MLS Professional Services
TerraZen: An Accidental Doughnut
One of the main ethical principles I live by is to find meaning in everything I do, and everything I engage with. Since discovering Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics a few years ago, I have been able to use this is a lens (or a compass as it’s founder calls it) to guide my ethical principles.
As a Doughnut Economics enthusiast, I wanted to write about my favourite example of the Doughnut in practice. It embodies meaningful work, business, nature, and human connections as well as capturing the spirit of the place (neighbourhood) in which it is embedded.
It contains all the essential ‘ingredients’ that the Doughnut requires, with the only preservative being the Doughnut’s integrity.
The place is a small restaurant called TerraZen in Central Amsterdam, The Netherlands. It is a vegan (Ital) Caribbean/Rastafarian and Japanese food establishment. But before it is a business, it is a vibe, and I am yet to find a better, accidental manifestation of the overall Doughnut concept.
The owners, Tomomi (Japanese), head chef, and Izaba (Caribbean/Rastafarian), a musician both run the business together as a married couple. He speaks her language. She has been a long-time fan of his music. Their four children of different ages are integral to all aspects of their daily lives (i.e. their work and home/family lives are one and the same).
They purchase local, fresh, organic produce from a nearby market for their restaurant, and transport it using their cargo bikes.
The restaurant’s menu along with its location and atmosphere are major selling points for the business, due to the unique cultural mix of the owners, owing to their ethnic backgrounds and heritage. She is Buddhist, a 2,500 year old widely practised and recognised religion with strong human ethical principles. He is Rastafarian, a modern and unofficial religion, with strong connections to the earth, to nature, and huge respect for life itself. Both religions originated out of India. This combination makes for a highly complementary melting pot. It is fusion at its very best. It works. And people love it.
Izaba talks about the “poetry and the symmetry of life”, and I can’t think of a better description that epitomises the breaking down of silos, the synergies and the flows that inform his ethos.
Tomomi and Izaba have managed to achieved a non-replicable business because they chose to prioritise authenticity over profit. Izaba admitted that he broke all the rules of business. He didn’t have a clear strategy, or a plan for that matter. The business evolved organically, out of uncertainty. The Local Authority took a gamble on his idea, allowing him to prioritise feeding and nourishing their customers, in a safe and calm space, rather than proving how he was going to turn a profit.
What they have achieved here aligns so well with the Amsterdam Doughnut, which was adopted by city leaders to transform the image of Amsterdam, seeking balance amongst the needs of the residents, the popularity of tourism and local ecological limits, in order to become a more equitable city.
TerraZen is now a thriving business, kept intentionally small. There is no business growth strategy that can be found in the public domain - it simply doesn’t need to grow. As they say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”
As a Doughnut Economics enthusiast, I wanted to write about my favourite example of the Doughnut in practice. It embodies meaningful work, business, nature, and human connections as well as capturing the spirit of the place (neighbourhood) in which it is embedded.
It contains all the essential ‘ingredients’ that the Doughnut requires, with the only preservative being the Doughnut’s integrity.
The place is a small restaurant called TerraZen in Central Amsterdam, The Netherlands. It is a vegan (Ital) Caribbean/Rastafarian and Japanese food establishment. But before it is a business, it is a vibe, and I am yet to find a better, accidental manifestation of the overall Doughnut concept.
The owners, Tomomi (Japanese), head chef, and Izaba (Caribbean/Rastafarian), a musician both run the business together as a married couple. He speaks her language. She has been a long-time fan of his music. Their four children of different ages are integral to all aspects of their daily lives (i.e. their work and home/family lives are one and the same).
They purchase local, fresh, organic produce from a nearby market for their restaurant, and transport it using their cargo bikes.
The restaurant’s menu along with its location and atmosphere are major selling points for the business, due to the unique cultural mix of the owners, owing to their ethnic backgrounds and heritage. She is Buddhist, a 2,500 year old widely practised and recognised religion with strong human ethical principles. He is Rastafarian, a modern and unofficial religion, with strong connections to the earth, to nature, and huge respect for life itself. Both religions originated out of India. This combination makes for a highly complementary melting pot. It is fusion at its very best. It works. And people love it.
Izaba talks about the “poetry and the symmetry of life”, and I can’t think of a better description that epitomises the breaking down of silos, the synergies and the flows that inform his ethos.
Tomomi and Izaba have managed to achieved a non-replicable business because they chose to prioritise authenticity over profit. Izaba admitted that he broke all the rules of business. He didn’t have a clear strategy, or a plan for that matter. The business evolved organically, out of uncertainty. The Local Authority took a gamble on his idea, allowing him to prioritise feeding and nourishing their customers, in a safe and calm space, rather than proving how he was going to turn a profit.
What they have achieved here aligns so well with the Amsterdam Doughnut, which was adopted by city leaders to transform the image of Amsterdam, seeking balance amongst the needs of the residents, the popularity of tourism and local ecological limits, in order to become a more equitable city.
TerraZen is now a thriving business, kept intentionally small. There is no business growth strategy that can be found in the public domain - it simply doesn’t need to grow. As they say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”
