

Innovation Greets Sustainability: RTU x Global Donut Days
Join us for a two-day immersion into the Doughnut!
Doughnut? Yes! Welcome to an introductory course on a sustainability framework that is more accessible, comprehensive, and practical: the Doughnut* of social and planetary boundaries. During the course, we will closely examine practical ways to approach sustainability, integrating tools and methods based on the Doughnut. Social innovation plays a crucial role in delivering the Sustainable Development Agenda. Thus, we will train socially innovative mindsets by envisioning the future of our campuses as innovation districts.
Register until October 9!
WHY SHOULD I ATTEND?
✅ Learn from international speakers who already apply the Doughnut model and tools in their teaching, decision-making, and sustainability benchmarking.
✅ Meet other like-minded people from your community & practice a sustainable innovation mindset together.
✅ Receive a free RTU-approved certificate of attendance, indicating 10 academic hours of training.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
➡️ Sustainability is not a trend; it’s an emerging foundational norm.
➡️ Sustainability is complex and multilayered, which can make it hard to understand and communicate.
➡️ “Sustainability” can be abstract, which can make it impractical and distant.
HOW DOES THIS COURSE ADDRESS IT?
☑️ The Doughnut model offers a comprehensive overview, a compass for the 21st-century mindset.
☑️ The Doughnut Economics Action Lab provides a wide range of practical tools for various sectors and a global network of practitioners.
☑️ Social innovation leads the solutions for the sustainability challenges we aim to tackle.
PROGRAM
All times indicated are in EEST (Eastern European Summer Time)
October 15 | Focus: the Doughnut
10-11:30 ✏️ Sustainability: Introduction to the Doughnut Model & Riga City Sustainability Portrait, Based on the Doughnut 🗣️ Liene Sebre | Zaļā Brīvība (Latvia), CEE Bankwatch Network
13-14 ✏️ Governance & Strategy: Doughnut as a Decision-making Compass: Step-by-step 🗣️ Maël Jambou | Sustainability Officer, University of Technology of Troyes (France)
15-16:30 ✏️ Education: Integrating Doughnut in Higher Education & Mobilising Student-led Campaigns 🗣️Jemma Luck | Climate Campaigns Lead, Rethinking Economics (global) // Jacob Rask | Lecturer, Roskilde University (Denmark)
October 16 | Focus: Social Innovations
10-12 ✏️ Innovations: Why We Need It & How to Evaluate Social in Innovation 🗣️ Anete Urka | Social Innovation Competence Centre (Latvia)
14-16 ✏️ Solutions: Campus as an Innovation District: Designing Future Scenarios into the Doughnut 🗣️ Paula Cukura | Project Manager, Riga Technical University (Latvia) // Andra Marta Babre | Researcher, Riga Technical University (Latvia)
19+ 🍭 Happy Hours: Informal networking with like-minded people 📍 TBA
HOW TO APPLY & RECEIVE CERTIFICATION
Register here until October 9!
To receive a certificate of attendance for 10 academic hours, participants must attend the full program, actively take part in Zoom surveys and session discussions, and complete the feedback survey.
Alternatively, participants may complete the training by watching the video recordings (available until October 30), submitting the feedback survey, and passing a short test. This option provides a certificate for 8 academic hours (final session excluded).
Have you registered already? Do it here by October 9!
More info: Paula Cukura, Project Lead, [email protected]
About Global Donut Days: https://doughnuteconomics.org/gdd2025
*Doughnut model is based on the UN SDGs’ social goals and climate science. It was developed by a British economist, Kate Raworth, at Oxford. It is based on her groundbreaking book “Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist”. Inspired by this new compass for the 21st century, Doughnut Economics Action Lab – DEAL – has been growing as a global movement since 2020, offering applied research, counselling, grassroots initiatives, methodological development and breaking the silos between governments, businesses, academia and communities.
🇪🇺 The event is organised as part of the RESIST – Regional Ecosystems for Social Innovation and Social Transformation – project. The RESIST project is co-financed by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund) under the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme. More info: https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/resist/