All the so-called "green" loyalty schemes that have launched in the last 18 months have one common feature. You are supposed to get a little bit greener by "burning" your hard earned points on e.g. energy efficient products or carbon credits (purchased on your behalf.)

That's all well and good, but to "earn" those points, in most schemes we've looked at you can buy just about any old product. In fact this is exactly how a traditional affinity or charity credit card works. The credit card is not clever enough (yet) to work out that you may be purchasing a less ethical product.

Ecomonkey is different. While we will give you some points just for using the scheme, to "earn" substantially more green points you have to take the greener option. We feel this has a more of an impact, as your points "burn" is always going to be small relative to the "earn" necessary to accrue them in the first place.

While we think that's really clever, cleverer still will be building that idea into a physical card offering - an intelligent credit card that tracks and incentivises greener behaviour.

All this while "politicians are asking us, the public to turn 'green' in less than the time it took to stigmatise drink-driving - if you consider that much of the change must happen well in advance of 2050." BBC Radio 4 Analysis - Go Green or Else

The BBC article continues: "while opinion polls suggest that most people in Britain are worried about climate change, there's little sign of action on their part." We know some of the reasons - people feel that it won't make a difference - but there is also an "I will if you will" refrain.

Could Ecomonkey be the beginning of some sort of "I will - if you will" technology platform? Yes, but of course we would say that. But if you asked the public whether it wants more carrots or more sticks, we think we know what they would say politicians should do with their sticks.