An Intro to Doughnut Economics Workshops 'For Businesses Who Dare'

In a nutshell

Doughnut Economics 'For Businesses Who Dare' is a one day workshop to unearth the positive and negative impacts of your business, reconnect these impacts through transformational change ideas and plan how to embed these into your organisation.  That’s a lot but it’s needed and we’ve proven it’s doable!

Who is it designed for?

We believe Doughnuts are for everyone.  It doesn’t matter if you’re at the start of your sustainability, ESG or impact journey or well on your way.  Taking one day out of the everyday to invest in relooking at your organisation through a new framework and fresh eyes is always going to be a worthwhile investment. 

What are the workshop outcomes?

We aim for four key outcomes of the workshops.

1. First off, we are building UNDERSTANDING, of the state of the world we are living in and from and the role our own organisations have to play in that bigger people and planet picture.  We create a safe space for teams to map how specific activities within their organisations are contributing to or counteracting social shortfalls & environmental overshoots globally and locally.  This is often quite a cathartic exercise.  Some impacts are well known, some may be relatively unknown and surface through these discussions.  The Doughnut framework helps tease this out.  Teams tell us some of the workshop magic is in sharing and exploring these impacts together, with the ability to bring different points of view from around their organisation together, without distractions, with focus and energy.

“Probably what we found most valuable was the chance to take a step back and evaluate the business and the key areas to focus on.” (March 2024 Workshop)

2. Our workshops are action orientated – it’s one of the things teams play back to us they most value.  Teams work on generating TRANSFORMATIVE IDEAS for how their organisation can instigate positive change.  The Doughnut framework encourages teams to think with intersectionality.  Nothing is in silo.  People and planet are seen together and often we find the most transformative ideas come from the cross over of social and environmental impacts.

“I found the workshop really insightful and logical - stepping through each aspect and coming to a conclusion and the best path forward for the idea that is going to make the most impact.” (March 2024 Workshop)

“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!”  (March 2024 Workshop)

3. We are looking for ideas for impact.  In the second half of the workshop, we take our prioritised brave and bold ideas and build them into TRANSFORMATIVE PLANS.  This is very deliberate to ensure no-one leaves the workshop thinking nice idea but…… We work through Marjorie Kelly’s five key organisational elements to find the means to put ideas into action.  We look through the lens of Purpose, Governance, Finance, Ownership & Networks.  We use case studies from organisations who have already dared to inspire ways to redesign regeneratively and distributively.

“The revelation of the day was the 'Action Lab' half of the title, moving from theory to practice. Nancy and Ali made the workshop fun, engaging and action focused. I highly recommend this." (March 2024 Workshop)

“I've a tendency to overthink and love a good theory - the Action Lab is appropriately named, it helped me move from theory to action.” (March 2024 Workshop)

4. Lastly, we aim for COLLABORATION.  We know the job to be done is huge, both for people and planet.  We know we can’t do this alone.  This one day workshop is a unique space in time to share with colleagues and learn from others.  Often the most lasting impact of these workshops is from not just the what but the how.  People have impact.  We inspire each other.  We challenge each other.  We learn from each other. 

“Time out of the business to think big with other businesses. I loved overhearing other people think through these ideas.” (March 2024 Workshop)

What’s different about it?

One of the most simple but impactful things about Doughnut Economics is it’s visual.  Vision takes up two-thirds of the activity in our brains and images go directly into our long term memory.  We definitely think a picture is worth a thousand words!  It isn’t hard to grasp the fundamentals of Doughnut Economics.  That’s done on purpose, to democratise and hasten change.  Take the time to digest the 9 planetary boundaries of Johan Rockstrom & Will Steffen and the 12 social foundations.  If you are used to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), you will quickly see lots of parallels and overlaps.  Focus on the middle ring – the safe and just space for humanity.  This is where we need to get to.

Doughnut Economics gives us a rallying point.  It gives us a magnet to be drawn towards and draw others into.  It gives us a vision, a future and most importantly hope.

The intersectionality of the doughnut is key.  We cannot solve the planetary crisis without solving our societal crisis and vice versa.  We must consider all in unison.  This is often where the magic of the new transformational ideas lie.

