No sustainability without justice

“Of course ecological boundaries matter,” says Hans van Meijl, senior economist at Wageningen Social & Economic Research. “If we continue to increase greenhouse gas emissions, we will inevitably overshoot the Earth’s limits.” Yet, Van Meijl adds, meeting basic human needs is a prerequisite for caring about those boundaries. “If people are hungry, living in deep poverty, or suffering from conflict, there’s no space to worry about ecological limits. Survival comes first.”

That is why Van Meijl and colleagues such as public administration scholar Katrien Termeer and agricultural economist Marc Müller advocate greater attention to the social — the just — dimension of sustainability transitions. How can we better understand what justice looks like in practice?

Within the European BRIGHTSPACE project, Marc Müller is working with researchers from several countries to answer exactly that question. “We are mapping the ‘safe and just operating space’ for European agriculture,” he explains. This perspective is crucial: agriculture pressures the environment on one hand, yet on the other hand it provides food, jobs, and incomes. Policies that aim to improve one aspect can inadvertently harm another. “With BRIGHTSPACE, we want to make these trade-offs visible so policymakers can make better-informed decisions.”

“Our aim is to translate this principle into a set of models,” Müller continues. “Precisely because it’s so complex, with countless interdependencies, we first need to understand it thoroughly.” That is only possible by combining ecological and social indicators — the exact kind of integrated knowledge in which Wageningen University & Research has long invested. “Models are a powerful starting point,” says Müller. They set WUR apart in Europe as one of the few institutions capable not only of putting social justice on the agenda, but also of quantifying it.

Which indicators show the social boundaries within which agriculture can become more sustainable? “Think of farmers’ incomes and their position in the market,” says Müller. “But also food prices and affordability for consumers. Social and economic considerations apply to producers and consumers. Can everyone access healthy food? And animal welfare matters too, as well as the preservation of landscapes with recreational value — just-space indicators concern humans, animals, and nature.”

The new models reveal what happens to these indicators when stricter sustainability measures are introduced. “That enables us to advise on policies such as support for novel technologies to reduce carbon emissions - or carbon pricing,” Müller explains. “If you turn the right knobs, you can see how to advance both societal and ecological goals — and where the risks of shifting burdens arise.”

A common criticism of the just principle is that the selection of indicators and measurements are subjective. Models with hard data can show when we cross an ecological boundary, but social boundaries are harder to define: when, exactly, do poverty, exclusion, or conflict emerge?

That is why Katrien Termeer and her colleagues look not only at what can be measured, but also at how fair a transition feels. “If a transition doesn’t feel fair, it won’t work²,” she says. “Look at the energy transition: if only electric cars are promoted, people who cannot afford one are left behind. They may feel excluded and disengage completely.”

According to Termeer, just-space considerations in sustainability transitions can be viewed through three lenses. Recognition justice concerns who is acknowledged and taken seriously in the system: only farmers and consumers, or also animals, nature, and future generations? Distributive justice addresses what is (re)distributed and between whom — such as income, risks, or access to healthy food. Procedural justice concerns how decisions are made: who has influence, and who gets to participate?

 _{2 De Bruin, A (2025). ‘Perceptions of justice in food systems transitions.’ PhD Thesis, Wageningen University.}

Taking all these perspectives into account while staying within ecological boundaries is no simple task. “You never achieve change all at once,” says Termeer. “You have to start small but meaningfully, with small wins. ” These can take the form of technological innovations, citizen initiatives, new partnerships, or government policies. Examples of citizen initiatives include Hereboeren, local energy cooperatives, and food banks. With enough support and space to grow, these local efforts can become true accelerators of change.

Their power lies in replication, deepening, and scaling. “For example, link environmental policy with poverty policy, so that people in disadvantaged neighbourhoods can participate,” Termeer suggests. “Or connect it to healthcare.” In this way, a small initiative can shift the norm.

Repair Cafés illustrate this perfectly. What started as a local initiative to repair goods instead of throwing them away has grown into a global movement of more than 5,000 cafés in over forty countries. They do more than repair objects: they collect data on what cannot be repaired. Citizen groups began engaging with manufacturers and policymakers.

With results: the EU has now introduced a “right to repair.” Manufacturers must design products that can be repaired, saving consumers from repeatedly buying new ones. “That’s the moment when a local idea breaks through into industry and policy,” Termeer says. “That’s when you see real transition happening.”

Small wins don’t succeed on their own — they need people who persist. “I call them pitbull terriers,” Termeer says, “people who hold onto their idea even when it gets tough.” These changemakers need courageous leaders: people with access to governance, policy, knowledge, and financial resources.

One striking example comes from Brazil. In a single city, local officials, civil society groups, schools, and regional farmers worked together to improve food security. Children received healthy meals made with local produce, and a full network of agreements, producers, and education programs emerged. When a new president came to power with the motto “every Brazilian should have three healthy meals a day,” this local approach was scaled up into national policy. “This is what can happen when persistent people find the right allies,” Termeer says.

Clear direction is essential for any transition — both in its safe and just dimensions. That direction must not waver, Van Meijl emphasizes. “Under geopolitical pressure, Europe is weakening its sustainability policies. Yet now is precisely when we must stay firm. Anchor planetary boundaries in policy and protect vulnerable groups with financial incentives.”

This can be done very concretely, he insists, and it is perfectly possible to embed both the safe and just dimensions. “Reward farmers for ecosystem services and improve access to healthy food, for example through VAT reductions. It will cost money, but if we abandon our sustainability goals, we will pay a much higher price later.”

The strength of Wageningen Social & Economic Research lies exactly at this intersection. Through models, data, knowledge of ecosystems, and insights into social and economic effects, researchers can show which choices work — and for whom. “We see farmers as part of the solution,” Müller says. “They know their land better than anyone. What they need is reliable long-term policy that offers direction and rewards innovation.”

Alongside data-driven models and deep domain knowledge in food, agriculture, and ecosystems, Müller also sees new potential in AI at WUR. “For example, large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT can help fill precisely the gaps that current models cannot yet capture,” he explains. “They offer powerful possibilities for identifying farmers’ motivations, for instance to participate in recent protests, by analyzing vast amounts of text-based statements from farmers on social and other media. This makes it possible to link specific policy measures to the scale of participation in different countries, and to uncover causal relationships between farmers’ perceptions of policy impacts and their willingness to protest.”

Termeer emphasizes that technology alone is not enough — society itself must move along as well. Technical and social innovations go hand in hand. According to her, there is great potential in approaching major transition challenges, such as the food or energy transition, not from the top down, but from the level of initiatives on the ground. “But then we must dare to deviate from the beaten track.” Policymakers and administrators are confronted with powerful lobbies that seek to slow down sustainability efforts. “To them I would say: do not let yourself be led astray by this pressure. Only if we recognize that pressure and refuse to be guided by it can transitions become both sustainable and just.”