About this Event
An in-person, drop-in lunchtime lab for the general public exploring systems thinking and a Doughnut for Monterey County.
Summary: Explore the California Doughnut, systems thinking and what a Doughnut might look like for Monterey County.
When
Thursday, October 22, 2026, 12:00–1:00 pm
Where
The Gathering Place, Harrison Memorial Library, Ocean Avenue and Lincoln Street, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA 93921
About the lab
How well do you think California is meeting people’s basic needs? How close are we to the ecological limits that keep those needs within reach? Start with your guess, then compare it to the data.
This lunchtime lab is part of the 2026 Global Donut Days with Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL). We’ll explore the California Doughnut, an interactive model from the California Doughnut Economics Coalition (CalDEC). Based on Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics, it offers a framework for meeting everyone’s needs within the means of the living planet. We’ll pair it with Donella Meadows’ systems thinking, which shows how the parts of a system shape one another over time.
Without local data, we can’t fully make a Doughnut for where we live, but we can imagine one conceptually. Together, we’ll discuss what it might look like for our neighborhoods, districts and Monterey County. You can begin sketching your own and continue working on it after you leave. Over time, it will be interesting to see how our imagined Doughnuts compare with what the data shows.
Civic design is how a community shapes its shared life: its places, services, budgets and decisions. Regenerative civic design goes beyond sustaining what we have or repairing what’s been lost; it asks us to design so the social and ecological systems we depend on grow stronger and more able to renew themselves over time. The Doughnut and systems thinking help us see those systems clearly enough to begin.
The session is casual, conversational and drop-in friendly. Come for all of it or stop in for part of the session. Please RSVP to [email protected] as space is limited.
Event venue & nearby stays
Harrison Memorial Library, Lincoln Street, Carmel-by-the-Sea, United States
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