Doughnut Economics has multiple applications.  The Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL) have been working across five different areas, of which business and enterprise is just one.  Doughnuts have been applied to Communities & Art, Cities & Places, Education & Research, Government & Policy, Business & Enterprise.  Our focus is on the latter.

What’s the background to Doughnut Economics?

Kate Raworth, Author of Doughnut Economics & Founder of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL), first wrote of the concept of Doughnut Economics while working for Oxfam in 2012.  She subsequently published her world renowned book in 2017 and formed DEAL in 2019.

Kate Raworth studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford, followed by an MSc in Development Economics. Following academia, she spent three years of real world immersion with barefoot entrepreneurs in Zanzibar.  In the late 1990s, she was an Economist and Co-Author of the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report, writing chapters on globalization, new technologies, resource consumption, and human rights. Following that she spent over ten years with Oxfam as a senior researcher. All this culminated in Doughnut Economics.

The doughnut offers humanity a safe & just space in which to thrive, by reducing our planetary overshoots (the outer ring of the doughnut) and replenishing our social foundations (the inner ring).  The theory is rooted in 7 ways to think like a 21st Century Economist.

In 2023, the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL) launched a one day workshop to help bring more organisations into the doughnut.  Nancy & Ali are both members of the DEAL Community and trained to deliver the Doughnut Workshop.  You can find our public declaration forms on the DEAL website: Plans with Purpose & True Horizon.

Why is it needed?

We are overshooting our planetary boundaries.  Of the 9 planetary boundaries established by earth system scientists Johan Rockstrom and Will Steffen, 4 to 5 have already overshot.

• Climate Change: Our CO2 parts per million (ppm) is at 400 and rising versus a boundary of 350ppm
• Excessive Fertiliser Use: We are applying 14 million tons of Phosphorous to land as fertiliser per year versus a ceiling of 6.2 million
• Land Conversion: We have 62% of forested land remaining versus a ceiling of 75%
• Biodiversity Loss: We have a rate of species extinction of between 100 and 1,000 per million species versus a ceiling of 10

We also have a critical shortfall in our 12 social foundations.

• Food: 11% of the global population is undernourished
• Education: 17% of children aged 12 to 15 are out of school
• Gender Equality: We have a 56% gender representation gap in national parliaments
• Networks: 24% of people live without someone to count on for help in times of trouble
• Peace & Justice: 13% of people live with a homicide rate of 10+ per 10,000

A Call To Action from the Doughnut Economics Founder

We wanted to close out with a call to action and a message of hope and optimism from Kate Raworth,  “Doughnut Economics sets out an optimistic vision of humanity’s common future.  A global economy that creates a thriving balance thanks to its distributive and regenerative design.  Humanity’s glass easily looks half empty.  But there are enough people who still see the glass half full to bring it about.

We are the first generation to deeply understand the damage we have been doing to our planetary household and probably the last generation with a chance to do something transformative about it.  And we know full well as an international community that we have the technology, know-how and financial means to end extreme poverty in all its forms should we collectively choose to make that happen.”

About Ali & Nancy

Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics & Founder of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL), must take centre stage here.  Ali & Nancy’s role is to bring this transformative framework to life in a way that maximises its potential to redesign business impact. 

Ali is the Founder of Plans With Purpose and has been working as a Regeneration & Diversity Business Mentor for the last 7 years.  Her purpose is to spark change that matters.  Prior to that she spent 17 years as an FMCG Marketer.

Nancy is the Founder of True Horizon, a sustainability consultancy focused on helping businesses maximise their social and environmental impact through strategy work and certifications like B Corp. Prior to that she spent nearly 15 years working in corporate sustainability. Her mission is to simplify sustainability and empower change-makers to use business as a force for good.

Our goal is to help you go beyond business as usual to unlock transformative action through collaboration, innovation and leading examples of doughnuts in action. 

If you’d like to find out more about Doughnut Economics, please get in touch:

Ali Fisher: Ali@PlansWithPurpose.co.uk

Nancy Hyne: Nancy@TrueHorizon.co.uk