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Unsplash","Unsplash","2026-07-28T12:03:21.482Z",[132],{"id":133,"score":134,"body":135,"status":150,"article_id":91,"created_at":93,"updated_at":151,"published_at":16},"DTh4",0,{"title":136,"content":137,"summary":138,"citations":139,"attachment":149},"How Doughnut Economics can transform sectors","\u003Cp>\u003Cem>By \u003C/em>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilektra-kouloumpi/\">\u003Cstrong>Ilektra Kouloumpi\u003C/strong>\u003C/a>\u003Cem>, Sectors Lead at \u003C/em>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/company/doughnut-economics-action-lab-deal/\">\u003Cstrong>Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL)\u003C/strong>\u003C/a> \u003Cem>and \u003C/em>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristin-strandberg-160801b8/\">\u003Cstrong>Kristin Strandberg\u003C/strong>\u003C/a>\u003Cem>, Cities Lead at \u003C/em>\u003Ca target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/company/circle-economy/\">\u003Cstrong>Circle Economy\u003C/strong>\u003C/a>\u003C/p>\u003Ch2>\u003Cstrong>The challenge of transforming sectors\u003C/strong>\u003C/h2>\u003Cp>Every sector—highways, food, energy, housing—is more than an industry. It is a living system: a web of organisations, habits, policies, materials, and relationships that follow market dynamics, built over decades to meet human needs. And precisely because of that, sectors are incredibly hard to change. Yet addressing many of today's social and environmental challenges requires transformation at a sector level. Individual projects and organisational initiatives can deliver important improvements, but systemic change demands coordinated action across an entire ecosystem of actors.\u003Cbr />\u003C/p>\u003Cp>One framework increasingly being used to support this shift is the Doughnut Economics model, offering a visual monitor of progress towards meeting the needs of all people within the means of the living planet. Rather than focusing solely on economic growth, it encourages decision-makers to balance social wellbeing with planetary boundaries. The \u003Ca target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https://www.adeptnet.org.uk/livelabs2\">\u003Cstrong>ADEPT Live Labs 2\u003C/strong>\u003C/a> project offers valuable insights into what this kind of transformation requires in practice. Working with the counties of Cornwall, Hampshire and Somerset, alongside industry and academic partners, the project set out to apply Doughnut Economics to an entire sector and help transform highways into something both socially just and ecologically safe.\u003Cbr />\u003C/p>\u003Cp>While the project focused on highways, its lessons extend far beyond transport infrastructure. They offer practical guidance for anyone seeking to drive transformation in sectors ranging from housing and energy to food and fashion.\u003C/p>\u003Ch2>\u003Cstrong>From framework to highways: the Live Labs project\u003C/strong>\u003C/h2>\u003Cp>One of the central challenges facing the project was how to translate such a broad economic framework into something that highway engineers and local authorities could use in their day-to-day work. The ADEPT Live Labs 2 project brought together three English county councils with \u003Ca target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https://circle-economy.com/\">\u003Cstrong>Circle Economy\u003C/strong>\u003C/a>, \u003Ca target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https://www.colas.com/en\">\u003Cstrong>Colas\u003C/strong>\u003C/a>, and academic partners to apply Doughnut Economics to the highways sector for the first time, with guidance from Doughnut Economics Action Lab. The aim was not simply to introduce a new framework but to develop practical tools and processes to support more holistic decision-making on the local level.\u003C/p>\u003Cimg src=\"https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/D4E12AQHC37OlL4KxVQ/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/B4EZ.D0QHtJMAI-/0/1784622941029?e=1786579200&v=beta&t=IoTCBJpACDwST6CBUrQC5VbSbaq-ogxLahlgNp8KyOs\" alt=\"Article content\" />\u003Cp>The project produced three concrete outcomes. A Strategic Tool to help authorities assess their plans and contracts. A Project Tool to evaluate individual roadworks schemes. And the Highways Doughnut Alliance—a cross-sector group bringing together local highway authorities, central government, contractors, suppliers, academia and community groups to collectively identify the systemic barriers holding the sector back and co-develop pathways for change. Together, these outcomes demonstrate that sector transformation requires simultaneous action at multiple levels.\u003C/p>\u003Ch2>\u003Cstrong>Three levels, one transformation\u003C/strong>\u003C/h2>\u003Cp>The experience of Live Labs highlights three interconnected levels at which sector transformation can occur. While these levels are described in Doughnut Economics Action Lab's \u003Ca target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https://doughnuteconomics.org/tools/sectors-let-s-get-started\">\u003Cstrong>\u003Cem>Sectors: Let's Get Started\u003C/em>\u003C/strong>\u003C/a> guide, the project provides a practical illustration of how they can reinforce one another.