In this essential and clarifying solo episode of Straight Talking Sustainability, host Emma Burlow demystifies one of sustainability's most intimidating concepts (system change) by walking listeners through a practical framework from Nigel Topping's Race to Zero TED Talk that has been stuck on her office wall for years.

With three simple visual rules (ambition loops, exponential goals, and shared action pathways), Emma transforms system change from an abstract scary concept into actionable strategy that helps businesses set appropriate ambition levels, plan for technological disruption properly, and avoid the painful trap of plowing their furrow solo whilst competitors and supply chains speed ahead together.

The episode centres on a poster featuring three rules for system change that Emma uses when training boards and senior teams to get them out of the weeds, out of rabbit holes, and looking at the bigger picture.

The framework originated from Nigel Topping's TED Talk and consists of three graphics: a Möbius loop representing ambition loops, an upward arrow representing exponential goals (ironically resembling a climate change graph), and three splitting arrows representing shared action pathways. Emma walks through each rule systematically, explaining not just what they mean but how businesses can apply them practically.

Rule One: Harness Ambition Loops are self-reinforcing cycles (like climate feedback loops) that push everyone to move faster when industry, policy, investors, and consumers all rise to the same ambition level.

The Holy Grail of system change occurs when things align like planets: policymakers set clear direction that levels the playing field, the private sector gets on board rather than working in totally different directions, policy incentivises innovation which brings costs down, solutions scale as investors pile in because risk has dropped, cheaper solutions enable consumer adoption, and the loop continues with rising ambition levels.

Emma contrasts this with the experience of disruptive startups (having worked with Revolution Zero for four years plus numerous innovative startups), where it feels like literally pushing water uphill when you are not in an ambition loop.

The critical insight is understanding your landscape: knowing policy changes coming up, aligning with them, working out where your customer sits in the loop (are they even aware of the loop?), and recognising that timing is everything. Many products and businesses fail not because the idea was poor but because timing was wrong (the customer was not aligned, the policy was not aligned).

The EV example illustrates ambition loops perfectly. EVs bumbled along at low adoption for 20 years (Nissan Leaf, Prius) with no policy in place. Once policy was established, EV manufacturers invested rapidly, and the sector moved towards policy targets for adoption.

When the UK government pulled back on EV timelines, the car industry created a "hoo-ha" saying "hang on a minute, you can't pull back now, we've put all this money in." This demonstrated how critical aligned ambition is; breaking the loop after investments have been made creates chaos and represents nearsighted policymaking that undermines the system.

Rule Two: Set Exponential Goals addresses Emma's favourite mistake: picking a net zero date then setting linear goals (reducing emissions by 10% or 15% annually) without understanding how industrial revolutions actually work.

All technology disruption follows an S-curve: slow adverse adoption, then increasing, then doubling until market adoption is reached. This pattern applies to mobile phones, the internet, solar power, AI, and every major technological disruption. We are currently seeing this with solar, electric batteries, and renewable energy globally.

Emma emphasises that setting...