ESA Sustainability Principles
Based on the ISO 26000 guidelines and resulting from the stakeholders’ consultation, the ESA Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) guiding principles are structured according to the main categories of stakes and challenges.
These principles ensure that ESA implements its mission with a high sense of ethics, considering the needs and expectations of the largest scope of stakeholders.
ESA is a socially responsible organisation as it takes into maximum consideration the needs of future generations, with respect to the sustainability of its activities towards the environment, economy, and society.
The integration of the CSR principles as the backbone of the sustainability measures taken by ESA, reinforces the Agency’s contribution to the sustainable development of society through its programmes and activities and its commitment for a more sustainable and responsible space sector.
ESA and responsibility of the European space sector
The space sector plays a crucial role for Europe as it strives to forge a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy, and has become indispensable, for instance through Earth observation capabilities, in measuring progress towards the goals set by the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and, through integrated applications, towards the objectives included in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
ESA leads the European space sector to become more than an enabler to monitor sustainability challenges through innovative space technologies and to contribute – itself – to sustainable development by making space activities and space projects more sustainable.
ESA has therefore integrated the political objectives set out in the Paris Agreement and the European Green Deal into its own vision, in the ESA Agenda 2025 adopted in 2021.