\u003Cbr />\u003C/p>\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>1. Enabling whole-sector transformation\u003C/strong>\u003C/p>\u003Cp>The biggest and most systemic level involves bringing together the actors who shape a sector as a whole. This means creating spaces where stakeholders across value chains, organisations, and levels of government can identify systemic barriers and align around a common direction. In Live Labs, this role was fulfilled by the Highways Doughnut Alliance. By bringing together actors and decision-makers who don’t normally sit in the same room, the Alliance enabled conversations that rarely happen within existing sector structures. The outcome was not simply a list of barriers, but a set of coordinated transformation actions that no single organisation could have identified or implemented alone.\u003Cbr />\u003C/p>\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>2. Shaping organisational strategy and practices\u003C/strong>\u003C/p>\u003Cp>The second level focuses on helping organisations rethink how they operate and define success, moving beyond a narrow focus on time and budget to ask bigger questions about purpose and impact. Within Live Labs, this involved working directly and extensively with county council teams, building their capacity and understanding of Doughnut Economics and its implications for highways planning and management. The Strategic Tool was developed to support this shift: a structured way for authorities and contractors to assess the extent to which their plans, contracts, and long-term ambitions align with social and ecological goals.\u003Cbr />\u003C/p>\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>3. Creating project-level interventions\u003C/strong>\u003C/p>\u003Cp>The most tangible level of transformation focuses on applying the Doughnut model to specific projects and on-the-ground decisions. This is where the Project Tool comes in: a practical assessment process that both internal and external teams can use to evaluate individual roadworks schemes, identify overlooked social and ecological impacts, and make more informed design decisions. Each project receives an overall score across the Doughnut's dimensions, while also enabling teams to explore mitigation measures and alternative approaches to improve performance.\u003C/p>\u003Ch2>\u003Cstrong>What made it work\u003C/strong>\u003C/h2>\u003Cp>The official story of a project rarely tells you what made it work. Harder to capture—and often more useful to share—are the factors that actually moved things forward in practice. Looking back at Live Labs, the ingredients of success were quite different at each level, and knowing that difference matters.\u003Cbr />\u003C/p>\u003Cp>At the project and organisational levels, success was largely about people:\u003C/p>\u003Cp>\u003C/p>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>Internal champions created momentum and helped bring colleagues along.\u003C/p>\u003C/li>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>Curiosity about how highway professionals think and work built trust and ensured the tools reflected the realities of the sector.\u003C/p>\u003C/li>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>Hands-on workshops proved far more effective than guidance documents in turning the Doughnut from an abstract concept into a practical tool.\u003C/p>\u003C/li>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>Translating the framework into the language, priorities and policies of the highways sector also helped stakeholders recognise its relevance.\u003C/p>\u003C/li>\u003C/ul>\u003Cp>\u003C/p>\u003Cp>At the sector level, success depended more on structure:\u003C/p>\u003Cp>\u003C/p>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>Senior support created legitimacy.\u003C/p>\u003C/li>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>Bringing together actors from across the system—local authorities, central government, contractors, suppliers, academia, and community groups—ensured conversations had real breadth and credibility.\u003C/p>\u003C/li>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>Most importantly, the Alliance created a space where participants could speak honestly about systemic barriers, making it possible to move beyond surface-level agreement towards shared action.\u003C/p>\u003C/li>\u003C/ul>\u003Ch2>\u003Cstrong>Lessons learned\u003C/strong>\u003C/h2>\u003Cp>Looking back at the Live Labs project, the most important lessons are less about individual decisions and more about the conditions that shape whether sector transformation can actually take hold.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>One of the clearest is that co-creation needs to happen from the start. In this case, engagement with key actors such as procurement teams, engineers, designers, and suppliers came too late to fully shape the approach. Earlier involvement would have strengthened both ownership and the practical relevance of the work, grounding it more firmly in how decisions are actually made within the sector.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>The project also highlighted the importance of designing for implementation, not just inspiration. \u003Cbr />\u003Cbr />Materials were designed to be accessible and inspiring, but technical audiences often needed something more precise: language that mapped directly onto existing processes and constraints. The experience highlighted the importance of designing for both inspiration and implementation simultaneously, rather than treating them as separate stages.