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On the 13th of May, The Future Economy Network (FEN) and Future Leap hosted a morning event entitled “Doughnut Economics and Better Business” which was attended by a range of delegates. Before the event began, the attendees enjoyed some pre-sessional networking in small breakout rooms facilitated by the FEN team.
Katherine Piper, Director of Partnerships at Future Leap welcomed attendees, sharing the exciting news that FEN shall be hosting events in a hybrid format from the 18th of May, enabling people to attend in person under COVID-19 safety guidelines. Katherine highlighted the benefits of joining the network and ran through plans for the Festival of Sustainable Business, in light of new Government guidance towards COVID-19. Speakers included:
Manda Brookman Director, Permanently Brilliant
Peter Lefort Impact and Partnership Development Officer, University of Exeter
Allan Sandilands Circular Economy Lead – Principle Consultant, Resource Futures
The speakers challenged perceptions regarding our current economic system and delivered inspiring insights into different ways of thinking using the doughnut economic model.
Manda shared her knowledge from the Cornwall Doughnut Collective, starting with the basics of doughnut economics as a model to consider business impacts beyond just economic growth. The doughnut can be used to see where business can improve, having been described as a ‘21st century selfie’. Manda encouraged the current economic system to be seen as just a model and open to change, using the quote by George E.P Box “All models are wrong, but some are useful”. Similarly, doughnut economics is also a model and should be tailored to a businesses influence, vision and range of impacts.
Peter built his presentation around what the doughnut can do in terms of complexity, clarity and collaboration. Firstly, through recognizing that we live in a complex system and encouraging us to embrace this complexity and break away from linear thinking; using to doughnut to find islands of coherence where positive impacts can be made. Secondly, the doughnut provides clarity through acknowledging and giving ownership to negative impacts decisions create. Peter emphasised that the doughnut should not be used externally, but be used as an internal tool for refection, minimising the use of the doughnut as greenwashing. And finally, the doughnut encourages collaboration through businesses asking the same questions, embracing these may create a multitude of different answers.
Allan presented his insights in creating better businesses through using the principles of circular economy. Different concepts such as modularity, innovation in packaging, shared ownership and circular service models were presented, each with inspiring examples of the concepts in practice. Allan encouraged businesses to start where they feel most comfortable and find what works for them, highlighting that it is likely that linear business will find it increasingly difficult to operate in the future.
60 Second Pitches
Throughout, the audience were encouraged to ask questions which stimulated widespread debate, especially around how COVID shall impact wellbeing in the workplace. Multiple attendees made use of the 60 second pitch opportunity, including Garratt Creative, Redshaw Advisors, The Doughnut Agency and the University of Bath. Thank you to all the speakers and attendees, which without our events calendar would not be possible.
Close
Katherine closed the event after another opportunity for networking, thanking the speakers and attendees, which without our events calendar would not be possible.
Event Notes by Kelly-ann Luckhurst, MSc Environmental Consultancy, University of the West of England.