It’s no secret that consumers are falling head over heels for anything green these days. But, at least for now, their lust for eco-friendly products is conditioned by the rising price tags that they carry. For the most part, people are happy to embrace things that are better for the environment as long as the resulting exchange has little or no effect on their wallets. Sure, there are a million little eco-niches out there that are bustling with expensive products that do everything from power your Macbook Pro with the sun to grow flowers from soap containers in your yard.

At the end of the day, however, consumption is still about convenience. If it’s convenient and affordable to be eco-friendly, then you can bet wisely that that’s just what consumers are going to do. If, on the other hand, eco-friendly maintains its aura of luxury, there’s only so far that the trend can go.

In an effort to further its mission against plastic bags and to promote the reuse of existing bags, Whole Foods has brought back its Wooden Nickel program, which donates five cents for every bag that you reuse to a local charity of your choice. Five cents may be a small number, but in large doses it can have an effect of duality on both the surrounding community and the environment itself. By reducing the consumption of paper bags (the company banned plastic bags earlier this year), Whole Foods hopes to serve as an example for other retailers by inspiring simple, yet powerful, change.

Every store is different. Some spotlight charities that are focused on poverty; others feature environmentally conscious organizations. Some stores may not even offer the program, or at least not yet. Of course, the Wooden Nickel program isn’t entirely new. In fact, it was around at the company’s relatively newly acquired Wild Oats long before Whole Foods had become the place to go for all things green, healthy, and organic.

Whole Foods’ Wooden Nickel program is a perfect illustration of how people can be encouraged in entirely positive ways to promote entirely positive social and environmental change. By reducing the impact of the bags that we use to carry things from A to B, we prevent congestion in landfills from an endless swarm of plastic bags and help to reduce the need to utilize the effective but inefficient process of recycling paper to keep ourselves in check with the environment. Plus, reusable bags are often stronger than their paper or plastic counterparts - a definite plus for anyone with an addiction to watermelons and cartons of soy-milk. Next time you’re at the check out, no matter the store, reach for a reusable bag. The world will thank you later.

Trendy frozen yogurt shops are nothing new. In fact, there are already more than half a dozen different concepts revolving around the silky world of frozen yogurt - each of which has a story to tell. Yagööt, oddly enough, has been around for quite some time now; by quite some time, I’m thinking of something like a little more than thirty years.

Of course, at birth, Yagööt was anything but the stylish, progressive, brand it is today. It began as just another bakery item, albeit a healthy one. Today, it’s a well talked-about, tasty, and still healthy treat that draws customers from miles around to its lines that frequently approach the outside of the building. Unlike many similar concepts, the menu is a little bigger than you might expect: two flavors of frozen yogurt, an endless bar of fruits, grains, and flavors, yogurt shakes, and a small supplemental side menu of muffins and “salads.” That’s not big by any means, but it does add several layers to the single-item shelves of the now-famous Pinkberry.

For the time being, Yagööt is a treat that’s limited to Cincinnati. It’s tart taste, smooth texture, and growing myriad of topping combinations aren’t for everybody, but there’s a good chance that they’re for you. Plus, at only 120 calories per serving with less than 1% fat and all the fruit you can handle, your body’s sure to thank you later.

If you’re outside of Cincinnati, but still in need of a frozen yogurt fix, be on the lookout for similar concepts like Pinkberry and TangySweet.

The spork has long been an item to be laughed at. Think for a second; how many people do you know that have kitchen drawers full of sporks? Light My Fire’s significantly more stylish take on the double-headed eating utensil, however, could be just what it takes to get at least one spork into kitchen drawers around the world.

By design, the original spork wasn’t exactly the prettiest thing to look at. Its function served as more of a utilitarian device void of any real intrinsic design quality. The spork was cheap, laughable, and something that nobody really wanted to use.

Spork 2.0, however, is a lot sleeker, curvier, and more colorful than its nerdy younger brother. Designed to be used as an outdoor-adventure tool, the spork’s upgraded version is far more durable and won’t melt even when exposed to boiling water.

In addition to its availability in nearly every color of the rainbow, Spork 2.0 retains the basic form factor of the original spork while adding a few well-overdue design upgrades. In addition to serving as both a spoon and a fork, Light My Fire has integrated a tiny knife into the side of the fork.

