Leave a comment below through the end of Friday, October 1, 2010, to be considered for this random book giveaway.*

If you like to be told how to spend your money, there's a new guide that may be of assistance, The Better World Shopping Guide, which we received from New Society Publishers.  The average consumer spends something like $18,000 per year on goods and services and may not know how to spend that money wisely.  The Better World Shopping Guide incorporates over 5,000 hours of research and, using report cards on thousands of companies, rates every product on the book shelf from A to F. 

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Leave a comment below through the end of Friday, October 1, 2010, to be considered for this random book giveaway.*

A couple years ago, Public Farm 1 — an urban farm installation by WORKac — opened in the courtyard of MOMA P.S.1.  P.F.1 combined concepts of sustainable design and sustainable agriculture and was built with recyclable materials, powered by solar photovoltaics, and maintained by rain collection system. 

In a book published by Princeton Architectural Press, Above the Pavement — The Farm! Architecture & Agriculture at P.F.1, which the publisher sent to us, Amale Andraos and Dan Wood, co-founders of WORKac, provide an inside perspective as to how P.F.1 came to be. 

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Today, the most viewed and emailed article on the NY Times is one on Passive House, “Can we Build in a Brighter Shade of Green?“  The concept of Passive House has been growing in popularity over the last eight years or so, especially in green building circles.  These homes are ultra energy-efficient and, with some on-site energy generation, can be energy neutral or energy producing.

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• Eco roofs save cash.
• The future of smart energy.
• New home uses Passive House technology.
• This home doesn't need conventional heat.
• Pod cars gaining traction in some cities.
• What's your home's MPG rating.
• The sustainability problem.

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Blue Sky Homes, maker of modern, green, steel homes, recently announced a new infusion of funding and, with that, a new website, new pricing, and new projects slated for construction this fall.

The California company first built a modern home in Yucca Valley, which by the way is open for reserved tours on October 23, and now has a pipeline of subsequent homes in various stages of construction.

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