A Toolkit for the UK space sector to gauge the impact of their activities on the environment and human society.
<aside> 🛠️ About ✋ Contribute to our Research 📣 Project Updates 🎓 Project Team 📱 Contact Us
</aside>
This project explores the design of a Toolkit for the UK space sector that promotes a circular economy model and incorporates socio-cultural values into traditional environmental impact assessments.
It brings together academic collaborators in Law, Physics, History and Indigenous Studies, and Cybersecurity and User Design from the Universities of Edinburgh, Southampton, Hull, and York St John. In partnership with Interstellar Space Technologies Ltd, the Toolkit will help space industry (SMEs in particular) navigate the regulatory landscape, and nudge businesses towards choices that reduce their adverse socio-cultural and environmental impact. It will promote environmental and social equity in a format familiar and legible to business and regulatory audiences, while also providing a tool to help SMEs become more competitive by accrediting their socially responsible choices.
Via a unified platform that integrates a range of complex standards across agencies, industries and civil society, the Toolkit will encourage the adoption of a circular economy model in the design and operation of space activities, paying special attention to reuse and repurposing of end-of-life assets. This research is funded by the UK Space Agency via SPRINT (SPace Research and Innovation Network for Technology).
Read our Green Paper for the Sustainability of the UK’s Space Economy.
We are looking for insights from space SMEs in the UK! If you would like to contribute, please read the following Participant Information section.
August 2022: The project team completed a Green Paper and submitted a set of recommendations and best practices for our SME partner. Read Green Paper for the Sustainability of the UK’s Space Economy.
July 2022: The project team hosted a workshop for Scottish space SMEs, where we presented a hi-fi model of the Toolkit. This event was held at the Bayes Centre, University of Edinburgh, in conjunction with Space Scotland’s Environmental Task Force.