How do we steer our communities and our planet towards a desirable future? Understanding how to accelerate sustainability pathways towards a good Anthropocene is essential if we are to deal with problems like declining biodiversity, degrading ecosystem services, climate change, rising inequalities and other issues that threaten the prosperity of societies and ecosystems. We suggest that sustainability innovations at the margins of society, which we call “seed initiatives'' hold the potential to change existing trajectories towards desirable futures. Despite evidence of these seed initiatives worldwide, much remains unknown about how they might generate sustainability transformations. What characteristics of seed initiatives make them more likely to scale their impact? How can seed-driven scenarios help us explore transformations to a better world? What are the barriers and enablers of transformative change? and How can the interaction of different seed initiatives augment or restrict just and sustainable transformations? “A change is Gonna Come” is the central theme of this year’s meeting. While we all hope this is true, it is also true that we know little about where this change will come from, how to support it, or how to navigate pathways to a better, and not just a different, future. Ecologists have much to contribute to building this understanding but have engaged relatively seldom in the inter- and trans-disciplinary space of transformations research. Here, we aim to use this unique session format to spark conversation about how ecologists can contribute to our understanding of social-ecological transformations. This Inspire Session features applied work featuring place-based seed initiatives and what we are learning about how they can bring about transformation to a better Anthropocene. Each presenter will explain how focusing on seed initiatives helped them assess transformational dynamics in particular places or for particular systems (i.e. urban systems, food systems, peace and conflict). The discussion will focus on commonalities and differences between cases and bring in insights from the audience. Our session will consist of three parts: First nine 5-minute presentations of different case-studies featuring seed initiatives (~45 min). Second, a 40min discussion between the audience and speakers discussing the cases presented, seeking new cross-comparison insights and further questions to pursue. Insights derived from the discussion will contribute to a greater understanding of various transformational dynamics and the role of seed initiatives in sustainability pathways. Third, the co-organizers will end with a short (5 minute) summary of insights derived from the presentations and discussions.