LATELY I’ve really got into going green.

I’m focusing my attention on trying to buy local and minimising waste.

I’ve been trying to imbue some of my enthusiasm in my boyfriend. He lives with me and does half the shopping, so my home going green pretty much relies on him getting on board.

So I wasn’t that impressed when I saw that he’d bought pre-packed supermarket apples that were covered in plastic and from overseas.

I thought it best not to make an issue of it though and, as he pointed out, they were at least from France and not New Zealand.

Values are tricky when they’re not necessarily shared, and I think they need careful handling on both sides of the divide.

After all, it’s me who’s decided that I want to go greener, not him.

And while he agrees with me in principle I can’t really expect him to automatically share the extent of my passion on the matter.

As a Nestle-boycotting vegan leftie who likes their products to be ecofriendly and not tested on bunnies, it’s one of a number of issues I feel more strongly about than him.

But how do you bridge the gulf if one of you holds certain values dear and the other isn’t too fussed about them?

On paper it seems more promising if someone shares your beliefs.

But I find factors like personality and sense of humour play more of a role in finding someone attractive than them ticking the same list of beliefs as me.

My friends’ views on the matter differ widely.

Dave says: “I got along fine with my devout Catholic ex-girlfriend, despite being an atheist – if you love each other, then understanding why people feel passionately about things is incredibly interesting.

“The thing is that it’s all about the level of their passion for it, and how much they inflict it on others. I couldn’t date someone who preached all the time. If, however, they left me to work out on my own why they felt that way, they would have my full support in whatever they do.”

May, however, thinks differing values are a deal-breaker. She says: “I consider it vital that my partner holds the same core values as I do, as these are fundamental to the way that I see the world. If he didn’t share these values, we’d have little in common and I don’t think I would ever have been attracted to him in the first place.”

For me this is a tough one. If I knew in advance that someone had wildly different values it might well put me off, but I’ve never found that that’s the sort of thing that comes up on the first few dates.

I think as long as my boyfriend accepts my beliefs and doesn’t actively oppose them, that has to be good enough. And I’m harbouring the hope that even if he doesn’t come to share them all as passionately as me, at least he’ll come my way a bit.

After all, I’ve convinced him to take bags with him when he goes food shopping – maybe he could be an eco-warrior yet.