Now it's a cliche' that it ain't easy being green. There are many reasons, but one of them is that the green marketplace is too bitty (Ed. Is that a word?). You have to be quite determined to sniff out the product you are looking for and then sharpen your skills in fundamental research.

Also for many of us the internet doesn't make things easier - the amount of choice makes it more difficult. And why do some of those green guys categorise stuff differently?

The ecomonkey idea is different by not being different. A familiar shopping interface, browse by familiar categories, familiar brands, familiar retailers. Or just use search.

We tag the greener things too and you can also chose to navigate using our alternative green tag links, if that suits you. But we find that a lot of the time carbon neutrality is secondary to colour and other aspects of performance even when buying something like a fridge.

How to find greener products? In our scheme they float to the top. Whether you are searching for something or trawling through one of our retailer shops, the greener products are automatically presented first (but you can change this in the advanced search options). The little green tags also highlight our rating for the product.

And because we do not split carbon hairs, we don't have 100 percentage point scales to separate the good from the bad from the ugly. Rather we lump things together so you can focus on other important aspects, like colour and performance.

To collect green points you need to buy things (for now that is the only way to collect). If you are not quite sure how it is going to work, just recall the first time you used eBay. You probably bought a low value item from an ebayer with a good reputation. Here we check the retailer's reputation as a condition of participation. No fly by nights, get rich quick schemes or click-through scams here.

Having chosen a product you simply click on the buy now link or the alternative link, below the product description. From the retailer's website complete the transaction as you would normally.

Not immediately, but within hours and usually no longer than a day, the transaction will be recorded in our system. You should see your points status in My Account.

If you have ever used another online rewards programme, like Nectar, you'll see the similarities. If you think our colour scheme is so much easier on the eye than Nectar's, do let us know!