While sporks still aren’t suited for fancy dinners, special occasions, or a number of certain foods, they’re great for your everyday dish of chicken and rice.

I’m a bit of a geek. My house is full of all kinds of gadgets and gizmos that the average person wouldn’t even think to buy; after all, who really needs a fingerprint reader to login to their computer? Being a geek, however, I have no problem with learning how to use these products. My parents, on the other hand, are a different story.

My father, though computer-obsessed, is a little less than geeky. He recently purchased a new smart phone only to discover that he has no idea how to hang it up (ah the minutes I’ve spent listening to him hum to himself in the car after saying “goodbye”). As funny as it may be (he’s a sixty year old man that loudly hums to himself), it’s probably not a good problem to have.

My mother’s the same way. She’ll spend hours looking through phones at the store to find one that doesn’t have any features - always to the salesman’s dismay, of course. What she wants to do with a phone is quite often at odds with what I want to do with a phone. She wants to call people; I want to sit on YouTube and watch a panda sneeze while I wait for a table at a new restaurant that my phone just found for me.

The gap between technology and understanding is growing almost as quickly as technology itself. As consumer devices become more and more advanced, their learning curves become steeper and steeper. Sure, people would love to do some of the things that these devices can do; the only problem is that they can’t seem to figure out how to do them.

Apple’s working hard to fix this very problem and, with some of the simplest interfaces in the world of technology, they’re quickly doing just that. Their undeniable ability to blend design with technology and simplicity is what put the iPod in the hands of nearly every man, woman, and child in the country. Still, there shouldn’t be just one brand that’s designed to be simple enough for my parents to use. If someone can’t pick up a consumer device and use it, it probably needs a trip back to the drawing board.

Over the next several years, as green technologies begin to finally reach the mass-market, this concept should be at the front of the minds of designers and companies alike. There will always be a geek that loves to learn new things but, even so, everyone isn’t really a geek. People are eager to try new things, to make their lives easier, and to embrace technology - but only if that same technology returns the favor. Next time your designing a product, think to yourself: “Would a sixty-year-old man that hums to himself know how to use this?”

Chinese design house, Shirtflag, is part of a growing movement within contemporary China - a movement of identity, unity, and individualism in resistance to the Western world. Now more than ever, China is redefining its place in the world. Vast, technologically-advanced cities are popping up next to some of the most rural places in the world; design, art, music, and culture are evolving quicker than ever before. For the first time in centuries, China is on center stage with a new image, a new feel, and a wealth of innovation.

Shirtflag’s founder, Ji Ji, was born amidst the Mao-era and, as a result, has witnessed China’s evolution from then to now - from Cultural Revolution to national evolution. As a leading agent of change within China, Ji uses his experience in graphic and industrial design to develop iconic portrayals of both previous Chinese political figureheads and his own creations and sells them in his growing number of stores throughout the city of Shanghai where Shirtflag is most popular.

Ji Ji’s new line, Hi Panda, has also started to catch on - even gaining a prominent feature in London’s V&A exhibit: China Design Now. Though on the surface, they appear to simply be Hello Kitty’s Chinese counterparts, Ji’s pandas represent the modern-day evolution of culture within China - showcasing the angst, passion, desire, and individualism expressed by today’s Chinese youth.

Though Shirtflag hasn’t yet made its way into the States as of this writing, it is slowly making its way into high-end European retail. Those eager to own a piece of Chinese history in the making, however, can order a shirt from Norwegian importer Making It In China - albeit at a price. A t-shirt will set you back approximately 290kr, equivalent to roughly $56 or $71 after shipping.

All over the country, organic fast food chains seem to be popping up as quickly as the Starbucks previously occupying their locations are moving out. Entrepreneurs have been quick to capitalize on a growing market of ever-more health conscious consumers in an effort that may be just as good for new businesses as it is for their customers.

Though existing chains have been hard at work attempting to diversify their menus to appeal to health-conscious consumers, their efforts have still failed to reach most of the Whole Foods crowd. Organic fast food has actually been around for a while but, like all trends, it just now seems to be catching on.

Here’s a quick look at some of the most promising Organic fast food restaurants popping up across the country:

O! Burger

An organic twist on the all-American burger place, O! Burger offers organic, grass-fed beef alongside free range turkey and veggie burgers. Though they’ve kept the fries, O! Burger offers an array of different options including salads and Kombucha teas.

