Resulting from an ever increasing public pressure, the quest to be environmentally friendly is transforming the competitive landscape, as eco-friendly design results in a new frontier of innovation. As a public sector intergovernmental organisation, ESA is committed to prioritising environmental concerns in all its activities. Through its Clean Space initiative, the Agency is pioneering an eco-friendly approach to space activities. In 2016 ESA comissioned a consortium led by Thales Alenia Space with Deloitte Sustainability to investigate the potential of the ecodesign methodology at the scale of a space mission.

For Thales, health and safety and protecting the environment are basic principles that form part of the group’s broader commitment to creating a safer world. In the early 2000s, the group adopted a proactive HSE policy for all of its sites, activities and products, at every level of the organisation.

Deloitte has accompanied many private and public organisations over the years in the integration of sustainability metrics in their strategy to improve the environmental performance of their products. In particular, Deloitte has capitalised over the years on its eco-design and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) expertise, and for this project applied it to the space sector.