THE combination of environmental consciousness and the ease of online shopping may make this Christmas one of the greenest yet.

Weymouth businessman Harvey Jones, who founded the shopping portal smartlygreen.com last year, said that trade via his site rises by up to 30 per cent during the festive season.

He said: “People obviously spend more money at Christmas but they also want to be green – 70 per cent of people have an environmental conscience, although not all of them do anything about it.”

Smartlygreen.com links you to the websites of a host of household suppliers and high street shops, including places such as John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Boots, Waterstones, Links of London and more.

All transactions reward the shopper with green credit points, which are donated to the environmental charity Pure – The Green Planet Trust.

Shoppers can expect to offset about half a tonne of carbon for every £500 spent.

The average annual household carbon footprint is about 10 tonnes.

Harvey said: “People come on the site to buy one-off things or presents at Christmas and then discover they can use the internet to buy their everyday items too.

“We had one customer who bought a freezer through us and now buys his contact lenses as well.”

He added: “People are thinking twice before going out to the big shopping centres like Bluewater, or wherever.

“You shop online and the company will deliver to your door and to other houses in your area.

“It is easy, it is simple.

“If you don’t like the item you can send it back – and through simplygreen.com you are also doing your but for the environment.”

Visit smartlygreen.com for further details.