Loyalty card aims to promote green products

Over 900 of the UK's online retailers will from today offer customers the opportunity to earn reward points on a new green loyalty card which can then be redeemed against environmentally friendly products and services.

Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Boots, the Body Shop and B&Q are amongst the retailers who have signed up to the new Green Rewards programme, offering holders of the cards to earn points when they shop on their websites.

Under the scheme, customers visiting the retailers' websites from the Green Rewards site will earn points on the green loyalty card. Those points can then be redeemed against a range of over 450 "eco-products and services" including green gadgets such as solar powered iPod chargers, environmentally friendly clothing and carbon offset credits.

Green Rewards managing director Stephen Carson said that the aim of the scheme was to encourage shoppers to adopt greener lifestyles, by ensuring they can only redeem points against green products.

He added that the company was also in talks with a number of major retailers, banks and energy companies to develop more sophisticated offers for customers and staff that would allow them to earn extra points when they buy green products.
"Earning points on in store shopping is an option, as is developing direct marketing campaigns to card holders that offer special offers on certain products," he explained. "It'll operate in the same way as regular loyalty programmes, like Nectar, offering additional points for specific types of products."

Carson said the extended partnerships where likely to be announced within the next few months.