Overview
The Positive Tipping Points Toolkit is an online, open-access resource hosted on Notion that supports analysis of systemic change. Its purpose is to help users understand how small, well-timed interventions can trigger self-reinforcing positive change. Finance professionals may find it relevant for contextualising long-term environmental and social transitions that influence risk, resilience and investment outcomes.
Organisation behind the tool
The toolkit is curated by the Green Futures Network at the University of Exeter. It draws on contributions from systems change practitioners and researchers and is presented as a collaborative, evolving resource rather than a proprietary product.
What the tool does
The tool provides structured guidance on identifying and applying positive tipping points in complex systems. Key elements include:
- Explanations of positive tipping points and related systems concepts.
- Frameworks for identifying leverage points within social, environmental and economic systems.
- Practical exercises and prompts to support analysis, planning and reflection.
- Case examples illustrating how tipping points have operated in real-world contexts.
- Curated references and links to further reading and related resources.
- Content is primarily qualitative and explanatory. Users can read, navigate between modules and apply frameworks, but the tool does not provide datasets, quantitative models or downloadable financial data.
Target audience
The primary audience includes systems change practitioners, community organisations, researchers and policy professionals. Secondary audiences include educators, sustainability specialists and professionals seeking conceptual tools to understand large-scale transitions, including those working in finance or related advisory roles.
Relevance to finance professionals
While not a financial analytics platform, the toolkit can support strategic and contextual analysis in finance:
- Risk assessment – supports understanding of systemic risk, non-linear change and cascading impacts relevant to climate, social and transition risks.
- ESG analysis – provides conceptual framing for social and environmental change dynamics that underpin ESG narratives and qualitative disclosures.
- Market and sector context – helps interpret structural shifts affecting sectors such as energy, agriculture, infrastructure and land use.
- Investment context – informs long-term thinking on transition pathways, behavioural change and conditions under which sustainable practices may scale rapidly.
The tool is best suited as a qualitative reference to complement, rather than replace, quantitative financial analysis.
