When I read Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics back in 2017, it felt like a revolution in how we might think about progress. The designer inside me loved it instantly — a model that made economics both meaningful and beautiful. It reminded me of Edward R. Tufte’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, a book I’ve always admired for showing how great graphic design can reveal truth rather than decorate it. Raworth’s simple, elegant doughnut did exactly that — balancing human well-being within the planet’s ecological limits, cutting through the ongoing noise of GDP obsession and offering something rare: A picture of an economy designed to serve life, not the other way around.

Eight years on, the model has evolved again. In The Evolving Doughnut (2025), Raworth and Andrew Fanning transform the idea from a static snapshot into a living system — an annual monitor of global social and ecological health. It’s an extraordinary synthesis of science, data and moral clarity. It reminds us that the challenge isn’t simply to grow; it’s to grow up.

At its heart, the doughnut remains disarmingly simple:

• The inner ring defines the social foundation — the minimum conditions for every person to live with dignity.
• The outer ring defines the ecological ceiling — the planetary boundaries we must not exceed.
Between them lies the safe and just space for humanity.

In this new iteration, every indicator tells a story. Some good — global access to electricity has risen, literacy has improved. Others, less so — carbon emissions, biodiversity loss and chemical pollution have all worsened dramatically. The visualisation now includes time-series data from 2000 to 2022, showing the deep imbalance between social progress and ecological overshoot. It’s both sobering and motivating.

What I find most powerful, however, is how Raworth acknowledges that the doughnut is not a Western invention but part of a long lineage of indigenous wisdom. She references Māori, Andean, Taoist and Buddhist traditions that see well-being as balance, not accumulation.

“In Māori culture,” she writes, “the concept of well-being combines spiritual, ecological, kinship and economic well-being, interwoven as interdependent dimensions.”

That idea could not be more relevant to Aotearoa today. It aligns beautifully with the essence of purpose — and with the forthcoming ISO 37011 standard on purpose-driven governance, which will guide organisations worldwide to embed the well-being of all stakeholders into decision-making and performance. Together, they redefine success not by scale or shareholder return, but by how well an organisation balances economic growth and positive social impact with environmental protection and renewal — contributing to the interdependent well-being of people, planet, and community.

Raworth’s evolving doughnut gives us a map. Purpose gives us the compass.
Together, they point to a future where business is not about extracting value from the world, but creating value within its limits.

https://doughnuteconomics.org/