GBP

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”.

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.)

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.

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.