This article appears as part of the Winds of Change newsletter.

Doughnuts, fat-laden and sticky, are not renowned for being good for anyone, let alone the planet. Not unless, it turns out, they are of the type in the 'doughnut' economics framework created by author Kate Raworth.

For those not already aware of the idea, first published in a 2017 book, there is not a lot of sugar-coating on the Raworth doughnut. It's a diagrammatic representation of the ways in which we are overshooting the boundaries of the planet we are dependent on, as well a failing to deliver the basics of health and wellbeing to huge swathes of our societies, and it's enough to raise your blood pressure.

Alarming red strips flash out from it, warning that we are, globally, exceeding boundaries on climate, fertiliser use, ocean acidification. On the inside, pie slices show where societies are at on delivering for people, vary according to country and society.

The most recent paper updating the doughnut was published only last week in Nature.

As ideas go, the doughnut is a big one, allowing the connecting up of social issues with environmental impacts, all in one diagram. Already it has been taken up as a tool and framework by fifty municipal authorities around the world.

One of these, pioneering the approach in the UK, is Glasgow City Council, whose Thriving Glasgow Portrait report, created in conjunction with University of Glasgow, provides, it says, “a shared goal for Glasgow to work towards".

The ambition is grand. A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said: "Glasgow’s commitment to becoming a Thriving City, one where both levels of consumption fall while the city’s economy gives all Glaswegians the chance to thrive, will be delivered through the people and organisations of the city working together to come to a point where we reduce consumption and emissions as new jobs are created and our individual and collective wellbeing improves.

"We worked very closely with the University of Glasgow on the development of the Thriving Glasgow City Portrait, which along with considerations of doughnut economics will be key to the........

© Herald Scotland