A number of the Path team recently attended the annual summit hosted by EQ Investors, a key part of our investment methodology. It was encouraging to see more than 300 financial advisers gathered to hear from a range of speakers, including those managing money for charities and leading academics working on climate change.

When we established Path, one of our ambitions was to influence more financial planners to adopt a positive impact mindset. We were among the first UK advisers to put impactful, ethical investment at the heart of everything we did. At the time, this was seen as a bold and commercially risky idea. EQ was similarly pioneering, with an authentic and thoughtful approach to investment management, albeit initially with a relatively small audience.

Fast forward several years and the picture is changing. EQ now hosts a vibrant gathering of advisers from across the country, with attendance around twice the size of the previous year. More importantly, we are seeing growing interest from advisers who are beginning to question the traditional approach to investing and consider making the transition themselves. Path is proud to have become an established voice in this movement, and increasingly, other advisers are seeking our guidance as they explore more sustainable investment mandates.

Our vision has always been bigger than simply offering clients an ethical option. We want to turn the traditional model on its head. Rather than ethical considerations being an unusual request that clients have to make, perhaps by ticking a box before being placed into a special investment strategy, we believe responsible investment should be the starting point.

We are moving up the adoption curve. There is now a significant minority of advisers who are increasingly knowledgeable and engaged in this space, and that is genuinely rewarding to see. We are grateful to our staff and clients who have helped us innovate along the way. Despite the headwinds of recent years, there is real energy, momentum and demand for a better way of investing.

With this in mind, the closing keynote at the summit was particularly inspiring. Dr Steve Smith from the University of Exeter spoke about positive tipping points. We spend a lot of time worrying about dangerous climate tipping points and the prospect of environmental systems reaching dangerous thresholds. But there are positive tipping points too, and these can cascade from one sector to another. His argument is that transformative change happens when several forces come together: technological innovation, economic viability, supportive government policy, investment, infrastructure and changing social attitudes. When these reinforce one another, adoption accelerates, costs fall and what was once considered an alternative becomes mainstream. One tipping point can then trigger another, creating a cascade of change across the wider economy. Think about electric vehicles. As batteries improve and manufacturing scales up, prices become more competitive. At some point the running costs start to speak for themselves: Charging an EV at home on a suitable off-peak tariff can cost substantially less than buying petrol, although the saving depends on the vehicle, tariff and charging arrangements. As more people switch, charging infrastructure expands and investment in battery storage grows. Battery storage can help balance supply and demand on the grid, supporting greater use of renewable power. Improvements in technology and increased deployment can help reduce costs over time, although progress and cost reductions are not guaranteed.

Each development can make the next more attractive, potentially supporting further progress in areas such as smart grids and heat pumps. That is what a positive tipping cascade looks like in practice.

Steve’s message was that these transitions don’t happen by accident. They need the right forces to come together, and consumer demand, finance and economics are among them. This is where we, and you, dear client, come in. The investment decisions we make collectively help direct capital, influence businesses and support the development of the solutions we need.

Heading into the gloomy winter months, I left the EQ summit with a real bounce in my stride and a brighter sense of possibility. There is still an enormous amount to do, but perhaps the most encouraging thought is that positive change, once it reaches a tipping point, can accelerate much faster than we expect.