For any questions - including for support on submitting a story - please email us as at juststories@ihrb.org.

JUST Stories is led by the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB), the leading global think tank working to make respect for human rights part of everyday business. The pro

Find out more about IHRB and the team behind this story series.

Are you involved in an innovative and meaningful net-zero partnership? Tell us your story.

We will be asking for key details - including where you are based, what sector your project is in, and a summary of the partnership - in less than 500 words.. The Just Stories team will review all submissions received and follow up with those we think offer the most to learn from. We are deeply grateful for every single submission we receive, however will not be able to feature every submission. If you do not hear back from us within three months of submission, we assure you that your submission has been carefully reviewed and considered. We are seeking therefore to ensure that the initial submission process is simple and quick for those participating, and allowing us to subsequently engage more deeply with those selected as a potential feature story.

Ultimately, we want to select stories that offer the greatest potential to learn from, replicate, and scale. Once we begin the selection process, we will be transparent with our selection criteria, with an emphasis on stories spanning a diversity of potentially affected groups, as well as sectors and geographies.

We are looking for stories of meaningful partnerships between those leading public or private sector net zero transitions and those most impacted – local workers, Indigenous peoples, and local communities on the frontlines of change. We are interested in stories like these from anywhere in the world, in any sector, at any stage of the process.

These initiatives may look very different depending on where they are and what they are trying to achieve.

Take the diminutive town of Libiąż in southern Poland, for instance. Aiming to avoid the impending economic devastation of the closure of the nearby Janina coal mine, municipal leaders, mine managers, trade unions, business leaders and community activists teamed up – with the help of the World Bank’s Just Transition initiative – to find new sustainable vocations for the town's industrious mining community. Thermoplast, ​​a local plastics processing and recycling company, has been one of the beneficiaries, actively recruiting and investing in Libiąż’s former miners as a result.

But we’re looking at transitions across all industries, not only the energy transition. For example, Peru’s national climate plan includes an Amazon Indigenous REDD+ initiative implemented in partnership with local governments, combining indigenous agroforestry techniques with a focus on securing collective land rights for the local indigenous communities. In one case, nearly one million acres in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve in the state of Madre de Dios have been protected by the community – preserving land that is fundamental both for the nation’s carbon budget and the livelihoods of its indigenous community.

Or take the Ugandan government’s response to the growing number of rural displacements resulting from rising climate change disasters and deforestation. The government worked with farmers to develop new pro-poor, long-term and nature-based approaches to improve communities’ economic prospects. Today, the farmers have a choice: they can receive compensation in return for their land titles or they can opt for a two- or three-year transition period, using exposed lands to diversify their sources of income through agroforestry and fishing.

As you can see, we’re looking at the full spectrum net zero-related activities. If you are engaged in this kind of transition, please share your story with us.

If you are still unsure whether your story is suitable or have any questions, please get in touch with the JUST Stories team at juststories@ihrb.org

Absolutely. We accept submissions in any language. If you would like to access the submission form in a different language, it can also be accessed on Google Forms. If your story is selected, we will follow up with further questions and information in your preferred language.

The just transition concept has grassroots origins in activist efforts to align trade union and worker struggles with environmental action and concern for environmental justice (learn more on the concept’s history here).

Ultimately, the concept of just transitions reflects the imperative of properly managing the social impacts (positive and negative) of decarbonisation. This includes approaches that:

• respect peoples’ human rights while also creating decent work and quality jobs, advancing sustainable development, and seeking to eradicate poverty.

• are delivered through meaningful engagement and partnership with those most affected by the disruption and change, in particular workers, indigenous groups, and local communities

• ensures the risks and benefits of decarbonisation are decided fairly and distributed equitably.

• ultimately, averts further climate disaster, while transforming economies and industries to address inequality and exclusion.

The stories we are seeking may be hard to come by. Most of the stories will likely only feature elements of innovation and promising practice, rather than anything resembling holistic or ‘best’ practice. But we believe that transition strategies need to reflect realities: mindsets shift through trial and error and learning from experience.

By sharing honest stories of how meaningful net zero partnerships are being formed, how they work, how agency is being embedded in the process, and how accountability is maintained, we hope to demonstrate that meaningful engagement between those leading public or private sector net zero transitions and those most impacted – local workers, Indigenous peoples, and communities - can lead to the fastest and most effective climate action.

JUST Stories adopts the principles of solutions journalism. IHRB’s reporting will deploy rigorous journalistic methods, ethical principles, and invest considerable time in reporting on the learnings, challenges, and unintended consequences of the net zero transition without political agenda or influence.

To counter a bias towards negative news in mainstream media, solutions journalism focuses reporting not on the problems society faces but, within that context, on the potential solutions. It looks for effective responses to social, economic, and environmental issues, highlighting impactful strategies and their outcomes. By presenting a more holistic view of complex issues, solutions journalism can foster constructive dialogue, inspire action and empower communities to address challenges more effectively.

Net zero transitions involve a significant amount of social, environmental, and economic complexity. There will always be different perspectives on what makes a transition “just”. The JUST Stories Advisory Council provides the JUST Stories team with a diverse group of experts to stress test our approach to identifying and selecting stories, structuring each story to find a balance between the solutions and challenges at hand, as well as disseminating the stories to other local leaders to learn from, replicate, and scale.

In addition to convening the Advisory Council annually, the JUST Stories team reports regularly to the full Advisory Council on our progress for each story’s selection, development, and dissemination, while also seeking individual member’s feedback at key moments depending on their specialist areas of expertise.

Find out more about the Advisory Council.

JUST Stories is funded by the Laudes Foundation.

IHRB is seeking media outlets and journalists around the world to partner on this for JUST Stories series partnerships. We are flexible to arrangements with prospective media partners and are keen to explore everything from providing the finished piece to collaborating with media partners on the reporting.

For information about becoming a JUST Stories media partner and co-publishing a story on the day of its launch, please contact Emma Parrott, Media Manager: emma.parrott@ihrb.org.