We're giving away a copy of this book to one commenter below, so make sure to comment with a valid email before midnight on Friday, June 19, 2009.*

Josh Dorfman, green entrepreneur and television host of The Lazy Environmentalist (now showing on the Sundance Channel), is also the author of the newly released book The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget: Save Money. Save Time, Save the Planet.  In his second book, Josh sets out to create environmental change with easy, stylish, and affordable solutions. 

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• The next little thing.
• Green job growth booms.
• The single-family power plant.
• U.S. residential solar demand rising in 2009.
• Global green building rating system coming soon?
• Energy audits vex Austin's home sellers.
• A wake up call on water use.
• A green building market overview.
• Green for greenbacks.

Follow @jetsongreen on Twitter for more news, links, and commentary.

I noticed some chatter about these LOFTwall dividers following the news rush that accompanied ICFF 2009.  They're made by a Dallas-based company for use in residences, office spaces, retail, or pretty much anywhere else you can think of.  LOFTwalls are modular, lightweight, and most importantly, customizable.  Take a stab at designing your own using their frames and material swatches — you'll even get the price. 

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was kind enough to send us an invite to their media day for the super fresh Church History Library.  This cutting-edge building is the embodiment of a mammoth effort spanning several years — 15 years of planning, 4 years of construction, and countless hours tagging, archiving, and moving millions of artifacts and records to the new location.  With several temperature controlled and sub-zero vaults, a building like this would generally use a lot of energy, but the design prioritized energy-efficiency and LEED certification.

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In the news, there’s a lot of talk about process journalism and using a feedback loop to evolve stories.  It made me think about iterative design and the potential role of blogs and new media to transform projects.  Probably, one of the most interesting and current examples I can think of comes from Michael Janzen, who’s behind Tiny House Design, Nine Tiny Feet, and Tiny Free House, among other ventures.  Using Google SketchUp, Janzen transformed a shed cluster (through comments, analysis, feedback, and subsequent iterations) into a sustainable dogtrot home.  Check it out:

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