The Ecomonkey Blog
Tesco Green Clubcard Points
Submitted by admonkey on Fri, 27/06/2008 - 1:56pm.
The world’s most successful retail loyalty scheme, Tesco Clubcard, launched Green Clubcard points in August 2006. The programme claims over 13 million active member accounts – you probably have one too, even if you don’t want to admit to it. Like other schemes, card holders typically earn 1 point for every £1 they spend in stores, online and through selected partners, like E.ON the energy company.
Tesco sticks out for a number of reasons, not all of them good. Notwithstanding the criticisms of many Tesco policies, it is difficult to challenge the success of their loyalty programme, which is comprehensively documented in Humby, Hunt and Phillips’ fascinating 2003 book “Scoring Points”.
Greenwash and Ecomonkey
Submitted by admonkey on Tue, 13/05/2008 - 11:09am.
Twitter, the technological equivalent of a noisy dawn chorus that wakes you at 4:00 am, is really quite cute if you remember to set your quiet / sleep time settings.
Hardly breaking news, but courtesy of twitter we picked an interesting item on greenwash following the publication of the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) annual report. It shows that in 2007 it received over 500 complaints about environmental claims, compared with just over 100 the year before. The subjects of the ASA's censure included some of the usual suspects from Shell and Ryanair to Toyota for practicing "greenwash" – ie misleading consumers on their environmental practices, or benefits of their products and services.
Go green and see red?
Submitted by admonkey on Sun, 11/05/2008 - 4:44pm.
So going green is costing entrepreneurs £3.1b? We thought this news deserved a closer look. The finding comes from the entrepreneur think tank, the Tenon Forum. Who? Perhaps not well known for their green street cred, it turns out they have a few green ideas (green tax credits) while running annual surveys of green attitudes among SME MDs. Much as we dug, we are still none the wiser as to the definition of "entrepreneur" and where all that £3b actually went. (Funny how a whole load of old rags published the story uncritically word for word straight from the press release. Never mind.)
Compare and contrast: John Lewis plays catchup with ecomonkey
Submitted by admonkey on Fri, 25/04/2008 - 2:44pm.
It was just a matter of time before John Lewis played up its environment credentials further, so we were keen to take a look at their brand new eco pages.
As you would expect the pages are stylish, just like the rest of the site and the navigation is clean and easy - something they have always done admirably well. Their idea is somewhat similar to what B&Q did when they re-arranged parts of their inventory into green categories for a special leaflet shoved into Saturday newspapers (and Sunday ones for all we know - we don't buy them any more, Saturday's last the week end!).
How green is your Nectar Card?
Submitted by admonkey on Mon, 21/04/2008 - 4:47pm.
Over the next couple of weeks we are going to take a good look at some of the eco rewards competition.
There's competition? Yes. We were going to do a short piece like "How Does Ecomonkey compare with other Green Rewards programmes?" but then discovered a bit of a gap in independent reviews. So, we start by looking at the behemoth of loyalty cards, the Nectar Card.
The 100% Green Cash Back Guarantee
Submitted by admonkey on Sat, 19/04/2008 - 11:36am.
Boosting the Green Points cashback across all their product listings heralds a significant shift in the Ecomonkey Green Rewards programme.
From late yesterday all Green rated products get 100% cash back as Green Points.
I can`t get no satisfaction
Submitted by admonkey on Sat, 12/04/2008 - 2:54pm.
What is Get Satisfaction? Get Satisfaction is a good place where people can get more from the products and services they use, and companies are encouraged to get real with their customers.
What is the point? Ask a question, report a problem, share an idea, or join in or start a discussion. The most useful replies rise to the top (a bit like the greener products on ecomonkey rise to the top). You get an email when people respond.
Ecomonkey Love
Submitted by admonkey on Thu, 03/04/2008 - 1:21pm.
If only going green was this easy.What?
- donkey (the lowest rung of the green ladder);
- chameleon (cottoning on, with a tendency towards reverting to old habitats);
- seahorse (the freedom of the sea, but vulnerable);
- dolphin (capable of rather intelligent decisions);
- ecomonkey (green nirvana, can have fun again).
Green Facebook
Submitted by admonkey on Wed, 02/04/2008 - 1:59pm.
We just created a page on fushbook. Not much there yet, but since we are using their advertising network it seemed a like a jolly good idea.
The best bit, of course, is that you cannot change the skin, unlike in mYspashE, which makes everything look uglier. Small cheer.
Oh yes, and we have adopted a green monkey. The experts will notice a vague resemblance to the vervet monkey, genus Chlorocebus. It is a bit squashed, for it is a baby, but cute nonetheless.
Energy Saving Recommended
Submitted by admonkey on Thu, 27/03/2008 - 4:09pm.
After a little bit of head scratching, we found a straightforward way to marry up Ecomonkey product listings with the Energy Saving Recommended data we were kindly sent under the auspices of the Energy Saving Trust endorsement scheme.

















