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After the first Global Tipping Points Conference in 2022, the University of Exeter’s Green Futures Network ran a series of workshops to explore the potential and enthusiasm for applying the growing research into Positive Tipping Points in practice to different contexts, including economics, food systems, activism, climate justice, and business.
The response was clear, the idea of positive tipping points has huge potential for helping those working on systems change to better understand how complex systems can change, and how we can shift our thinking to work towards non-linear change.
Using this model, we can locate ourselves within the work for change, regardless of the scale of our activity The conditions for change can highlight the importance of traditionally ‘uninteresting’ work Fundamentally this is a compelling storytelling tool, and can convey the reality of complex systems without paralysing overwhelm
But there were also risks identified, and a clear need for a careful and considered approach:
A deeper emotional element to the framework is needed, to hold the role of joy, grief, hope etc. How can we make this research more open and inclusive? This work can seem to be in opposition to urgency, which needs to be acknowledged
To find out more, download the summary report for the workshops - Positive Tipping Points in Practice: Resistance and Momentum.
Following these workshops, the Green Futures Network began a slow and intentional process of co-creating an open source Toolkit that could make the ongoing research accessible to a wider community of people already working on meaningful and long-term systems change.
In March 2023, a small group came together to form the Positive Tipping Points Community of Practice. Led by the University of Exeter’s Green Futures Network, the group’s aim was to ‘collaborate to imagine, test and feedback on methods of using the Positive Tipping Points framework.’
Starting in late 2024, the Green Futures Network set up two cohorts with Huddlecraft, an ecosystem of support for peer-led learning and action, with two groups meeting online every two weeks to build an experiential approach to working towards positive tipping points in social and climate action.
On Monday 8 September 2025, over 200 people joined the online launch of this Toolkit.