On 5 May ESA will be hosting a webinar intended for SMEs and midcaps during which the Agency's planned responsible procurement initiatives as well as ways to contribute to the related industry consultation process will be introduced.

As the planned actions regarding responsible procurement are going to impact the Agency’s industrial partners and suppliers, ESA is highly committed to making sure that its initiatives, including their content, have been thoroughly consulted with all relevant stakeholders. This webinar is an important step in that direction as it enables economic actors to learn more about the ongoing initiatives and how to participate in related consultations.

Background information

In ESA Agenda 2025, the Agency has committed to fully support the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the European Green Deal, by increasing the contribution of its projects to sustainable development of society and by ensuring socially & environmentally responsible management of its activities. To this end, ESA is in the process of defining its Green Agenda, an Agency-wide sustainability plan summarising activities to be undertaken in the coming years to achieve its objectives, including the reduction of the environmental footprint of its activities by 46% by 2030, the preservation of biodiversity, human health and resource scarcity.

As part of fulfilling such ambition, ESA is counting on the engagement of the whole European space sector and has therefore established joint initiatives with key public and private stakeholders on concrete topics such as the ‘Decarbonisation of the space sector’ and ‘Responsible Procurement and Supply Chain’, which are one of the main areas along its path towards environmental and social responsibility. A further initiative on ‘LCA, EcoDesign and Green Technologies’ will be launched shortly.

This webinar is intended to introduce the Agency’s work undertaken as part of the working group on ‘Responsible Procurement and Supply Chain’ to the industry. Focus of the webinar will be on introducing the relevant action plan of the Agency for responsible procurement as well as giving an overview of the themes covered and the expectations arising from the ESA CSR Code of Conduct and the CSR themed self-assessment questionnaire currently under development. The procedure for consultations with SMEs and midcaps will be further elaborated and instructions given on how to participate in such procedure. Questions from the industry regarding the ESA Responsible Procurement initiatives will be answered to the extent possible considering that the work is ongoing.

For further information, see the Communication regarding ESA Responsible Procurement initiatives (published on esa-star Publication on 16 March 2022).

This webinar is intended to inform ESA's industrial partners and suppliers, in particular SMEs and midcaps, about planned responsible procurement initiatives as well as ways to contribute to the related industry consultation process.

ESA

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