Morrisons has announced that nine types of its fresh milk will now be sold in Tetra Pak cartons “with the aim of saving an initial 100 tonnes of plastic a year”. Morrisons’ Tony Fearon hailed the move as “a great step forward” on LinkedIn but the comments below his post reveal the complexity of the issue. Many point out that the plastic containers currently used are not only made predominantly from recycled plastic but are, themselves, very widely recycled. Relatively few local authorities offer kerbside recycling for Tetra Pak cartons, on the other hand. “This is a backward step that will do nothing but create confusion with consumers and cause cross contamination issues within kerbside collected materials,” says one commenter, while another calls it “a commercial exercise dressed up as a ‘green’ initiative – and cynical marketing to boot”. Read the thread here

Moving from Humans to Humanity: in a chapter from his new book, Design for a Better World, Nielsen Norman Group founder and pioneer of Design Thinking, Don Norman, has embraced the principle of shifting toward a concept of design for the whole planet. He advocates adding a fifth principle to his Five Core Principles of Human-Centred Design: “Design with the community, and as much as possible support designs by the community. The professional designer community should serve as enablers, facilitators, and resources, aiding the community to meet their concerns.” Read the full article here

February 24 saw the online launch of Innovate UK’s Design Innovation Network "to connect ideas, people and communities to respond to [societal, environmental and economic challenges] and drive positive change through innovation”. A recording of the day’s sessions will be available here 

Designers and architects need to adopt a "possibilist mindset" to amplify their influence to make the meaningful changes needed in the face of climate change, write Sarah Ichioka and URGE’s Michael Pawlyn in Dezeen. “To meet the challenges of our time, we need to transform our ideas of agency – our capacity to bring about change. Rather than seeing the future as something that happens to us, we need to decide on the future we want and then set about creating it.” Read the article here

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