About CalDoughnut Score

What is this?

CalDoughnut Score is a public tool that scores California legislation against the Doughnut Economics framework. We evaluate every bill across 21 categories of social and ecological well-being, providing transparent, evidence-based assessments of how proposed laws would move California toward or away from the “safe and just space” defined by Doughnut Economics.

Why does this matter?

California falls short on 100% of social indicators and overshoots 89% of ecological boundaries. Yet there's no tool connecting this framework to the legislative process. Politicians and citizens have no easy way to evaluate how proposed bills would address these challenges. CalDoughnut Score fills this gap.

Based on CalDEC's Framework

Our scoring is grounded in the California Doughnut Economics Coalition (CalDEC) 2025 report, which measures California's performance across 42 indicators using data from government agencies, NGOs, and academic research.

The Doughnut Economics framework was created by economist Kate Raworth and is used by cities and regions worldwide to reimagine economic progress beyond GDP.

How it works

  1. Bills are ingested from the California Legislature's public data
  2. AI analysis (grounded in research) scores each bill against relevant doughnut categories
  3. Quantitative impact estimates project how each bill would change California's metrics
  4. Results are presented with full transparency - reasoning, evidence, and confidence levels

Data Sources

Contact

CalDoughnut Score is an independent project. For questions about the CalDEC framework itself, contact the California Doughnut Economics Coalition at alaitz.aritza@caldec.org.