This is our map of London’s Doughnut.
The inside bars show our assessment of the 15 social foundations in London (the Local Social lens), and the outside bars show our calculations of London’s impacts on the world’s ecological ceiling (the Global Ecological lens).
The green circle represents the safe and just space inside the Doughnut.
We can see that London is outside the safe and just space on nearly every indicator. It's falling short on 12 of the 15 social foundations of a good life for all its people, and it's overshooting on all but 3 of the ecological indicators that we have been able to calculate, except for air pollution (the three ecological indicators in the grey bars are not calculated due to lack of usable data at present).
Bringing London inside the Doughnut is essential to create a safe and just space for people and the planet.
To learn more about the icons and how we measure them, download the City Portrait report below.
READ THE CITY PORTRAIT Report
DOWNLOAD THE CITY PORTRAIT Report
The City Portrait is the foundation of our work. It provides the evidence which underpins our projects, leads our conversations and inspires change.
It is based on the City Portrait and Doughnut Unrolled methods, developed by the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL) and inspired by Kate Raworth’s book Doughnut Economics.
These methods are designed to bring out issues that are particular to each place, rooted in its history and identity, while viewing it in the context of the most important social and ecological questions and our wider economic systems.
Groups similar to ours around the world have created Portraits for their cities, towns and local areas. So our City Portrait enables us to be part of a global network, sharing insights about how our cities and places could work better.
The City Portrait is presented as a set of topics which are consistent with the approach others have taken. For us, these are:
London’s “canvas” – London’s context and the groups of actors and changemakers that make up the city
London’s policies and plans – London’s social and environmental policy landscape how it relates to economic policies
The four lenses – drawn from the Doughnut Unrolled method, these consider London’s status across key social and ecological questions from both local and global perspectives and make suggestions towards positive change.
This is the second version of the London City Portrait. It builds on the first Portrait which we published in 2022. Since then, we have had time to expand our thinking and engage with others around a path for London.
We hope that the City Portrait can spark new conversations for London and Londoners – offering a foundation for discussions on new economic strategies for places and communities of all shapes and sizes. The City Portrait will always be a work in progress, and we welcome contributions to make it better.
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