In response to this limited guidance in the net zero governance landscape, Oxford Net Zero Research Fellows Dr. Matilda Becker, Alexis McGivern and Kaya Axelsson assembled a Youth Advisory Board, made up of twelve brilliant and talented young professionals from eleven different countries. Together, they assessed existing guidance offered to corporates, and reflected on their own lived experience to co-create these guiding principles. Their vision aims to go beyond simply avoiding corporate harm, and instead to reshape corporate climate action in ways that heal historical injustices and build regenerative relationships between businesses, communities, workers and nature. 

This Enterprise Brief outlines a clear, seven-step roadmap to help companies put the just transition at the heart of their net zero strategies. The just transition is both a process and an outcome. This guide focuses on the process of a just transition, and the ways to identify and integrate affected communities into transition planning. 

A just transition is both a strategic business imperative and an ethical commitment to climate action beyond the ‘carbon tunnel vision’. By pursuing a just transition, companies can ensure that their climate action supports, rather than sidelines, the people and communities most affected by our climate transition. This includes workers, supply chain communities, SMEs, vulnerable groups and more. The risks of failing to integrate justice and equity into climate transition plans are clear: rising social resistance, growing reputational harm, lost business opportunities, and legal exposure. On the other hand, the opportunities of a just transition are just as compelling: building trust and support with supply chain communities through shared prosperity, preparing your workforce for change by driving innovation and resilience, aligning with investor expectations and disclosure requirements, and demonstrating credibility and leadership in climate action.