\u003Cbr />\u003C/p>\u003Cp>Credibility also played a decisive role. Working alongside established sector organisations from the outset would have reduced resistance and helped position the work within existing institutional structures. In sectors with strong professional identities, legitimacy is not a secondary consideration—it determines whether new approaches are taken seriously at all.\u003Cbr />\u003C/p>\u003Cp>Taken together, these lessons point to a broader pattern: sector transformation rarely depends on the strength of a framework alone. It depends on whether the right actors are involved early enough, whether the language resonates with how decisions are actually made, and whether the process feels owned by the system it is trying to influence.\u003Cbr />\u003C/p>\u003Cp>Within that context, the role of a sectoral Doughnut becomes clearer. In practice, it helps surface knowledge that already exists within organisations but is often unstructured, implicit, or disconnected. It also provides a shared language across departments that do not usually work together, as well as between local authorities and their contractors. It can also support practical decision-making processes such as project appraisal, strategy alignment, and portfolio review. Its real value lies in structuring thinking and improving the quality of decision-making conversations, not simply in quantifying everything.\u003C/p>\u003Ch2>\u003Cstrong>Lessons for transforming any sector\u003C/strong>\u003C/h2>\u003Cp>Across sectors—whether food, energy, housing, fashion, or others—the same challenges consistently emerge: too many actors with misaligned incentives, a tendency to rush into tools before the underlying thinking has shifted, and too little clarity about which level of transformation is actually being worked on.\u003Cbr />\u003C/p>\u003Cp>Three principles stand out.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>\u003Cbr />The first is to be explicit about the level of change required, recognising that whole-sector, organisational, and project-level transformation each involves different actors, tools, and definitions of success. Confusing these levels often leads to misplaced expectations.\u003Cbr />\u003C/p>\u003Cp>The second is to start wider and earlier, ensuring that those who must ultimately own the change are involved in shaping it from the outset, because co-creation is what makes transformation stick.\u003Cbr />\u003C/p>\u003Cp>Finally, respect the shift in thinking that underpins any framework like the Doughnut: its value lies less in delivering answers than in changing the questions being asked, which requires time, trust, and the right conditions. Doughnut Economics will not measure everything. It won’t produce magic numbers. It is not a lifecycle assessment that compares emissions between projects. It is important to manage expectations from the start—and lead with what it is: a way to think differently and convene diverse actors.\u003Cbr />\u003C/p>\u003Cp>Three years ago, Doughnut Economics was unfamiliar and often difficult for highway professionals to relate to. Today, many of those same stakeholders have become advocates of a more systemic and holistic approach, recognising the value of breaking silos and widening the lens through which decisions are made. That shift—from scepticism to ownership—is what sector transformation looks like from the inside, and why investing in the conditions that enable it matters as much as the tools themselves.\u003C/p>","\u003Cp>This article summarises lessons learned from the Live Labs 2 project, applying Doughtnut Economics to the highways sector in the UK. These lessons form a blueprint for a systemic transformation of any sector. \u003C/p>",[140,141,142,143,144,145,146,147,148],"https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilektra-kouloumpi/","https://www.linkedin.com/company/doughnut-economics-action-lab-deal/","https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristin-strandberg-160801b8/","https://www.linkedin.com/company/circle-economy/","https://www.adeptnet.org.uk/livelabs2","https://circle-economy.com/","https://www.colas.com/en","https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/v2/D4E12AQHC37OlL4KxVQ/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/B4EZ.D0QHtJMAI-/0/1784622941029?e=1786579200&v=beta&t=IoTCBJpACDwST6CBUrQC5VbSbaq-ogxLahlgNp8KyOs","https://doughnuteconomics.org/tools/sectors-let-s-get-started",[],"published","2026-07-28T12:03:21.536Z",false,[154,161,166],{"id":155,"title":156,"type":157,"image":158,"isCE":159,"edit":152,"date":160},"XovR","Circle City Scan Bogotá","report","https://kh-assets.prod.circularity-gap.world/main-image/6P0WdItk-3bK7b9R.jpg",true,"2026-07-28T08:08:11.312Z",{"id":162,"title":163,"type":92,"image":164,"isCE":159,"edit":152,"date":165},"cXSM","Circle Economy’s recommendations for an effective Digital Product Passport for\ntextiles","https://kh-assets.prod.circularity-gap.world/main-image/cPJ-o9HkreWxUTtG.jpg","2026-07-20T10:16:43.725Z",{"id":167,"title":168,"type":92,"image":169,"isCE":159,"edit":152,"date":170},"yGkT","Closing the gap: How the EU can lead a fair and global\ncircular transition","https://kh-assets.prod.circularity-gap.world/main-image/FvVyZrIJX5XJEzAI.jpg","2026-07-20T13:44:56.231Z",{"likeCount":134,"isLiked":152}]