• by Thom Forbes  @tforbes, July 1, 2011

It's still not that easy being green.

Stories defending fracking -- a controversial technique for extracting natural gas that is responsible for some frightening footage in the documentary "Gasland" -- seem to hiss the word "environmentalist" and sneer at "the environmental agenda" as if people concerned about fresh air and clean water are liberals or something.

Sure, people increasing say they're looking for products with "natural," "organic" or "grown in the USA" on their labels, as a new Eco Pulse survey conducted by the Shelton Group finds and Food Product Designreports. More than 25% of 1,000 U.S. shoppers surveyed say they look for "100% natural" or "all natural" products, while 24% say "USDA certified organic" or "100% organic" affect their purchases. And that's not all.

The number of "Americans searching for more energy-efficient, natural or sustainable products has increased almost 10 percentage points over the past two years," the survey reveals. But only 23% of Americans consistently buy green across multiple product categories, and 71% cite higher cost as a major impediment.

But let's not forget the "how easy is it?" factor.

Ellen Byron reports in the Wall Street Journal this morning that Windex is today launching pouches of refill concentrate that will save "a buck or two." In addition, the refills use 90% less plastic than standard 26-ounce bottles and the whole process eliminates the energy costs associated with transporting about 1.5 pounds of water from factory to pantry.

The hitch? Well, consumers will have to "simply" add their own water. Not so simple.

"The past is littered with failures" when it comes to the idea of refills," S.C. Johnson CEO Fisk Johnson tells Byron. "Behavior changes are the most difficult thing to do. That's the nut we want to crack here."

In fact, for now the company is only offer the refills through its website as it attempts to build traction for the idea of making the consumer mix his own. (Hey, if a guy can use Twitter to ratchet his book to No. 1 on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com while he's still writing it in his La-Z-Boy, anything is possible online.) Other manufacturers have similar schemes in mind, but consultant Burt Flickinger III, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, says that while refills are popular in Europe, they have five solid decades of failure behind them here.

(And wouldn't you know that there are environmentalists out there already scheming up ways to bring the Free Enterprise System responsible for such products and, concomitantly, thousands of jobs, to its knees. Why buy Windex in the first place, they say? "Water, rubbing alcohol and a spot of bleach" does the trick quite nicely, one early riser informs me.)

In related news, Microsoft says it’s pulling the plug on its Hohm consumer energy management application, which generated suggestions for electricity and heating efficiency based on a home's size and type, and Google discontinued a similar product, PowerMeter. It just didn’t “catch on the way we would have hoped,” it says.

It seemed like such a win-win. “Studies show that having simple access to such information helps consumers reduce their energy use by up to 15%; of course, even broader access to this information could help reduce energy use worldwide,” Google says. So what’s not to like about that? Ditto for Microsoft’s Holm. "To use it, people filled out a lengthy questionnaire to build a profile of their home and the application, using Department of Energy research lab data, would provide suggestions to improve efficiency," Martin LaMonica writes in CNet's "Green Tech" blog.

Whoa, hold on a second there, partner. Did you say "lengthy"? Me fill out? Uh-uh. I've got ... other things to do. Like play Angry Birds.

While there were apparently several problems with the concept, including reluctance on the part of power companies to sign on and feed raw data, executives at OPower, an efficiency company, say "outside of a niche of very energy-conscious people, consumers haven't shown a willingness to actively manage data or view data in real time." (Unless it's something truly useful, such as how many Major League ballplayers have 30 home runs, 30 stolen bases and chew bubble gum at the same time, I'd say that's an accurate portrayal of most of us.)

"Green can be cool and friendly like," quoth Kermit. "And green can be big like an ocean, or important like a mountain, or tall like a tree. The trick is to get people thinking it's what they want to be."

I don't know about you, but I've at least talked myself into eschewing the paper plates and plastic cups at the July 4 BBQ. Have a great one!