Doughnut in the Metropolis

The first Polish Global Donut Days took place on November 6-8.
The event invented and organized by DEAL - Doughnut Economics Action Lab - aims to promote Doughnut Economics worldwide and encourage the use of available tools when planning the development and repair of cities and regions.

This year's festival was held under the slogan: "Local action, global connection". 

We decided to act locally - in the cities, we regularly cooperate with, and then summarize our activities more globally. Upper Silesia has been an industrial centre for over 150 years and is currently undergoing a challenging transformation process.

Thanks to DEAL's financial support, we managed to arrange three meetings: in Katowice and Zabrze at the city level and again in Katowice—a summary meeting at the level of the Metropolis, which consists of 42 cities connected by transport into one organism inhabited by almost 2.5 million residents. During the metropolitan meeting, we talked remotely with our partners from the Netherlands about their experiences with Doughnut Economics. 

Knowing that Doughnut Economics is not yet widely used in urban policy in Poland (we are working on it), we decided to prepare a kind of "introduction to the Doughnut": some theory, a few simple exercises and a conversation. As we suspected, our guests had heard about the Doughnut but had not had the opportunity to get to know it better. 

At the meeting in Katowice, we hosted the Plenipotentiary of the Mayor of Katowice. Among the recurring issues in the conversation were air quality (resulting from, burning wastage in the furnaces) and the problem of vacant buildings. 

In Zabrze, we were visited by representatives of the Municipality: officials, a councillor of the City Council serving as the Coordinator of the Ecology Commission in the City Office, and representatives of  Municipal Waterworks Utilities. The latter drew attention to the problems with access to water, which will only deepen with climate change. In the conversations with the participants, air quality came up again. 

In Zabrze, we were also visited by students of the School Complex No. 3 named after Captain Witold Pilecki, to talk remotely with their colleagues from The Hague and Utrecht (the Holland region of Netherlands), and also to share their thoughts about the city in which they live. 

An interesting situation occurred when it turned out that what occupies adults: air quality, water and ecological issues, is not listed by youth in the “top ten problems” they see. For them, prospects for the future were more important: work, access to affordable housing, and safety. They also drew attention to the condition of the city outside the strict city centre. 

What unites generations are ecological issues: more green spaces, less waste, less exhaust fumes... And public transport - better, faster, and designed to get you everywhere fast and on time. 

During the Metropolitan meeting, we talked about the tools available for people interested in using the Doughnut methodology. Particularly city employees. The guests drew attention to the need for training for officials and office workers and the availability of materials in Polish. 

We also had the opportunity to talk to Representatives of the Dutch MasterPeace Foundation, who told us about their experiences with Doughnut and with educating young people on this topic. 

The Polish Doughnut Days coincided with an important anniversary for us: the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Multigenerational Community Foundation.

We decided to celebrate this event in the only possible way: by treating guests to doughnuts and blowing out the candles from the colourful doughnuts! 

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who visited us over the past three days.

AND SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!?

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Or maybe even earlier, at the next City Doughnut Workshop…