- Doughnut model
- The doughnut model pictures an economy's goal as meeting everyone's basic needs without pushing the natural systems that people depend on past safe limits.
- Economic growth
- Economic growth is an increase over time in the real output of goods and services that an economy produces.
The doughnut has two boundaries, and an economy can fall outside it two ways
Can you name the doughnut's two boundaries, and the two ways of falling outside the space between them?
Each boundary is made of several dimensions, and each is judged separately.
The social foundation is the inner ring: a minimum standard of basic needs, such as food, water, health, education and housing, that everyone should reach.
Can you think of an example?
A household that cannot afford both to heat its home and to eat properly in winter is below the foundation on energy and on food.
The ecological ceiling is the outer ring: the limits beyond which human pressure on the natural systems that people depend on, such as the climate, the soil and the oceans, becomes dangerous.
Can you think of an example?
Burning coal, oil and gas adds carbon dioxide to the air, and past a certain level the climate becomes unstable.
Shortfall is falling inside the inner ring, where people lack one or more basic needs.
Can you think of an example?
Where many children leave school unable to read, a country is in shortfall on education, however large its total output.
Overshoot is going beyond the outer ring, where human activity puts more pressure on one of Earth's systems than it can safely bear.
Can you think of an example?
Clearing forests and overfishing have driven the loss of species far past a safe rate: overshoot on biodiversity.