Discover the Community

Working with Lviv Municipality, consultants Restart Agency carried out the work adopting Doughnut Methodology for the impact assessment of the Northern District development in Lviv, Ukraine. The work was part of a larger project supported by the “Integrated Urban Development in Ukraine II” project implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and it involved consulting four different municipalities - Lviv, Poltava, Chernivtsi and Vinnytsia - on locally relevant urban planning issues. Lviv municipality was interested to create guidelines for the Northern District development that would align with Lviv Sustainable Development Goals. The new development revolves around the project ecosystem of the rehabilitation center "Unbroken"'. With the help of a "decision-making wheel", modelled on the Cornwall Wheel,  they identified the sectors that would have the most significant long term positive impacts, and began to work on the development guidelines that would help to achieve them. To the date, they have completed the preliminary research on the key sectors, which are Health, Shelter, Environment, Equality, Peace and Justice, Community and Food. We also have identified directions for action that would help to achieve the positive impacts of the proposed Northern District Development. 

Doughnut Economics was introduced to the district in 2023, with a series of internal discussions, presentations and four lenses workshops, exploring the ideas.  The process started with a discussion among some of elected officials, following which, the mayor formed an advisory committee. Following that, a cohort group of 20 residents was established to engage with the DE for the district of North Saanich, and multiple workshops were conducted for applying the four lenses to the district with the cohort group. Currently, the district is engaged in gathering public input for the community plan. They will then be introducing the four lenses of DE in wider discussions. The key intention is to develop a Rural District Portrait, with the intention of preserving the rural character of the place and developing a climate lens tool for decision making. Subsequently, the aim is that decisions on policy, planning, and development will be subjected to this climate lens tool. 

Izmir Municipality prepared a five-year strategy plan (2025-2029) that is based on the tools and ideas offered by the Doughnut Economics.  The Doughnut model (called  "Gevrek" Model as a local circular bread, typically encrusted with sesame seeds). Izmir "Gevrek" Model aims to build ‘a thriving, regenerative and inclusive Izmir in line with global (social and ecological) goals. Izmir Municipality's Strategic Plan for the period 2025-2029 is designed to explore what it means to thrive in the "Gevrek", to draw a new portrait of the city that keeps in view Izmir's location, context, culture and global characteristics, and to take action to initiate a major transformation in all sectors in conformity with the objectives of the model.  The methodology to be followed in the design and implementation of the Izmir Gevrek Model is grouped under four headings: 1. Creating Izmir Gevrek Database for Thriving Izmir 2. Designating of Izmir City Portrait through Participatory Methods 3. Aligning the "Gevrek" Model with Business World 4. Organizing Education Program and Promotion Activities for the Dissemination and Adoption of the Model

The City of Riga included a Doughnut Economics approach in a EU project proposal (Pilot Project in the Net Zero Cities EU Mission) which got approved. This pilot aims to apply Doughnut Economics (DE) as an integrated, systemic, innovative, inclusive, and participatory approach to achieve rapid decarbonisation. The pilot will focus on the emissions domain of mobility and transport, as it is the major contributor of CO2, with private cars accounting for 42% of the city’s emissions. One of the project’s main activities is the development of a Doughnut City Portrait. This methodology will help identify priorities and select activities that align with sustainability and climate action principles, considering social, ecological, local, and global aspects. The second main activity is co-developing and piloting a set of innovative solutions to reduce air pollution and emissions in the city centre (low-emission zone will be implemented by 2027). The project started in June 2024 and has focused on developing the City Portrait. They plan to involve the stakeholders and re-evaluate the city's sustainable strategy for 2030 and program 2027 based on the results of the City Portrait. 

Worthing Borough Council is exploring how the principles of Doughnut Economic can feed into their local policies. 

Bannau Brycheiniog  National Park Management Plan 2023-2028 The Park has developed a Park Doughnut and put it at the core of their National Park Management Plan 2023-2028, as a framework to define future actions, with the targets and indicators set to be used for monitoring progress. The Management Plan is a vision setting document, setting the high level objectives for the park through the Doughnut, with action plans then meant to be delivered in partnership with various stakeholders. The aim of this plan is to eliminate all of the red from the Doughnut diagram, and the plan defines five Missions in response to the biggest over-shoots.   

The City of Glasgow has ambitions to move towards a Green Wellbeing Economy in order to meet its social and environmental targets, and has joined C40's Thriving Cities Initiative. An important step in the process of becoming a thriving city is the creation of a (Doughnut Economics) City Portrait, a tool for thinking about Glasgow in a holistic and innovative way. University of Glasgow worked with the city to develop the first City Portrait, as part of the GALLANT project that uses Glasgow as a living lab to trial new sustainable solutions taking a whole-systems approach. In 2023, the Thriving Definitions of the first portrait (the Glasgow Doughnut) were adopted by the council to guide their future work, and to help forge new alliances across Glasgow's many organisations, businesses and individuals across the whole system. 

After commissioning a study evaluating the possibilities of applying Doughnut Economics in Tomelilla, the town is bringing Doughnut Economics into their work and policies in various ways - by basing their Sustainability Report 2022 on the Doughnut, planning the development of a new school based on the principles of Doughnut Economics, developing a Data Portrait, and exploring the development of an impact assessment and evaluation tool.   

Dublin City Council agreed a motion in 2022 to embed the principles of Doughnut Economics into their Local Economic and Community Plan (LECP) - a statutory six-year plan, with the aim to expand from a sustainable growth-based framework to pursuing the wellbeing and prosperity for all people and the environment.

Since 2021, the local government of Valence Romans Agglo have been using the Doughnut as a tracking and monitoring tool for over 20 strategic projects, developing contextualised social and ecological indicators, evaluating the potential impact of these projects and steering their development.