Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 1 (2011) 101–108 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eist Productivity and work in the ‘green economy’ Some theoretical reflections and empirical tests Tim Jackson a,∗ , Peter Victor b a University of Surrey, Guildford, UK b York University, Toronto, Canada article info Article history: Received 19 November 2010 Received in revised form 17 April 2011 Accepted 18 April 2011 Keywords: Post-growth economics Productivity Green technology Ecological services Employment Carbon targets abstract This paper explores the concept of productivity in post-growth economies. It defines the ‘productivity trap’ that arises from the systematic pursuit of labour productivity and describes two solu- tions to this trap, each of which has some precedence in economic theory. The first is to reduce working hours – the most frequently cited avenue to combat unemployment in non-growing economies. The second is to engage in structural shifts towards low produc- tivity growth sectors. Using a simple simulation model of the UK economy we illustrate how these two strategies might combine to achieve ‘deep’ carbon emission reduction targets while maintaining high employment. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The transition to a sustainable society poses considerable challenges for conventional economics. Institutional structures, accounting frameworks and macro-economic relationships all require signifi- cant reform. Central to a new macro-economics for sustainability lies the relationship between growth, productivity and work (Jackson, 2009; Victor, 2008). In particular, a low-growth or slow-growth econ- omy must reconcile labour productivity changes with the maintenance of full employment. This paper explores that challenge. Productivity is highly prized in economics. In simple terms, productivity is defined by the ratio of outputs to inputs. Labour productivity, for example, is one of the most fundamental measures of economic success. Output is cast in terms of economic value, usually measured at the macro-economic ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: t.jackson@surrey.ac.uk (T. Jackson), pvictor@yorku.ca (P. Victor). 2210-4224/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.eist.2011.04.005