Section 2: Mapping the systems you want to change

In this exercise, you will use a transitions theory called the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) to understand how change happens in a socio-technical system – e.g. an energy, health, food or water system – and identify opportunities to influence these dynamics through your investment strategies. Part 1 helps you to create a theory of change for … from Tool: Multi-level theory of change (Investor version)

An immersive and playful online board game to strengthen your understanding of socio-technical systems and how to enable change in a local system. … from Tool: Systemic Change game

This tutorial video, narrated by researcher Andrea Padilla Cuevas, shows how to play the Systemic Change game, including explanations of the cards, winning and losing states and an example of the first round.   … from Tutorial video for the Systemic Change online board game

This step-by-step guide sets out how to play the Systemic Change online game, addressing learning goals, components, how to play, rules and reflections.   … from Information sheet for the Systemic Change game

This tool is designed to help you visualise a system that you are seeking to effect change in through your investment portfolio. As you complete the exercise, you will build a picture of the ingredients in a system that maintain its stability and functionality over time – and consider the niches (alternative practices) that might … from Tool: Pentagonal map for system analysis (Investor version)

In an executive course on sustainable finance, Professor Manuel Laranja used the pentagonal map tool to introduce participants to a systems perspective and to surface the need to change how the finance system funds sustainability projects.  Professor Laranja facilitates an executive course in sustainable finance at ISEG – Institute of Economics and Management, which includes a … from Applying the pentagonal map in a finance context

Systems optimisation can generate short-term positive effects. However, in the long run it may inhibit scaling, by preserving the unsustainable configuration of a dominant regime, and reinforcing the underlying rules. So how do we know if well-intended interventions are optimising or challenging a system? This is a simple tool to help you unpack your own … from Tool: Systems optimisation vs change

The systems map explores the current reality of the Investment System with a focus on Transformative Investment. It represents visually the interconnectedness and relationships within the system and the feedback mechanisms that shape the system’s behaviour. The purpose of the map is to illustrate the key dynamics driving the behaviour of the system and which … from Transformative investment systems map

This interactive Miro board tool will help you understand how change happens in a system, help you identify what you want to change and what direction to go in to nourish that change.   … from Tool: how to change a system

If we understand the Deep Transitions concept of rules that underpin our unsustainable systems, we can target these through investments and work towards building a sustainable future. Here, you will learn what a rule is and how the concept is useful to your practice and strategies. Our current socio-technical systems (such as energy, food, and … from Tool: Understanding rules and their application for investors

In this short document, discover how the DT Lab team maps system rules. You’ll learn about a workshop we conducted on rule mapping as part of a larger experiment with CO_Systemic. This experiment was focused on systems change and transition thinking in the Baja California region. We aimed to help them unlock deeper potential for … from How we map system rules

Researchers observe that change happens through surges of development. Resources, technologies, policies, and ideologies form the core of each surge, and the direction each surge takes is altered by our society. The Deep Transitions Lab aims to unmake and remake the rules driving today’s unsustainable systems. These rules have been built up through surges. This … from Tool: Surges of development

Digital technologies are increasingly framed as important tools to address grand challenges such as climate change. While there is an increasing body of research on the role of digitalisation in unfolding sustainability transitions, it has been recognised that there is a lack of longer-term historical analysis of the evolution of digitalisation in the transitions field. … from Deep transitions and the evolution of the digital meta-regime

There is an expected acceleration of some mining activities to supply the materials underpinning renewable and digital transitions. In this context, the question of what a sustainable mining system might look like is increasingly discussed. We outline a rules-based perspective from the Deep Transitions Lab focused on assessing socio-technical system change in mining. Based on … from Towards system change in mining? Rule maps for discussing sustainable futures

Sustainability transitions research recognises that transforming energy, mobility, food, and other systems requires going beyond incremental, surface-level fixes to address the deeper drivers of system change. Yet these deeper drivers have not been systematically identified.In this paper, the authors argue that the Deep Transitions (DT) concept of rules provides a useful starting point. Rules are … from Identifying the deep drivers of system change: A rule-based approach to socio-technical system mapping