The Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries.
Image credit: Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL)
The Doughnut Economics Workshop: a powerful reminder that people care about the future of the planet.
In March 2024, Ali Fisher (Plans With Purpose) and I welcomed four incredible businesses that wanted to commit to a full day of analysing their organisation through the lens of the Doughnut.
If you’re not familiar, Doughnut Economics is a concept developed by Kate Raworth, an economist and Senior Associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute. Put simply, it’s a framework for an economic model that operates within the limits of our planet’s resources and life-supporting systems while ensuring that nobody falls short on life’s essentials, such as food, housing, healthcare and political voice.
The result is a safe and socially just space that gives back more to our planet and people than it takes, paving the way for a truly sustainable society. You can find a visual representation of the Doughnut here.
It’s no surprise that Ali and I jumped at the chance to help businesses devise strategies and operations that contribute to a brighter future for people and the planet. In March 2024 we hosted our first Doughnut Economics workshop to test the waters for future sessions.
Quite honestly, I was blown away and a little emotional.
Throughout the day, our brilliant attendees challenged the status quo, broke down the barriers that prevented them from maximising their social and environmental impacts, and built a plan for bold, transformative change.
There is so much negativity in the sustainability space, and some days, it feels like it’s too late to reverse the damage we’ve done—especially when we’re bombarded with doom-and-gloom news stories that can stress us out to the point of inaction. But the workshop was a powerful reminder that there are forward-thinking people and organisations that aren’t just talking about change—they’re boldly committing to building a better world.
In the words of Kate Raworth: “Humanity’s glass easily looks half empty. But there are enough people who still see the glass half full to bring it about.” The workshop reminded me that change is possible, and my glass is definitely half full.
But don’t just take it from me!
- 100% of attendees said the workshop exceeded expectations
- 100% of attendees said they would recommend the workshop
“Thank you so much for leading such a brilliant workshop yesterday. It was great to see role model the power of partnerships through your collaboration to co-create and deliver this powerful day together. Nancy and Ali both facilitated the session so beautifully – everyone seemed so engaged throughout and I personally learned a great deal and found it both inspiring and insightful. There was a perfect balance between theory and action, hard-hitting facts and optimism to leave us feeling equal parts informed and galvanised to use our businesses as a greater force for good. Every organisation would benefit from taking a day out to do this – it just makes sense!”
Anwen Cooper, Mission Director & Co-Founder, Thrivall
Curious? Here’s what you need to know 👇
The workshop assists you in identifying your organisation’s positive and negative impacts on the environment and society. It then guides you in transforming these insights into substantial regenerative impacts.
This process involves considering how these impacts align with your organisation’s Purpose, Finance, Network, Ownership, and Governance, aiming to integrate them into your business framework and translate them into actionable regenerative initiatives.
That workshop was just the first and we’ve worked with multiple businesses since then to unlock transformative change.
We run this workshop in person over a full day or half day or online as two half-day sessions. The Doughnut is incredibly flexible and we’ve found from experience it works for a range of scenarios including:
– Different teams from the same organisations (e.g. sales, procurement, management)
– Multiple organisations from the same industry to challenge industry norms
– Multiple organisations from different industries collaborating
– Leadership teams
– Start-ups looking to build the Doughnut principles into the bedrock of their business
– Business leaders looking to pivot in their careers to create a positive personal and professional impact
– B Corps wanting to ensure they are improving year on year to into recertification with confidence
The workshop covers four key modules:
🍩 Module 1 – INVESTIGATE: Mapping your planetary & societal impact.
🍩 Module 2 – SOLVE: Generating transformative ideas for your organisation/team.
🍩 Module 3 – ENABLE: Unlocking barriers & enablers to transformation.
🍩 Module 4 – PLAN: Planning for & embedding transformational change.
Outcomes
- COLLABORATION – Working together with your team or alongside other businesses to be a changemaker in your organisation.
- UNDERSTANDING – Mapping how specific activities within your organisation are contributing to or counteracting social shortfalls & environmental overshoots globally and locally.
- TRANSFORMATIVE IDEAS – Generating new, bold ideas for how you and your organisation can instigate positive change.
- TRANSFORMATIVE PLANS – Building plans to embed your transformative ideas into your organisation for step-change impact.
Mahatma Gandhi urged us to “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Kate Raworth is urging us to embrace Doughnut Economics and “Draw the change you want to see in the world too.”
If you’re interested in learning more about Doughnut Economics’ potential to unlock transformative change in your organisation, please get in touch on nancy@truehorizon.co.uk or ali@planswithpurpose.co.uk and let’s organise a chat or register your interest on this form.
