Sustainability

ESA speaker demystifies sustainability beyond Earth

  • 16 February 2015
ICC sustainable cities

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) welcomed Nathalie Meusy from the European Space Agency (ESA) on 5 February for a full-house session called “Outer space (and us down here)”.

Nathalie Meusy
Nathalie Meusy

Taking place at the world business organization’s Hearing Centre, the event was hosted by ICC’s World Business Women initiative.

Head of the ESA’s Coordination Office on Sustainable Development, Ms Meusy presented the agency’s holistic approach to sustainable development which aims at anchoring sustainability at the heart of the corporate strategy of all actors operating in the space sector.

“The mission of ESA is to provide and promote, for exclusively peaceful purposes, cooperation among European states in space research and technology and their space applications. Europe is at the leading edge of progress, innovation and growth for the benefit of all its citizens.

ESA is also one of the few space agencies in the world to integrate responsibility in nearly all areas of space activity. Our sustainability principles are translated into a framework policy which sets international standards for sustainable development,” said Ms Meusy.

Ms Meusy also stated ESA’s active engagement in COP21, the United Nations climate change conference set to take place in Paris in December and underlined the participation of agency experts to the event who will promote the role of space exploration on climate data collection.

ESA’s international cooperation with key partners, ranging from governments to other space agencies, is paramount in the combat against climate change.

John Danilovich, ICC Secretary General and champion of the WBW initiative, said: “Space technology plays a growing role in monitoring the environment and ESA is an innovative organization which has itself become a leader in promoting sustainable development.

“ESA’s international cooperation with key partners, ranging from governments to other space agencies, is paramount in the combat against climate change. It was a great honour to host ESA at ICC’s global headquarters in Paris and we were honored to welcome Ms Meusy as part of the WBW initiative.”

ICC will also assume a strong presence and play a pivotal role at this year’s COP21 representing the world business community to highlight innovative business solutions to environmental issues and problems.

Ms Meusy launched the sustainable development initiative of ESA in 2007. She has, since then, developed the first policy framework on sustainable development for the agency. She has also conceived and launched the first report on sustainable development for ESA which is based on experts’ inputs, and has established the basis for the first assessment scheme in the field of sustainability for the agency.

She has supported collaborative projects inside and outside ESA concerning sustainability issues, and started a cooperation initiative with NASA to exchange best practices and enlarge the debate on sustainable development with space actors.

“Our generation is in the age of space maturity. We have moved from dreams to reality, from pioneering to mastering. Today, we are reaping the rewards and putting space back into our lives. Space has only just begun to surprise us,” she said.

World Business Women is an ICC staff-driven initiative, launched in 2012 to leverage the benefits of gender diversity at ICC and in the wider business world. WBW will celebrate its third anniversary this year in March with a session on diversity, highlighting the multicultural mosaic ICC staff represents.

Learn more about World Business Women.