Speaker
Description
The Sustainability Impact Studies initiative, carried out in collaboration with ESA’s Space Economy team and Clean Space Office under the ESA Green Agenda programme, aims to strengthen ESA’s ability to assess and communicate the wider environmental, social and economic benefits generated by space activities across programmes and directorates.
The study combines two complementary strands of work. First, it supports the refinement of a common assessment framework, including impact pathways, indicators, methodological assumptions and practical boundaries for application. Second, it applies this approach to a portfolio of selected case studies drawn from different ESA domains, including downstream space based applications, services, technology transfer activities and programme-related examples.
As the activity is only starting now, the progress expected by June will focus on the foundations needed for a robust analysis phase. This includes consolidation of the methodological approach, validation of the most relevant case studies with programme representatives, and the launch of the first evidence-gathering activities through stakeholder engagement, interviews and data collection.
By presenting the initiative at Clean Space Days, we would like to share this cross-cutting effort to better understand how space investments generate sustainability value beyond technical performance alone, and how this can support more informed decision-making and communication across the agency.