ChiDEC: Chicago Update - July, 2026

The Chicagoland Donut Economics Coalition (chidec.org) formed in May, 2025.   Here's a July 2026 update on what we've been doing and what we have planned.

Nov. 2025.  Global Doughnut Days 2025.   In Chicago, ChiDEC joined this global celebration at Reuse-a-Palooza, an event hosted by The Plant that champions circularity and creative reuse.   We invited the community to share their voices, stories, and perspectives to shape a bottom-up picture of the city’s well-being.  At our booth, participants played the “3D Donut Game,” an interactive activity that invited participants to place either a red, green, or white pin (sprinkles) on a large three-dimensional doughnut.  

• Green pins: where Chicago is thriving sustainably within the Doughnut.
• Red pins: areas of shortfall or overshoot, where Chicago needs improvement.
• White pins: what participants felt was most important to them.

Feb. 2026.  Release of the Chicago Donut 2025 report.    ChiDEC released our first data portrait of place for Chicago in Feb. 2026 (PDF).  We started in May, 2025 and studied and applied the Doughnut Data Portrait tools to provide a concise visual assessment of Chicago's economic performance based on social and ecological indicators.  We hope this report can serve as a compass to help orient us towards meeting the needs of all people within the limits of the planet by providing a snapshot of Chicago’s progress towards this goal.  The ChiDEC Data Team put this report together, along with guidance and support of the rest of the ChiDEC members.

We owe a special thanks to California Doughnut Economics Coalition, Seattle Donut Economics Coalition, and Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL) for providing guidance, tools and the blueprint to originate our report from. 

𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲. This snapshot is considered 𝙖 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙙𝙤𝙘𝙪𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩, and we seek to connect with a wide range of stakeholders and experts interested in the long-term sustainability of the Chicagoland area. With additional input and support, we hope to refine and expand our starter set of candidate indicators to be more closely attuned to our community’s needs.

Mar.  2026.   Reimagining Our Economy.   Along with the Climate Action Museum (CAM), Degrowth Institute, United Nations Association of Chicago, and Chicago Climate Connect, ChiDEC participated in a sold-out panel discussion at the Climate Action Museum.   The event included networking, presentations, and a panel discussion regarding approaches for creating a more equitable, healthy and sustainable Chicago.  The event was held at CAM in Chicago and was live streamed.  Additionally, ChiDEC had an exhibit at CAM, where we displayed the three-dimensional Donut used at the Nov. 2025 event at The Plant.

Continuing Our Work in 2026.  ChiDEC Activities for the remainder of 2026 include:

• ChiDEC will be participating at Chicago Climate Week, July 18-25, 2026.
• We will do a 'Deep Dive' on some of the Chicago Donut social and ecological dimensions.  We like the 'deep dive' reporting done by CalDEC and SeaDEC, and we're working on similar dimension 'deep dive' reporting for the Chicago Donut.
• Climate Change dimension.   For our 2025 Chicago Donut Report, we left Climate Change as to-be-determined in 2026.  CMAP has released a 2026 Chicago Metropolitan Climate Action Plan, and the City of Chicago has published a Climate Action Plan.  These plans report territorial/sector green house gas emissions (primarily scope 1, 2).  We could pull a GHG indicator value from one of these sources, but we would prefer to create an estimated GHG value from a Consumption-Based Emissions Inventory (scopes 1, 2, 3).  We're investigating different options for this dimension.

That's what we're up to.  Emails are welcome regarding questions or an interest in joining our team!  email: info@chidec.org.