Mexico City's Global Donut Days 2024

Global Donut Days 2024 - CDMX.

 Backed by the dedication of its volunteer team, Coalición Tricolor successfully hosted Mexico City’s second Global Donut Days, a vibrant celebration of regenerative ideas and systemic change. 

From November 7th to 9th, the city came alive as part of this global movement inspired by the Doughnut Economics model, reframing the future through the lens of planetary boundaries and social foundations. 

This year, the Mexican capital transformed into a dynamic, three-day, multi-venue experience: a journey of connection between design, academia, business, and civil society under a shared, resounding call:

“Let’s imagine a different future for Mexico City.”

 With over 350 participants, including sustainability experts, academics, business representatives, and members of the public, the event created a vibrant space for dialogue and experimentation. 

November 7 | EDINBA

Day 1: (Co)NECTA - Design and imagination

The kickoff took place at the National School of Design (EDINBA) with a celebration of creativity in motion. Design students presented sustainability-themed posters as part of a dedicated workshop and exhibition. The poster contest opened the stage for reflections on the power of art as a regenerative force.

Talks explored how design can spark new ways of inhabiting and rethinking urban spaces. Public universities were highlighted as engines of change, and the arts—often underestimated—emerged as potent tools for social sustainability.

The day closed with a collective visioning exercise around one key question:

“How do we imagine a different future for Mexico City?”

Day 2: (Co)MUNICA - Academic dialogue and transition.

The second day moved into academic territory, gathering students, professors, and guest speakers from universities like UNAM, UAM, and UMA to explore Doughnut Economics as a critical framework for sustainable transition.

Sessions included:

• A keynote on the global and Latin American context of the Doughnut model.
• A panel on turning sustainability theory into practical transition cases.
• Research presentations on living labs and real-world applications.
• A higher education roundtable reflecting on how to teach with purpose in times of transformation.

A key moment emerged from the discussion on the disconnect between university training and the real needs of territories and industries. The challenge: bridging that gap through new skills, narratives, and alliances.

The day ended with a powerful artistic intervention by the collective "Sobrevivientes", whose piece Arte al Natural blended music, dance, and visual arts, reminding us that sustainability is also felt, sung, and moved.

Day 3: (Co)NSTRUYE - Systemic Practice and celebration.

The final day took place in Valle de Bravo at the Universidad del Medio Ambiente (UMA), as part of its 15th anniversary celebration, UMAFEST. Surrounded by nature and community, it was the perfect setting to activate systemic thinking.

Two unprecedented activities marked the day:

• The Doughnut for Business workshop, introducing companies to regenerative organizational redesign.
• The “Sentinels” futures game, based on Earth4All, offering an immersive experience to explore alternative sustainability scenarios.

Additional activities included dialogues on systems thinking, panels on transformative practices, and experiential moments of celebration and connection.

This day reinforced one powerful insight:

Transitions can’t be decreed. They must be designed—and lived.

A city that thinks in networks.

With the involvement of more than 10 institutions, universities, businesses, and civil society organizations, the 2024 edition of Global Donut Days in Mexico City showcased the Doughnut model as more than just an international theory. It became a living, grounded, and growing practice.

Over three days, hundreds of people explored how to reimagine their contexts through design, education, business, and art, co-creating a diverse and collaborative ecosystem around one shared vision: building a just and safe space for all humanity, from the local level outward.

Once again, Mexico did not just observe. It led.

And its echo is still expanding.