How digital and green transitions are changing the way we work

By Dr Jennifer Castañeda-Navarrete

The digital and green transitions are two of the most influential forces reshaping our economies and societies. The digital transition is accelerating the spread of transformative technologies, while the green transition is driving a move towards resource efficiency, lower emissions, and circular economic models. Each has far-reaching implications on its own, but when combined, their impact becomes even more complex and profound.

These transitions are unfolding alongside other global shifts, including demographic change and evolving geopolitical landscapes. Together, they are transforming working life, from the demand for new skills to changes in how workers interact with one another and with technology, as well as introducing new opportunities and risks for labour inclusion. Understanding the implications of these changes is crucial to ensuring a sustainable, just and inclusive future.

As part of the Just Transform project, we have recently published the report and policy brief Shaping inclusive digital and green transitions in working life. These publications provide insights into the policy dimension of these transitions, examining how they are addressed in policy documents in the context of working life.

The approach

The analysis was conducted at the Norwegian, European and global levels, covering nine European and international organisations. We reviewed 107 policy-related documents published between 2014 and 2025.

The documents reviewed included policy reports, briefs and papers, skills assessments, foresight reports, guidelines, strategies, action plans, council recommendations, regulations, declarations and governing body notes, among others.

Key informant interviews and a policy webinar complement these findings, involving a total of 38 participants from European and international organisations, academia and industry.

How are the digital and green transitions changing working life?

Five key themes emerged from the document review on how these transitions are transforming working life:

1. Evolving skills demands. Skills are the most discussed theme. Skills development is shown as a way to give diverse population groups access to the benefits of these transitions while minimising the social costs. However, evidence suggests that the green and digital transitions are outpacing the changes and participation rates in education and training.
2. Labour shifts across sectors, including job displacement and creation. Early discussions about the digital transition and job automation sounded alarms about widespread job displacement. However, recent debates have shifted towards skills development and the growing polarisation of the labour market, where high-skilled workers tend to benefit the most and low/medium-skilled workers bear the brunt of the negative impacts. By contrast, labour shifts associated with the green transition are expected to be smaller in scale and more localised. There is also an emerging view that the growth of green mid-skill jobs could help to offset some of the decline in mid-skill occupations resulting from the digital transition.
3. Reconfiguring the workplace and work relationships. The debate about this topic centres on the changes in the workplace, work patterns and work relations driven by the digital transition. Opportunities arising from these new configurations include work flexibility and autonomy, reduced entry barriers, flatter organisational structures and e-activism. Risks are also acknowledged, including precarious work conditions, increased work intensity and stress, digitally enabled surveillance, data extraction, deepening power asymmetries, and undermining the role of social dialogue actors.
4. New risks and opportunities in occupational health and safety. As the workplace evolves, workers are increasingly exposed to new machines, equipment and materials. In the context of the twin transitions, the discussion focuses on the potential of digital technologies to reduce workers’ exposure to hazardous substances and physical workloads in green jobs. However, the combined physical and psychosocial impacts of these transitions may affect workers, including increased cognitive workload and exposure to new materials and processes.
5. Inclusion and exclusion dynamics. Overall, the discussion about inclusion in the digital transition primarily emphasises workplace accessibility and removing barriers to employment, whereas the green transition adopts a broader perspective, addressing social justice and regional impacts. However, similar job polarisation is expected from both transitions, with higher-skilled workers benefiting most from both transitions and low- and medium-skilled workers facing the negative impacts.

Moving forward: opportunities for inclusive and sustainable working lives

Six key opportunity areas have been identified to strengthen existing policy approaches in response to the evolving challenges in working life arising from the digital and green transitions and their interaction:

1. Skills vs structural barriers. Skills are a central theme in discussions about the digital and green transitions, and their interactions, often seen as tools for inclusion and mitigating negative impacts. However, overemphasising skills risks neglecting the structural barriers that sustain inequalities, including marginalisation of under-represented groups in labour markets and policy-making processes.
2. Preventing inequalities vs transforming societies and economies. The prevailing discourse focuses on upskilling, reskilling and implementing social protection measures to mitigate inequalities. However, a more ambitious and forward-looking approach could position these transitions as catalysts for societal and economic transformation.
3. Business as usual vs creating new economic models. Current discussions mostly emphasise supporting workers and businesses in adapting to and leveraging the opportunities created by these transitions, with insufficient focus on how the existing economic model perpetuates climate change and social inequalities. In contrast, alternative approaches may include reshaping business incentive structures and creating new economic models.
4. Just transitions vs global justice and solidarity. Justice and inclusion are frequently framed within the context of national or regional boundaries, neglecting the broader global dimensions of inclusion and social justice. In contrast, a global justice and solidarity perspective underscores the unequal distribution of the costs and benefits of these transitions, particularly the disproportionate burden on developing countries.
5. Controlled futures vs navigating uncertainty. The prevailing discourse focuses on expert-led risk assessment and impact prediction as a way to address the knowledge gaps on the digital and green transitions and their effects. The importance of this work in preventing risks is undeniable, particularly in the context of occupational health and safety, but where lives are at stake it is equally crucial to acknowledge the limitations of our understanding. In comparison, navigating uncertainty requires flexible, adaptive systems rooted in local action, co-produced knowledge, and commitments to solidarity and care.
6. Twin transitions vs a systemic understanding. The term “twin transitions” is often used technocratically, emphasising digital facilitation of the green transition, while overlooking their distinct characteristics and heterogeneous impacts. A more nuanced approach would consider the differences between these transitions, and their interplay with context-specific characteristics and other socio-economic transformations, such as demographic shifts and increasing inequality.

As the digital and green transitions continue to unfold, they are reshaping working life and the relationship between technology, sustainability, and inclusion. The findings of this policy review highlight both the promise and the pitfalls of current policy approaches, calling for a shift from narrowly framed solutions towards more systemic, forward-looking strategies.

Watch the recording of the webinar Shaping inclusive digital and green transitions: a policy review here. This session shed light on the evolving roles of skills, workplace reconfiguration, and social inclusion in the context of the green and digital transitions.

Download the report