Business
Cities and the Doughnut
Doughnut Economics Action Lab’s Leonora Grcheva on how Doughnut Economics can help local governments address complex crises.
24 September 2022
This article first appeared in our World Environment Day issue of My Green Pod Magazine, published 05 June 2024. Click here to subscribe to our digital edition and get each issue delivered straight to your inbox
Main image: Regen Sydney has a goal is to get Sydney ‘inside the Doughnut’ within a generation
From 06-09 November 2024, the global Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL) community will return to celebrate Global Donut Days – a multi-day, community-led festival centred on Doughnut Economics.
Previously titled Global Donut Day, the festival was pluralised because the celebration couldn’t be contained in a single day. The event will still be held online and in person around the world.
Last year, Global Donut Day saw participation in 26 countries and 56 places, engaging more than 4,000 people in over a hundred events on one day.
The day connected people and strengthened existing relationships across the global community and among Doughnut Economics practitioners.
The platform gave the global community of local groups – all working to support people and planet – a sense of being part of something bigger, and the collective impact was significant.
From sessions covering Doughnut Economics basics to topics including community care and accessibility in cities such as Melbourne, Hamburg and Beijing, Global Donut Day brought together an enthusiastic collective to inspire a practical and actionable future in which we all thrive within the doughnut’s social and planetary boundaries.
Catriona Rawsthorne, Doughnut Economics researcher for CIVIC SQUARE in Birmingham, said it was ‘really powerful’ to be able to ‘connect with people globally around our work and around a much bigger story of economic transformation.’
Global Donut Day gave those who have been meaning to act a reason to start local action.
Through its energy, global attention and support, it created a forum and platform that enabled local organisers to reach new audiences, create new connections and build community locally.
‘Global Donut Day was great’, said Eva Valencia-Lenero, from the Mexico City-based Tricolour Coalition group. ‘We loved it, as it helped us a lot. We will now make a project on rainwater harvesting […] that resulted from a workshop we organised [during] Global Donut Day. So it was very useful!’
This year, Global Donut Days will be a multi-day event to allow more flexibility and opportunity for organising local events.
Global Donut Days will start with a day of online events on 06 November, followed by three days of events from 07-09 November, organised by members of the DEAL Community worldwide and centred on the ideas of Doughnut Economics.
Alexandra Anghel – from the group Cluj Sustainable, based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania – shared that ‘[a]s a team, we’ve been wanting to bring the Doughnut to the city for years and Global Donut Day was just the push we needed.’
Like last year, any local group, network or organisation following the DEAL Principles and Guidelines can organise Global Donut Days events.
This year, local governments working with Doughnut Economics have also been welcomed to organise events.
The Doughnut provides a blueprint for how humanity could thrive in the 21st century between social and ecological limits.
Kate Raworth’s 2017 book, Doughnut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist, explored the economic thinking needed to bring humanity into the Doughnut, drawing together insights from diverse economic perspectives in an engaging and accessible way that everyone can understand.
DEAL is an organisation co-founded as a not-for-profit in July 2019 by Kate Raworth and Carlota Sanz.
It exists to support changemakers worldwide — in communities, education, cities and regions, business, government and more — who are turning the ideas of Doughnut Economics into transformative action and aiming to bring about systemic change. The community now consists of over 15,000 people.
Doughnut Economics Action Lab’s Leonora Grcheva on how Doughnut Economics can help local governments address complex crises.
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Rob Shorter, communities and art lead at Doughnut Economics Action Lab, shares what happened when Leeds got a taste of the Doughnut.
The formidable Kate Raworth and and Juliet Davenport join forces to discuss the future of business.
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