Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist

by Kate Raworth

‘generous cities’: human settlements that nestle within the living world. As a first step in the process, she starts by observing a city’s local native ecosystem—such as the nearby forest, wetland or savannah—and records the rate at which it harvests solar energy, sequesters carbon, stores rainwater, fertilises soil, purifies the air, and more. These metrics are then adopted as the new city standard, challenging and inspiring its architects and planners to create buildings and landscapes that are ‘as generous as the wildland next door’. Rooftops that grow food, gather the sun’s energy, and welcome wildlife. Pavements that absorb storm water then slowly release it into aquifers. Buildings that sequester carbon dioxide, cleanse the air, treat their own wastewater, and turn sewage back into rich soil nutrients. All connected in an infrastructural web that is woven through with wildlife corridors and urban agriculture.26 Such design possibilities arise out of regenerative, not degenerative, questions. ‘Don’t ask: what’s my fair share to take?’ Benyus explains. ‘Ask: what other benefits can we layer into this so we can give some away?’27 Imagine if such a regenerative city were also distributive by design. Renewable energy microgrids would turn every household into an energy provider. Affordable housing connected by dedicated public transport routes would make the cheapest form of travel the fastest.