Page Contents

Introduction

“If you were to visit the ‘wildland next door’ – the healthiest natural habitat in your area – then you would see how nature has learned to survive, thrive and be generous. Nature cleans and cools the air, stores carbon, cycles water, builds nutrient-rich soil, harvests the sun’s energy, and welcomes wildlife. What if every place aimed to match or exceed the ecological generosity of its wildland next door? What would it mean for the design of the places where we live?”

—Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL), Doughnut Unrolled – Introducing the four lenses, pg. 19

How can our neighbourhood be as generous as the wildland next door? This is the question that the local-ecological lens poses to us, inviting focus on the ways that nature provides us with services and how we can protect and enhance it in return. Nature has created a balanced ecology through a sequence of services: a renewable water cycle, air purification, waste decomposition, carbon sequestration, renewable energy generation, and many others. Human activities, such as air and water pollution, excessive carbon dioxide emissions, soil degradation, and waste accumulation disrupt natural ecological systems and their balance. This, in turn, exceeds the planetary boundaries within which humanity can thrive.

In this lens, we examine natural services at the local level, and the collective benefits they provide. We provide a snapshot of each of these natural services at the neighbourhood or city level, and suggest ways in which our neighbourhood can protect, enhance, and mimic nature to help local people and the environment thrive.

Further Context by Lead Researcher Irena Bauman


Methodology

The Neighbourhood Doughnut local-ecological lens methodology was largely based on Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL)’s Doughnut Unrolled Tools (2022) and was structured in 4 stages: