Rising sea levels in danger of flooding your city? Just relax on The Bliss Sofa. Ad agency Mother created the floating sofa as a satirical response to New York Design Week, reports Dezeen. It has an integrated paddle and emergency flares, with cushions upholstered in the same orange fabric that is used to make life jackets. “This is for a high-net-worth individual who wants to just sit back, relax and just float away when the water comes,” Mother’s Paul Malmstrom told Dezeen. Story here

Also from Dezeen: David Gianotten and Michael den Otter of Dutch studio OMA have designed a modular, mass-timber system that will be used to construct up to 30 schools in the Netherlands. Made from standardised wooden columns and cross-laminated timber floor panels, connected by recycled steel joints, the system will be used as a base for primary schools. Story here

In what may be a landmark case for brands attempting to claim that their products are sustainable, Nike has been named in a lawsuit, accusing it of deceiving consumers by marketing its sportswear offerings as “sustainable,” made with “sustainable materials,” and environmentally friendly when its products “do not live up to these claims,” reports The Fashion Law. The class action complaint has been filed in a Missouri court and alleges that Nike is attempting to take advantage of consumers’ desire for sustainable products with marketing that gives “‘the false and misleading impression’ that the products “are less harmful or more beneficial to the environment than they really are.” Full story and analysis here

The Nike lawsuit comes at time when advertisers and their agencies in the UK and Europe are facing greater scrutiny over their ‘sustainability’ claims. The European parliament recently voted to ban claims of carbon neutrality that are based on offsetting, while the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority has signalled a tougher stance on terms such as “carbon neutral”, “nature positive” and those concerned with offsetting. “The era of unspecific claims such as ‘environmentally friendly’ is over,” ad agency AMV BBDO’s Jonny White told the Guardian which spoke to a number of agencies about their role here. 

Printer Park Communications has released a sustainable print guide for the industry, drawing on its 30 years of experience as well as consulting with relevant suppliers, Design Week reports. The booklet is a “reference guide that designers take out to their clients”, as well as being useful for students and education, Park say. More here

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