The gee-whiz factor in Vitamin G is high, even when the technology isn’t. This best-of compilation and sourcebook of green projects features several lo-fi sustainable projects, including a plant-based air purifier and a bamboo-tube bicycle. There are big-ticket items, too, including Beijing’s GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall, which claims to be the first photovoltaic-integrated curtainwall. But the best new sustainable idea? Repairing broken plastic baskets with rattan for a new life of high design. • $75; Phaidon, May 2012
