Doughnut Unrolled: Introducing the four lenses
An introduction to the four lenses and the set of tools you can use to help your place bring humanity into the Doughnut
Version 1.0 (April 2022)
📢 Now translated into French, Spanish, German and Brazilian Portuguese
Overview
The goal of the Doughnut is to meet the needs of all people within the means of the living planet, but what does this mean for the neighbourhoods, cities, districts or nations where we live?
To help you explore this question we've created Doughnut Unrolled, a concept that takes us from the Doughnut to four 'lenses' that invite you to look at the interplay between local aspirations and global responsibilities in your place – both socially and ecologically – and identify possible entry-points for transformative action.
This tool - Introducing the four lenses - introduces the concept of unrolling the Doughnut to reveal the four lenses on life, and the ways in which they can be used to help your place bring humanity into the Doughnut.
- Open the tool in the following languages here:
- Open the Miro canvases in the following languages here:
- All pdf canvases available here
Introducing the four lenses is one of five Doughnut Unrolled tools that work together to apply the ideas of Doughnut Economics to your place:
- Introducing the four lenses (this tool)
- Community Portrait of Place
- Data Portrait of Place
- Exploring a topic
- Dimensions of the four lenses
Together they help you create a 'Doughnut Portrait' of your place - a holistic picture with diverse inputs and perspectives - that can act as a starting point for transformative action.
Whilst we are launching these tools in English we are also kicking off a process for translating all 5 tools into some languages and we will share more details of this in the following weeks.
Why use it?
We recommend that anyone who wants to use the Doughnut Unrolled tools, or to develop their own methods for exploring the four lenses, start with this tool in order to fully understand the concept, some possible ways to use the four lenses and what it means to work with the four lenses with integrity.
If you are intending to introduce the four lenses to others, either as a workshop (see Community Portrait of Place and Exploring a topic), to undertake analysis (see Data Portrait of Place), or simply to raise awareness, then we suggest you read all the slides, save a version that you can edit, then create your own presentation that works for your context and message you'd like to share with your audience. This can be a combination of using slides directly from the presentation, adapting slides from the presentation, and creating your own slides that help you deliver greater understanding and context for your audience.
Who is it for?
This tool is for anyone who wishes to explore what the ideas of Doughnut Economics means for them in their place.
Important note: If you wish to use these tools as part of your consultancy or professional advisory services for others, then we require that you follow DEAL's policy for consultancies and professional advisors.
How long does it take?
The slides take about 30 minutes to read.
How many people is it for?
Any number of people who you wish to share the slides with, in whatever context, whether a presentation, workshop or other.
What materials do you need?
You do not need specific materials for this tool, however the workshop tools (see Community Portrait of Place and Exploring a topic) require material preparation, such as four lenses canvases, pens and sticky notes.
What does the facilitator need to know or be able to do?
If you are facilitating a process to introduce others to the four lenses, we recommend you familiarise yourself thoroughly with these slides, then read the other tools to see how you might put the ideas into action with others in your place.
If you are unsure about any part of this tool or would like to ask a question, please either leave a comment below, or contact the DEAL Team directly via the contact form and choosing the category 'Tools and Stories'.
Acknowledgements
This tool was created by Kate Raworth, Rob Shorter, Leonora Grcheva, and Andrew Fanning of the DEAL Team, in collaboration with Ruurd Priester.
The four lenses builds upon the methodology of Creating City Portraits co-created with Biomimicry 3.8, Circle Economy, and C40 Cities.
We would like to thank the DEAL Community members who reviewed and tested this tool and offered feedback that helped in its development, including Nicole Hagerman Miller of Biomimicry 3.8, Ilektra Kouloumpi of Circle Economy, Elizabeth Kelly and Monika Milewska of C40 Cities, Claudio Cattaneo and Ona Riera Mateu for the City of Barcelona, Jonas Boothe of Next Economy Lab (NELA), Mat Siffels of Amsterdam Donut Coalition, Roisin Markham of Irish Doughnut Economics Network (IDEN) and Alice Glendinning and Moze Jacobs of West Cork Doughnut Economy. For anyone we’ve missed, thank you, and do let us know so we can acknowledge your contribution here.
We would also like to thank Iconmonster for the icons used.
Links
- Open the tool in the following languages here:
- Open the Miro canvases in the following languages here:
- All pdf canvases available here
- Find all icons in png format here
Feedback
Healthy living systems rely on good feedback loops and we invite your comments, reflections and suggestion from using this tool to help us iterate and evolve for future versions.
You can do this two ways:
- The first is to leave a comment in the section below called Join the conversation. The benefit of this approach is that everyone can see and benefit from what you share.
- The second way is to contact the DEAL Team directly via the contact form and choosing the category 'Tools and Stories'.
Share
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Workshops with Citizens in Tomelilla, Sweden
Master student explores Doughnut Unrolled tools together with citizens of the municipality to start a Community Portrait
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Kyle Soo
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John Adams
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
I retired early from my career in technology sales. The culture of corporate America was no longer working for me. Specifically the idea that there is a moral space, where as long as you are not breaking the law, your only responsibility was to shareholder value and pursuit of profit. Full acceptance of this leaves little space to connect with your values and principles. As I dug deeper into the concepts of Doughnut Economics the decision to retire from my professional job was a no-brainer. It was a purposeful transition from years of accumulating, to focusing on how to thrive so that I could live the concepts. This in turn has freed up my time and attention capacity to make sense of the current situation of the world, understand the underlying systems, and determine how I can contribute to help make positive change. I came to DEAL to find guidance on how to take action.
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Member
Brian Dowling
Hacienda Heights, California, United States of America
I serve as Treasurer for the California Doughnut Economics Coalition (CalDEC.org).
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cristina sarris
Athènes, Αττική, Grèce
From Business Transformation Consultant to Sustainability Capacity Building Facilitator for organisations that need to interpret and analyse their environmental impact. I co-founded the "Greece Doughnut Economics" network in 2021. We are a small and dynamic network that has been meeting regularly. My dream is to accomplish the translation of the book into Greek and run workshops using the Doughnut tool in Greek municipalities.
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Member
Aart Bos
Utrecht, Nederland
I am a proud leader of the global MasterPeace Foundation, active in 40+ countries creating perspective to youngsters my job is may passion to achieve social impact on a local and global scale
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Member
Marte Ulltveit-Moe
Kristiansand, Vest-Agder, Norge
I work as a local councillor for the Green Party in Kristiansand, southern Norway. Currently writing a book about the repair business. This sector of the economy create jobs and minimizes the use of the earth's resources. How can we create a system where reuse and repair is the norm?
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Member
Phillippa Banister
Shipley, England, United Kingdom
Founder of Street Space, a social enterprise working with people to reimagine their streets and spaces to make them feel safer, bring joy and social connection.
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Member
Vasco Rato
Lisbon, Área Metropolitana de Lisboa, Portugal
I am passionate about teaching and learning and that’s why I am Associate Professor at Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa where I teach sustainability at the Dpt. of Architecture and Urbanism. My interests are materials environmental impact and multi-criteria selection of materials for a sustainable architecture. I am an architect with further academic education on civil engineering and business sustainability. I am global leader of QualEnv - Change the Climate, an EU Erasmus+ funded project about environmental management and educational strategies with 11 partners in Latin America an three partners in Europe. I had the opportunity of coordinating a wonderful team, as former Iscte’s Director of Sustainability, implementing an environmental management system at the university that is certified under ISO 14001. I am now part of the Sustainability Executive Group at Iscte.