This week there was some positive news, be it ever so humble, for the tropical rainforests. A UK government-backed initiative, the Forest Footprint Disclosure project (FFD), published its first report highlighting those businesses which are going the extra mile to ensure their product and materials sourcing doesn't contribute to deforestation.

The focus was specifically on "forest risk commodities", materials most associated with damaging forest cover - timber, soy, beef, leather, biofuels and palm oil

The FFD's conclusions were based on responses to a questionnaire sent to companies worldwide. This quizzed them on a range of topics, such as whether their raw materials and products were environmentally certified and they could trace them back down the supply chain.

The idea is to flag up best practice, underline that being an environmental good-egg and commercially successful are not mutually exclusive and to encourage the others. And top performers, according to the FFD report, included US forest and timber construction products giant Weyerhaeuser, UK timber and builders merchant Travis Perkins, plus the likes of UK retailers Marks & Spencer and J Sainsbury, Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier and French cosmetics producer L'Oreal.

However, when I spoke to one of The Daily Telegraph's environment correspondents about this initiative, the response was pretty much that it was all very nice, but she wasn't interested in "pats on the back" for companies doing the right thing, just exposing the eco-villains who are laying waste to the rainforest and sending us all to a polar bear-less hell in an over-heated hand cart.

Is it me, or isn't it time for the media generally to lighten up and give businesses some eco-credit where eco-credit's due?

It's small wonder, under the constant press and tv barrage of gloom and doom on so many topics, that a poll recently found that 42% of Britons wanted to emigrate - depressing news in itself.