To avoid climate catastrophe, biodiversity collapse, and their grave negative impacts on human wellbeing, systematic and radical approaches are needed. We need to replace the current consumption-driven economic paradigm with alternative solutions, aiming to maximise environmental and social benefits and minimise trade-offs between meeting basic needs and crossing ecological limits.
The Degrowth Doughnut model is based on the original Doughnut visualisation of ecological boundaries and social foundations created by economist, Kate Raworth. It is a visualisation tool for assessing the current environmental and social capacity of a concerned region for ecologically and socially sustainable transformation. Including cultural, socio-economic, and biophysical indicators gives an overall picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the system, while providing opportunities to adapt the model for local circumstances.
Using the experience of the Hungarian Degrowth Doughnut development, GreenFormation contributes to the work of the Corvinus University of Budapest in creating Budapest’s Degrowth Doughnut in a participatory way. Our goal is to use this framework to analyse the capital’s potential in ecological and social sustainability transition. The analysis reveals gaps, strengths, unexploited opportunities, and correlations between individual indicators. The outcome of the participatory Degrowth Doughnut model development is to provide directions for the municipality on how to move towards social and ecological sustainability.
Degrowth Doughnut of Hungary based on biophysical, socio-economic, and cultural indicators (Domazet et al., 2023)