Organic To Go

From Artisan wraps to sandwiches, pizza, and hamburgers, Organic To Go has a bit of everything for, well, everyone. The company’s recent acquire of the popular High Noon franchise in Seattle has given the aspiring chain a head start on many of the nation’s similar services.

Evos

With specialties like Airfries (baked fries with 50-70% less fat) and healthy kids options, it’s no wonder why Evos continues to grow. Of course, as one of the pioneers of the organic fast food market, the company has already had its feet wet for a while.

Zoës Kitchen

Zoës Kitchen is the only restaurant on this list that I’ve actually been able to try, but if it’s any indication of what healthy fast food has the potential to be I’m sold. Zoës has menus similar to the others featured above and offers a number of healthy alternatives to burgers and fries by omitting them from the menu altogether.

A few years ago, what you were doing was essentially known only by yourself, your family, and your closest friends. A stranger in Dubai didn’t know you were on the way to Whole Foods to pick up something organic for dinner and he didn’t care. Today, there very well may be hundreds of people worldwide waiting to see what your next move of the day will be - that is, of course, assuming that you’re addicted to Twitter.

When I’d thought of creating a similar service to Twitter several years ago, I decided that people probably wouldn’t want everyone aware of where they were, who they were with, and what they were doing for every second of the day. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Today, the status service is up and running on virtually everything with a keyboard and, with the introduction of its recent iPhone counterparts, it shouldn’t be long before Twitter trumps its already high user count in excess of one million as of this writing.

Though most of the world isn’t yet addicted to Twitter, similar services like Loopt and Whrrl are adding GPS into the mix to deliver an even more in-depth look at what their users are up to. While the services present a number of pressing security concerns, they deliver something that is quickly changing the way that people live their lives. If you’re in a mall by yourself and suddenly the desire for Sushi strikes you, your phone can tell you which of your friends are nearby and in seconds you can be sitting with them face-to-face at the hottest Sushi bar in town.

Sure, the t-shirt has been a staple of life for everyone from teenagers to senior citizens since the dawn of time. But, never before has the t-shirt been the versatile canvas it is today. It has suddenly become reasonably acceptable to spend $30-$60 for some fabric with a unique design or message somehow affixed to it’s front.

Of course, not all unique t-shirts carry an entry fee upwards of $60 (Just Ed Hardy ones). Threadless, a user-driven custom t-shirt company, carries a variety of user-inspired designs that you won’t find anywhere else. Of course, many of them are printed on American Apparel, but shirts almost always manage to come in between $15 and $30.

With so many possibilities, the t-shirt has begun to both define and reflect an individual’s personality and attitude toward the world through a vague summary of lines and colors. In fact, today’s t-shirt boom is similar to but much evolved from the tie-dye boom of the 60’s. People all over the world are personalizing their own t-shirts with paint, patches, dyes and more in an effort to set themselves apart.

A few years ago, a Prius was a laughable posession. Today, there are waiting lists six months long just to drive off the lot at a much higher price. Aesthetically, today’s Prius is virtually indistinguishable from its predecessors, but rising gas prices and the increasingly trendy world of “go-green” advocates have changed the way people look at the machine that gives them 46MPG.

All over the world, people seem to suddenly have a rising interest in their own carbon footprints, the environmental effects of their governments, and what global warming is doing to the weather. Of course, these ideas are anything but new, but today they seem to be far ‘cooler’ than ever before.

Everywhere I go, I’ve started to notice these cloth reusable bags with eco-friendly messages printed on them. Retailers are even beginning to offer small discounts to customers in an effort to upgrade their image to keep up with the rising demand for environmentally-savvy products and companies.

Sure, it’s a start; but we’ve got a long way to go before we’re really ready to go-green. Luckily, technologies that will enable us to (essentially) maintain the lifestyles that we’re used to today while at the same time working to protect our environment are just around the corner. 

MIT engineers have been hard at work on new solar technologies that could put the power of the sun in the hands of consumers worldwide - and at a price that finally won’t break their budgets. Their breakthrough consists of a solar frame for windows that collects and later re-emits energy in the form of light. I won’t get in to the technical details, but feel free to read about them here.