Professor Len Middleton Leads MAP Teams Driving the Global Tipping Points Program Toward Net Zero Solutions

Central to COP30 in Brazil this month is the concept of global tipping points, outlined by the Global Tipping Points program. Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP) teams from Ross and the Erb Institute have helped shape the Global Tipping Points program for the past three years, contributing significant research, analysis, and strategic recommendations on how to achieve net zero goals.

With Global Tipping Points, “we’re marching towards a very pragmatic way for companies to look at their net zero goals and achieve them. That hasn’t been done before,” says Len Middleton, teaching professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Ross, who oversees the MAP teams that have contributed to Global Tipping Points.

“ESG was a great starter, but when you peel back on the ‘E’ part of ESG,” more was needed, Middleton says. “What we’re building is a model that the companies can adopt and then start to figure out how to get in front of their net zero goals”—not just try to catch up.

“There has never been a more important moment to connect science, business, and policy in pursuit of sustainable prosperity,” says Dr. Charlene Zietsma, Faculty Director of the Erb Institute. “The collaborative work these MAP teams have contributed to the Global Tipping Points program demonstrates the real power of multidisciplinary action at this crucial time.”

Middleton has guided many MAP teams over the years, often supported by the Erb Institute, including the first team to develop a business plan for the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) in 2002, which supported CDP’s global expansion. MAP teams also helped develop strategic growth plans for the Rainforest Foundation, founded by Sting and spouse Trudie Styler. The Global Tipping Points projects build on this legacy.

These projects put Ross students, including many Erb students, at the forefront of global solutions. Their collaboration with researchers at the University of Exeter to advance the Global Tipping Points program represents some of the most innovative thinking on how the world can transition to net zero, Middleton says. 

The Global Tipping Points Report 2025 Summary explains that ecosystems are approaching dangerous thresholds, but at the same time, there’s immense potential in positive tipping points: shifts that can drive change at unprecedented speed and scale. “Brazil’s vision for COP30 is to transform the narrative of tipping points from fear to hope,” according to the report. “We must prevent irreversible harm but equally trigger positive tipping points that can propel societies towards low-carbon, resilient development and inclusive prosperity.”

The COP30 Action Agenda aims to mobilize actors and resources from forests and food systems to energy, cities, finance, and technology to collaborate in triggering positive tipping points.

Middleton says a current ExecMAP team has been building out the business entity for Global Tipping Points, with a funding model to make it a sustainable company that will offer research, products, and services. “We built the business case, and we married it with the science case,” he says.

MAP teams have also contributed sector analysis, Middleton says. “It’s the baseline thinking that makes all this come alive, this data—it's our teams working on these issues of helping to design the plans, the programs, the metrics.”

And this work has included decades of Erb students. “I go back to my early Erb students to talk to my current students. I love how this has come full circle,” says Middleton, pointing to the example of Caroline Conway, MBA/MS 2008, who worked on a project for CDP and joined the organization, and then led sustainability for several major corporations. 

“I always have her talk with my teams because of her knowledge,” Middleton says. Now Conway and other Erb alums from MAP teams “are helping my current students. And you know what? They’re learning, too.”

“By working hand in hand with leading researchers and organizations, our students are bringing global attention to sustainability issues and helping companies move beyond simple ESG checkboxes towards actionable net zero pathways, shaping solutions that can trigger positive tipping points for people and the planet,” says Zietsma. 

For the students involved, Middleton says, “It changes them. It shows them a higher bar of what’s possible and how they can make a difference for our planet.”