The world faces twin challenges: delivering a decent standard of living for everyone, whilst living within our environmental limits. These two interwoven concerns are depicted by Oxfam's Doughnut Model. It allows people to visualise a space between planetary boundaries (the outer edge of the Doughnut) and a social floor (the inner edge), where it is environmentally and socially safe, but also just for humanity to exist. It is where we must aim to reach.

Building on previous work undertaken by the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Oxfam's Kate Raworth, the Scottish Doughnut suggests areas of life, or domains, which might constitute a social foundation, below which no one in Scotland should fall. It also begins the process of identifying which planetary boundaries might be useful for incorporation into a national Scottish analysis.

The paper then provides a snap shot of Scotland's current situation by assessing performance against these suggested domains and indicators.