forget the sweater.

I worried that Voice was right. Without actually revealing the source of the doubts, I asked Pyun of Organic Style if she thought that I needed to start weaving sandals from hemp to show I meant business.

''No, no, it's not about making yourself crazy,'' Pyun reassured me. ''We call it 'Just One Thing.' If everyone does just one thing for the environment, that's doing good. It's a misperception to say that an organic lifestyle is all or nothing. Maybe you get the car with great gas mileage, maybe you replace light bulbs with compact fluorescents that last 10 times longer.''

Come to think of it, I did have a low-flow toilet. Deciding to confide in her, I said, ''It all started with my friend Marissa's sweater.'' As I described the sweater, Pyun interrupted.

''I know which one you are thinking about because we are featuring those in our October issue,'' she said. ''It is adorable. The lifestyle should be about making smart choices that make you feel good. So for $140, if you're going to feel great wearing a cute sweater, I would go with the heart.''

But Voice said to forget the heart and instead investigate the production process. Voice wondered what exactly ''recycled cashmere'' meant.

I phoned Karen Clothier, the founder of hipandzen.com. ''I'm a friend of your friend Marissa,'' I said, ''and another friend you don't know was wondering how the cashmere gets recycled.''

''The designer, Deborah Lindquist, gets vintage sweaters,'' Clothier said, ''and she hand-cuts them into a more stylish shape and hand-sews appliques onto them.''

That was good enough for me.

But Voice wondered what would happen if both Marissa and I showed up someday at a party in the same sweater?

Voice won. Maybe I'll buy it a tote bag made of recycled phone directories ($60, at hipandzen.com) to show I have no hard feelings.