
Creating City Portraits
An earlier methodological guide for downscaling the Doughnut to the city (newer version available)

NOTE FROM DEAL (April 2022): We have substantively updated this methodological handbook and incorporated it into a wider set of 'Doughnut Unrolled' tools for applying the ideas of Doughnut Economics to your place.
DEAL is keeping this legacy tool available on our platform for archiving but it will not be updated.
For DEAL's latest guidance on selecting targets and indicators, please use the Doughnut Unrolled: Data Portrait of Place tool (available in English, French, German, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese).
Version 1.1 (February 2021)
* También disponible en español abajo (PDF) *
* 下面也提供葡萄牙语(PDF) *
* Também disponível em português abaixo (PDF) *
Overview
The DEAL Team collaborated with Biomimicry 3.8, C40 Cities and Circle Economy – through the Thriving Cities Initiative – to create the City Portrait methodology, and pilot the approach in Philadelphia, Portland and Amsterdam.
We created this methodological guide available as a PDF below with accompanying supplementary spreadsheet, which was published in July 2020 (with Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese translations published in February 2021).
Acknowledgements
The City Portrait methodology was conceptualised by Kate Raworth of Doughnut Economics Action Lab and Janine Benyus of Biomimicry 3.8, and this methodological guide was written by Andrew Fanning, Olya Krestyaninova, Kate Raworth, Jamie Dwyer, Nicole Hagerman Miller, and Fredrik Eriksson.
The methodology was greatly enriched by comments from colleagues and advisers including: Julia Lipton, Tom Bailey, Josh Alpert, Elvia Rufo Jimenez, Zach Tofias, Cécile Faraud, Mehrnaz Ghojeh, Chantal Oudkerk Pool, and Krisztina Campbell from the C40; Ilektra Kouloumpi, Annerieke Douma, Max Russell, and Jurn de Winter from Circle Economy; Paul van Schaik from Integral Institute; Ieva Rozentale from Mindworks; Philip Vergragt, Manisha Anantharaman, Halina Brown, and Christoph Rupprecht from SCORAI; Anne Owen from the University of Leeds; Kate Meyer from the Planetary Accounting Network; Nicolas Esposito, Haley Jordan, and Helena Rudoff from The City of Philadelphia; Kyle Diesner and Amanda Watson from The City of Portland, Oregon; Eveline Jonkhoff and Juan-Carlos Goilo from the City of Amsterdam; Christoph Gran and Tabea Waltenberg from ZOE Institute; Laure Malchair from Co-Create; Philippe Roman and Geraldine Thiry from ICHEC; Francesca Zecca from the University of Edinburgh; and Carlota Sanz and Rob Shorter from Doughnut Economics Action Lab.
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Greater Melbourne City Portrait
Celebrating Global Doughnut Day by launching the City Portrait for Greater Melbourne!
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Lincoln DEAL event
In June 2023, as part of Great Big Green Week, Lincoln held an inclusive event to start an open Doughnut discussion.
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WS the 4 Doughnut Lenses in Complexo da Penha, RJ
Experience Report of the Doughnut Workshop conducted in Penha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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Barcelona's Data Portrait: re-rolling the donut
We present here the main results for the 4 lenses of our re-rolled doughnut
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Methodological Insights on BCN data portrait
We explore here how we have calculated the 4 lenses of our rerolled doughnut and share some tips for future applications
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The Doughnut Journey in Barcelona - workshops
Here we present in detail the series of workshops and debates done in 2022 for the Barcelona city donut process.
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Donut Brasil bursts into life!
Connecting diverse communities of practice around the idea and principles of the Donut
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Neighbourhood Doughnut Portrait Launch
We're excited to introduce you to the first Neighbourhood Doughnut Portrait, painted by many people together in Ladywood
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Member
Mathew Larson
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Miguel Fernandez
Falmouth, England, United Kingdom
I'm a Director at Ambos Cohousing Limited. We are looking to shift our culture of home provision, from a market to commons based economic model. I also practice Architecture in my spare time, focused on community-led development using circular economic principles.
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Member
Jane Wigan
St. Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, England, United Kingdom
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Brian Dowling
Hacienda Heights, California, United States of America
I serve as Treasurer for the California Doughnut Economics Coalition (CalDEC.org).
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Member
Rachel Butler
Bristol, England, United Kingdom
Creating Regenerative places where people and nature coexist and evolve together. Working on solutions to the housing, ecological and climate crises.
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Member
cristina sarris
Athènes, Αττική, Grèce
From Business Transformation Consultant to Sustainability Capacity Building Facilitator for organisations that need to interpret and analyse their environmental impact. I co-founded the "Greece Doughnut Economics" network in 2021. We are a small and dynamic network that has been meeting regularly. My dream is to accomplish the translation of the book into Greek and run workshops using the Doughnut tool in Greek municipalities.
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Member
Zeenat Niazi
New Delhi, Delhi, India
I am a sustainable development planner, trained as an architect and in human settlement planning issues. I lead the policy studies and development action initiatives at the Development Alternatives Group. My work over three decades has focused on sustainable housing and habitat in human settlements, community based approaches to climate and disaster resilience and support to national, sub-national and local government governments in mainstreaming integrated planning for achieving Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement in India. My current work in habitat planning now increasingly addresses the concern of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) systems through resource efficiency, circular economy and equity concerns in resource access. My research interest and expertise lies in the area of resource efficient and people-nature centric development planning. Using social and ecological systems approaches for resilience building in human settlements.
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Member
Pournima Agarkar
Pune, Maharashtra, India
I am working as an sustainability researcher on urban sustainability and climate change for a project in Pune titled making Pune a Sustainably Smart city by 2030. Here we are exploring the various tools to make the city not only smart through the use of technological innovations but also looking at the social and environmental aspects of the city along with climate change impacts.