I wonder if Nike would loan me its famous brand slogan as a motto this year. After all, Just Do It is much more motivating than Just Don’t Do It – the traditional ethical living response…

Until now. Who can fail to be cheered by the way the Divest movement has just done it? Starting only four years ago with a smattering of universities, the Divest-Invest network recently reported that the value of organisations committed to ditching their holdings in fossil fuels is now greater than the value of all listed oil and gas companies.

A new app from iywto.com (If You Want To) points you to where you can purchase products and services with an eco-friendly footprint in your area, taking decisive action with your own funds.

To make a difference this year, be decisive in the face of contradictory policy-making. A good example of this is a recent investigation by InfluenceMap. It reveals how the seriously wealthy are investing in “diesel farms” to leverage enormous tax breaks, contributing to the annual £6bn in subsidies awarded to the fossil fuel industry (meanwhile support for clean energy has been slashed).

Are you going to put up with this? I thought not. Changing your electricity tariff to a real green one (not one of the quasi-green offers associated with the Big Six dominant energy providers) is among the biggest ethical moves you can make for 2017.

In the UK the best ones are Good Energy and Ecotricity (renewable rivals, although Ecotricity now owns nearly a quarter of Good Energy). Expect to hear more from Ecotricity head Dale Vince on grass gas as an alternative to fracking. As he puts it, if you don’t like the status quo, just disrupt it.

The big picture: restricting rosewood

Park life: Masoala, Madagascar

From today the guitar industry will have to learn to sing to a different tune. New restrictions on rosewood (the world’s most trafficked wild product) came into force last week and now it has to be sourced from sustainable forests. Here’s a glimpse of Masoala National Park in Madagascar, a hot spot for illegal rosewood logging. There are no official figures, but experts say the crime gets worse year on year.

Well dressed: ethical alpaca knitwear

Bee’s knees: Ally Bee. Photograph: Rachel Manns

One of the things that lifts January from the blues is great knitwear – preferably in the softest wool and the most beautiful neutral tones.

Ally-bee.com knitwear is just what the doctor ordered. Fortunately the ethics of these deeply desirable garments match the aesthetics.

Alison Baker, a former lawyer, has painstakingly developed this brand over the past three years, sourcing her yarn from the British alpaca herd (there are now more than 30,000 in UK fields). These llama-lookalikes are low-impact grazers, kept to the highest animal welfare standards.

The Ally Bee brand describes itself (with some pride) as ‘the antithesis of fast fashion’. And for that we’re very grateful. These softest of pieces will form the basis of your winter wardrobe for decades to come.

Email Lucy at lucy.siegle@observer.co.uk or follow her on Twitter @lucysiegle