Google is testing a prototype product that they've dubbed the PowerMeter, which is designed to convey electricity use information to electricity users.  PowerMeter is premised on the famous phrase by Lord Kelvin: "If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it."  Accordingly, the PowerMeter takes energy consumption information from your smart meter and gives it to you in real time using the iGoogle gadget.  It's a dead simple concept — certainly the most low hanging of low hanging fruit.  An absolute no-brainer that's important and more crucial than ever. 

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This B-Line Small was designed by Hive Modular and completed within the last year.  Hive has a variety of home models in various sizes, and they can be designed with a flat or pitched roof.  As you can see here, this home features a pitched roof, which provides some passive benefits; the home maximizes southern exposure, sits lightly with a small, 1410 square-foot plan, and takes advantage of an urban infill lot.  In addition, the modern modular home has some other common green elements:

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This is the Cowboy by Form & Forest, a company planning to launch on February 19th with a full set of flat pack prefab cabins.  One of their first designs is the Cowboy — it's perfectly small at 635 square feet and comes with a kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom, bathroom, laundry, and covered porch.  With designs commissioned from D'Arcy Jones Design, Form & Forest plans to launch other cabins in various sizes up to about 1559 square feet.  The cabins are shipped flat as pre-assembled panels, and Form & Forest anticipates this will save time and waste in the construction process. 

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This new, luxury inn and spa just opened last week in Yountville, California, a small town in Napa County named after one of the first guys to establish a vineyard in the area.  The 62-unit boutique getaway includes a spa with four treatment rooms, rooptop infinity pool, fine dining restaurant, and meeting spaces.  Designed by WATG, the inn also features unique indoor/outdoor features such as private courtyards for guests and private outdoor showers. 

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• The green promise of prefabrication. 
• Financial incentives could spur green roof installations.
• Loans for green buildings still available in recession.
• Hotels look to LEED to boost green creditability. 
• Watch out for dubious claims of LEED certification. 
• The recession may redesign the American home.
• Opinion: green building a good use of stimulus.
• USGBC goes after stimulus to boost green existing buildings.

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