Transition is not a
one size fits all approach.

A Place-Based Just Transition begins with a simple but critical question.

Who carries the cost of transition, and who decides how it happens?

Just Transition is often discussed as a global policy idea related to climate targets, energy shifts, or green investments. But for workers and communities, transition is experienced differently. It appears in changes to income, working conditions, access to resources, and dignity.

Across most value chains, the most significant risks are concentrated at the last tier — informal workers, MSMEs, vendors, and marginalised communities. These are the groups that are severely impacted by environmental damage, have vulnerable livelihoods, and experience the most disruptive transitions in the value chain.

Where Risk Concentrates

Global Goals & Policies

Climate goals, international frameworks

Industries & Value Chains

Corporate strategies, market forces

Suppliers & MSMEs

Small businesses, local enterprises

Last Tier: Informal Workers, Vendors & Marginalised Communities

Most vulnerable, least visible

Concentrated Risk & Vulnerable Livelihoods

Environmental damage, income loss, insecure work, displacement

Risks concentrate at the last tier of the value chain.

PBJT emphasizes the central role of these actors in sustainability.

How PBJT Works

Listen & Understand

Engage with workers, MSMEs, vendors, and communities to understand lived realities, needs, and aspirations.

Map & Assess

Map local ecological, economic, and social contexts. Identify vulnerabilities, risks, and existing strengths.

Participate & Include

Ensure meaningful participation of workers, informal labour, MSMEs, women, youth, and marginalised groups in decision-making.

Co-Design Solutions

Co-create locally relevant strategies that balance environmental goals with livelihoods, dignity, and equity.

Act & Support

Strengthen capacities, mobilise resources, and support just transition actions on the ground.

Monitor, Learn & Adapt

Track impacts together, learn continuously, and adapt for long-term resilience.

Continuous learning, feedback and adaptation

Place-Based Just Transition (PBJT) is an approach to sustainability that starts from the ground up.

PBJT recognises that environmental change and economic transition are not abstract ideas, they are lived every day in villages, neighbourhoods, worksites, and local production clusters.

PBJT focuses on how workers, MSMEs, vendors, informal labour, and communities experience climate action, sustainability policies, and business practices at the last tiers of the value chain. These are the places where risk concentrates and visibility is lowest.

A transition can only be called “green” when it also protects people. As workers often remind us, environmental improvements must go hand in hand with fair wages, safety, dignity, and secure livelihoods.

PBJT ensures that the shift to greener economies:

  • Protects both people and the planet
  • Strengthens local livelihoods rather than displacing them
  • Makes businesses accountable to the places they operate in
  • Builds resilient and responsible local economic ecosystems