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Just Transition

Climate resilience and decent work are closely intertwined. We’re taking action to ensure our members support Just Transition principles in their supply chains.

As temperatures rise and extreme weather events happen with increasing frequency due to climate change, workers at farms and factories worldwide are on the front lines. 

The ILO estimates that more than 70% of the global workforce is exposed to excessive heat on the job and its associated safety and health risks. The impacts of heat stress can be deadly: it’s associated with conditions like dehydration, dizziness, fainting, heatstroke, urinary and kidney problems, menstrual health impacts, and cardiac distress.  

  • 2.4
    billion workers exposed to excessive heat on the job
  • 22.87
    million occupational injuries related to excessive heat each year

These risks are especially salient for workers in factories and on farms, where temperatures can be substantially higher than average outdoor temperatures due to machinery, stagnant air, and direct sun exposure, and workers are often unable to stop working even when exposed to excessive heat.  

Heat stress and extreme weather don’t only harm workers; they undermine the resilience of economies. Already, climate change is affecting supply chains in a myriad of ways, including productivity losses, higher absenteeism, quality defects, power outages, and delivery pressures.  

As we navigate this transition, worker-informed heat protection and climate adaptation measures will be an essential investment in workforce stability, risk management, and supply chain resilience.  

Just Transition workplan 

As climate change risks intensify for workers, the Fair Labor Association is examining how we can further strengthen our standards around safe and healthy workplaces to encompass and mitigate climate-related risks and investigating opportunities to build climate resilience. 

In 2026, we launched our Just Transition workplan to better integrate Just Transition principles and climate change into our standards, tools, and programs; develop, pilot, and test solutions; build knowledge among our members and affiliates; and engage with experts to support the intersection of climate and human rights due diligence.  

We’re currently focusing on the impacts of climate change on four areas—heat stress, worker migration, gender equity, and fair compensation—and applying Just Transition concepts like worker participation and social dialogue to this work. 

We’re also actively exploring ways to mitigate the impact of climate-related risks on workers in supply chains through innovative tools and projects, such as the Converged HREDD Assessment Tool and Supply Chain Action Network (SCAN). 

Fair Labor Standards: Just Transition

The Fair Labor Code and accompanying compliance benchmarks define labor standards that aim to achieve decent and humane working conditions in the supply chain of our member companies. We are currently exploring how we can strengthen these standards to better encompass and mitigate climate-related risks. 

FLA factory assessment findings 

Many global apparel manufacturing hubs are located in southern Asia, where heat-related risks are already widespread. As heat stress season begins to extend into September and October, these risks are only intensifying.  

Temperature control has been included in our factory assessments for the Fair Labor Accreditation Manufacturing Program since 2021. In over 300 assessments conducted from 2021-2025, findings of heat issues in factories ranged from 14 to 32 percent, with the highest frequency happening in 2025. India, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia consistently have had the highest number of findings related to heat stress over the last five years across 15 countries. 

Analysis of the findings indicates significant gaps in systematic heat-stress prevention, including inadequate monitoring and risk assessment, limited root-cause analysis and insufficient examination of impacts on workers.  

Worker interviews have also identified concerns around poor ventilation, excessive temperatures and discomfort when using personal protective equipment in extreme heat.  

Heat stress resources

Rising and volatile temperatures impacting workers is a problem that requires strong stakeholder collaboration and partnership. We participate in a heat stress multistakeholder group made up of 16 organizations from academia, non governmental organizations, multi-stakeholder initiatives, and trade associations, convened by ILO’s Better Work. Guidance and case studies have been published by some of these organizations to support industry progress.  

View American Apparel & Footwear Association: Heat Stress Toolkit

American Apparel & Footwear Association: Heat Stress Toolkit

View NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights: Too Hot to Ignore

NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights: Too Hot to Ignore

View Cornell ILR Global Labor Institute: Six Seasons, Four Summers

Cornell ILR Global Labor Institute: Six Seasons, Four Summers

View Royal Holloway, University of London: Oppressive Heat

Royal Holloway, University of London: Oppressive Heat

Just Transition news from FLA

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    Fair Labor Highlights – October 2026

    October 14, 2026 View Fair Labor Highlights – October 2026
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    September 9, 2026 View Fair Labor Highlights – September 2026
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    +9
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    Fair Labor
    Forced Labor
    Health Safety & Environment
    Human Rights Due Diligence
    Just Transition
    Responsible Purchasing
    Responsible Recruitment
    Upstream Supply Chains

    Fair Labor Highlights – August 2026

    August 12, 2026 View Fair Labor Highlights – August 2026
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