Nanaimo Celebrates Its First Donut Days

Nanaimo Celebrates Its First Donut Days

From October 14–17, Nanaimo Prosperity Corporation (NPC) brought together residents, students, and leaders from the business and non-profit sectors to explore what it means to build a prosperous, 21st-century economy in Nanaimo.

Nanaimo’s journey with Doughnut Economics began in 2020, when City Council adopted the framework, making Nanaimo the first municipality in North America to take this step. Since then, the City has embedded the Doughnut framework into City Plan: Nanaimo Reimagined, its Integrated Action Plan, and its award-winning Monitoring Strategy. Together, these documents guide decisions on the city's future and track progress across social and environmental indicators, aiming for a balanced approach to community development. 

Global Donut Days offered NPC an opportunity to bring Doughnut Economics beyond City Hall and into the wider community, linking local action to a global movement. NPC also introduced a Living Systems approach, which aligns with Doughnut thinking. While the Doughnut, also called the ‘Nanaimo Bar’ locally, guides the city toward a safe and just space for people and planet, systems thinking allows us to see Nanaimo as a dynamic, living system, where neighborhoods, businesses, and nature are all interdependent. This perspective helps coordinate action and identify leverage points where small shifts can spark cascading positive change. By combining these approaches, success is measured not just in dollars, but in the health and well-being of the entire ecosystem of people, nature, and organizations, redefining what prosperity means. 

A Week of Events and Community Engagement

Throughout the week, NPC hosted four events, three of them facilitated by Future Fit City, designed to engage different groups to imagine what a prosperous, thriving Nanaimo could look like.

‘Participating in the Donut Days events was an exciting invitation to engage in meaningful conversations about moving as a system with colleagues from the community impact (nonprofit) sector and beyond. I appreciated the creativity and purpose behind these events. They encouraged me to explore bigger questions about systems and reflect on how we’re meeting the moment, individually and collectively.’ -  Kix Citton, Community Impact Committee

The week kicked off with ‘The Art of Systems’ event, co-hosted with Nanaimo Art Gallery. Business and community leaders gathered to explored how moving as a system, rather than working in silos, can unlock collective potential. The evening flowed with hands-on exercises, lively discussions, and invited participants to connect, experiment, and discover new ways of thinning together.  

‘Donut days were a timely reminder for all of us to think globally, act locally and internalize the reality that we are all interconnected like the human body, and every aspect must be healthy for us to keep moving and prospering. And we had fun in the process.’ -Mayor Leonard Krog

Workshops for the business and non-profit sectors followed. Using the Three Horizons approach to guide exploration. This method helps participants think through short, medium and long-term lenses by categorizing ideas into three Horizons:

• Horizon 1 represents the present, dominant system, something well-established but eventually facing decline. 
• Horizon 2 is the transition space, where emerging innovations can either extend Horizon 1 or pave the way toward Horizon 3. 
• Horizon 3 represents the desired future state.

By mapping ideas and initiatives across these horizons, participants explored dominant patterns they see in their personal or professional lives, identified opportunities, clarified priorities, and anticipated potential disruptions.

‘The Three Horizons workshop offered during Doughnut Days Nanaimo was an incredibly valuable exercise. It stirred imagination and surfaced a glimpse of what's possible in terms of ensuring our systems and structures meet everyone's needs—without pushing unhealthily and unsustainably against the limits of living systems. This is important work that needs to continue in a way that engages and involves community members in meaningful ways.’ - Kevin Lindsay, Nanaimo Climate Action Hub

Donut Days finished with a screening of PURPOSE: A Wellbeing Economies Film, presented in partnership with VIU’s MBA Student Association and the MCP Student Association. The film asked one of today’s most urgent question: What is the purpose of our economies, and how can we change it? It explores how economic systems can be redesigned to serve people and the planet, highlighting bold policy experiments around the world, including the global Wellbeing Economy Governments Alliance.

A panel discussion followed, inviting reflections on how these ideas resonate locally. Councillor Ben Geselbracht, one of the key advocates for the city’s adoption of Doughnut Economics, joined VIU students and alumni on a panel on how these principles can shape Nanaimo’s future.

As the week wrapped up, what lingered was a sense of possibility. Donut Days brought people from across Nanaimo into the same room, working toward a future that feels both ambitious and grounded in local strengths. The ideas shared, the questions raised, and the connections made are now set to ripple through Nanaimo, shaping a city where people, planet, and profit are balanced.
 

To follow the NPC's journey, sign up for our newsletter here. If you have any more questions or would like to get involved, reach out to Living Systems Coordinator, Anni Thesen at anni@investnanaimo.com.