Net Zero Precincts:Stage 3: Activating

Abstract

In this report we share details of the Living Lab that was developed to accelerate net zero precinct transitions across domains including energy, mobility, buildings, governance and data and build capability for a new style of collaborative and place-based transition governance. This report presents an overview of the Living Lab’s structure, cycles of engagement, theory of change and the monitoring and evaluation approach that was used to support reflexive learning. The Living Lab grew to 10 teams through a portfolio of experiments that ran over the course of 2024 and 2025. The Transformative Outcomes approach was used to enable experiment leads to re-calibrate their experiments and harness appropriate leverage points to promote learning, networking, navigate expectations, institutional change and actor empowerment. This report shows researchers, policymakers and practitioners how diverse actors can be brought together through a Living Lab using a portfolio-based approach to trial experiments that generate transformative outcomes to drive systems change in precinct settings