Why Job Creation Alone Does Not Guarantee Inclusive Sustainability
By Amb. Canon Otto
Convener, Global Sustainability Summit
Contributor, SustainabilityUnscripted
“Green jobs” have become one of the most celebrated promises of the sustainability transition. From renewable energy and recycling to electric mobility and climate-smart agriculture, we are told that the future will be cleaner—and that it will employ millions.
This is, in part, true.
But it is also incomplete.
Because jobs alone do not guarantee justice. And without justice, sustainability risks becoming another chapter in unequal development—this time painted green.
At SustainabilityUnscripted, we believe it is time to ask a more difficult question:
Who benefits from the green economy—and who is being asked to carry its costs?
The Comforting Story of Green Jobs
The narrative is simple and appealing: invest in clean technologies, create employment, grow the economy, save the planet. It is a story that works well in policy speeches, investment decks, and corporate sustainability reports.
Yet history teaches us something important: job creation does not automatically produce fair outcomes.
Industries can grow while wages stagnate.
Sectors can expand while communities remain excluded.
Transitions can accelerate while inequalities deepen.
The green economy is not immune to these risks. In fact, without deliberate design, it may reproduce many of the same structural injustices that defined the fossil-fuel era—just with cleaner branding.
When “Green” Work Is Still Precarious
Across many regions, a significant share of so-called green jobs are:
- Informal or insecure
- Low-paid and low-protection
- Concentrated in hazardous or physically demanding work
- Disconnected from long-term career pathways
Waste picking, e-waste dismantling, low-end recycling, and extractive supply chains for “green” minerals often sit at the bottom of the value ladder—despite being essential to the system.
At CleanCyclers, we see this tension clearly. Circular economy systems depend on labour, logistics, and infrastructure. But unless value chains are designed intentionally, the people doing the hardest and riskiest work remain the least rewarded.
A job that sustains the planet but does not sustain a family is not a just transition.
Justice Is Not a Side Benefit. It Is the Point.
As Convener of the Global Sustainability Summit, I have observed a recurring pattern: justice is often treated as a co-benefit rather than a core objective.
We count jobs created.
We rarely ask:
- Are these jobs safe?
- Are they fairly paid?
- Do they offer dignity and progression?
- Do they include women, youth, and marginalised communities?
- Do they strengthen local economies—or extract value from them?
Through SustainabilityUnscripted, we have argued consistently that a transition that leaves large parts of society behind is not a success—it is a risk.
Social fracture is not a side issue. It is a systemic vulnerability.
The Geography of Opportunity—and Exclusion
Another uncomfortable truth is that green opportunities are not distributed evenly.
High-value jobs in design, finance, engineering, and technology are often concentrated in major cities and wealthier countries. Meanwhile, lower-value, higher-risk work is pushed to poorer regions and informal economies.
This creates a familiar global pattern:
- Value is captured in boardrooms and headquarters
- Risk is absorbed in communities and peripheries
- Sustainability looks successful on balance sheets
- But feels very different on the ground
If the green economy simply rearranges who does the hard work and who captures the reward, we have changed the technology—but not the system.
What CleanCyclers Teaches About System Design
At CleanCyclers, we work where sustainability becomes tangible: materials, waste, infrastructure, and circular systems. And one lesson is clear: outcomes are shaped by design choices.
If you design circular systems only for efficiency, you may still get exploitation.
If you design them only for cost reduction, you may still get inequality.
If you design them for speed alone, you may still get exclusion.
But if you design them for:
- Local value creation
- Skills development
- Safe and dignified work
- Fair distribution of economic returns
…then sustainability becomes not just greener—but fairer.
Justice does not emerge accidentally. It is engineered into systems.
From “Just Transition” as a Slogan to a Practice
The phrase “just transition” is now widely used. But too often, it remains aspirational rather than operational.
A just transition means:
- Workers in old industries are not discarded
- Communities are not economically hollowed out
- New sectors are accessible, not gated
- Public investment delivers public value
- And growth does not come at the expense of dignity
It also means recognising that speed without inclusion creates backlash, and backlash can stall the entire sustainability agenda.
The Real Measure of Success
The success of the green economy will not be measured only in:
- Megawatts installed
- Tonnes recycled
- Emissions reduced
- Or jobs created
It will be measured in:
- Who has opportunity—and who does not
- Who gains security—and who remains precarious
- Who participates in shaping the future—and who is merely subjected to it
Through CanonOtto’s work at the Global Sustainability Summit and the critical lens of SustainabilityUnscripted, one conclusion is becoming unavoidable:
A transition that is not socially credible will not be politically durable.
The Question We Must Now Answer
The question is no longer whether the green economy will create jobs. It will.
The real question is:
Will it create fairness, dignity, and shared prosperity—or simply a greener version of the same inequalities?
At CleanCyclers, we believe the answer depends on how boldly we are willing to redesign systems—not just technologies.
Because sustainability without justice is not a transition.
It is a rebranding.
