Second California DEAL Meetup

Platforms have been established and actions are underway to discover the recipe for a California Doughnut

Posted by California Doughnut Economics Coalition (CalDEC) January, 12, 2021 12 likes

Meeting Date: December 10th 2020

The 2nd meeting of the California Doughnut Economics Coalition was inspiring and productive. Jonathan DeLong facilitated the meeting along with Della Duncan and Jared Ruiz Bybee

Our meeting followed the agenda below:

Introductions
Big Picture
Case study: Review Amsterdam
Chat dump - What are ways we (this group) might apply Doughnut Economics to build a regenerative economy in California?
California Doughnut Economics Coalition - a group of many efforts
Create 2020 California Doughnut selfie
Breakout session 1: Social dimensions for California
Breakout session 2: Ecological dimensions for California
Moving forward

Prior to the meeting we each:

Reviewed the DEAL story on downscaling the Doughnut: https://doughnuteconomics.org/tools-and-stories/14
Reviewed the report on applying the Doughnut in Amsterdam: https://www.kateraworth.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20200406-AMS-portrait-EN-Single-page-web-420x210mm.pdf
Prepared our own responses to the question: “What are the (operational) ways we might apply Doughnut Economics to build a regenerative economy for California?”

Just enough Bakers in the kitchen

After brief introductions and a quick review of why we are meeting, Jonathan DeLong presented on how the Doughnut was downscaled and applied in Amsterdam. His presentation on the Amsterdam work was considered with an eye toward how we might effectively apply it to the state of California.

Della Duncan then took the group through a “chat dump” of the responses to the question “What are ways we (this group) might apply Doughnut Economics to build a regenerative economy in California?” Responses to this question were understandably varied and included:

From Miguel Quinones : Statewide live dashboard tracking progress toward doughnut based targets
From Bob Saltz : Recruit Economists, demonstrate the Practical Value of Doughnut Economics. Identify Priorities for Legislation, policies, and rules, Recruit Lawmakers
From Nory Griffin : integrate lifecycle analysis into manufacturing/ building/ development decision making
From Sofia Sarachansky : a common message to educate population

The California Doughnut Economics Coalition will be an effort of efforts - it’s members can turn any of the above efforts into a working group and initiative that they can organize around and make a reality.

Next, we discussed how all the above efforts would share a common Doughnut Economics assessment (or “selfie”) of the state of California. Founder of the California Coalition, Jared Ruiz Bybee, dug into the original doughnut and described how humanity’s ‘selfie’ doughnut was created by reviewing DEAL slides on the Doughnut. For a California Doughnut we’ll need metrics which take into account the ecological & social diversity which exist within this expansive state, yet scaled to a size we could sink our teeth into..

Here’s a link to all the slides used in Jared’s brief presentation on creating the global Doughnut: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pGI4qmSluNzTutgilVWgmrkbS9tHT61HI2Cz0-N9qeQ/edit#slide=id.ga80e7b432a_0_488

Our group committed to building a California Doughnut Selfie. One group will take the nine ecological dimensions and another will work on the 12 social dimensions. Each group will seek out California-specific measures and data to populate the California Doughnut. Our target completion date for the California Doughnut is March 1, 2021

A Doughnut of another glaze is still a Doughnut.

The project is to create a California Doughnut Snapshot; a social and ecological portrait of California, the duration of this project is to be three months.

With a click attendees were parsed out into six breakout rooms. For 10 minutes we brainstormed ways we might define doughnut dimensions in California terms, and where we might find data that already exists to reflect each dimension. We put all ideas and sources into a shared spreadsheet that will be the starting point for more rigorous investigation. The unique challenge we face is creating a well rounded snapshot for California that doesn’t ignore the vast diversity within this region.

The questions we considered were:

What are the metrics we need for a thriving California?
Where do we source them from?

Breakout Room 1 - Social Indicators

Breakout Room 2 - Ecological Indicators

The full spreadsheet can be viewed here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eytWSV_jqX_TzoygdB4Nr6jIVo7A0c6Jf7qaRDKdZn0/edit?usp=sharing

Our time of taking action is now. Systems of communication, work groups, research, development and more are underway as we continue on this project. Individuals of various backgrounds and localities continue to come together from their respective digital devices to the California Doughnut Economics Coalition’s slack page and share their time and talents to contribute to a sweeter, more wholesome, future.

Moving Forward

With a clear initial direction for the group, much of our ongoing work will be on a new Slack page that was set up. There, members are self-organizing to create the California Doughnut - specifically into one working group tackling the ecological dimensions and another for the social dimensions. Each working group will be led by 2 co-lead volunteers.

Additionally, as individual members have particular ways that they want to apply Doughnut Economics in California they propose working group ideas. If others share those interests then those working groups will be off and running.

Here is a list of volunteers we need: