'Space Sustainability: Bridging Initiatives and Perspectives' in Lausanne, Switzerland
17 April 2025
The PlanetStewards Project co-organized the international workshop on “Space Sustainability: Bridging Initiatives and Perspectives”, held on March 27-28, 2025 at the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne (EPFL) campus and Swiss Tech Convention Center in Lausanne, Switzerland. The event marked a significant step in aligning diverse perspectives and initiatives related to the governance and sustainability of outer space. PlanetStewards co-organized the event together with the EU COST Action FOGOS (Futures-Oriented Governance of Outer Space), the Secure World Foundation, and eSpace – the EPFL Space Center, in partnership with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. Participants included representatives from the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the European Space Agency, the EU Commission, the World Economic Forum, academic institutions, and space industries such as Spacetalk and EU-SST, among others.
The collaborative workshop was conceived in the context of a pivotal year for global space sustainability dialogues, with major events such as the European Space Agency Space Debris Conference and the Secure World Foundation Summit for Space Sustainability taking place in 2025. Against this backdrop, the Lausanne workshop provided an opportunity to bring together a transdisciplinary group of actors—including researchers, policy experts, engineers, and legal scholars—to assess the current landscape of space sustainability initiatives. The aim was not only to identify areas of convergence and divergence among existing efforts but also to propose concrete steps to enhance governance mechanisms that account for environmental integrity, social equity, and peaceful uses of outer space (and Earth-space).
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The first day of the workshop focused on mapping the spectrum of stakeholders and instruments involved in space sustainability. Through a series of structured discussions co-designed by FOGOS co-chairs Dr. Florian Rabitz and Dr. Xiao-Shan Yap and Working Group Leader Dr. Johannes Schmied, coparticipants evaluated the effectiveness of intergovernmental, national/regional, and inter-stakeholder instruments in addressing core dimensions of sustainability: peace and security, environmental concerns, and social and economic equity. The three dimensions of sustainability addressed here are in line with the earth-space sustainability issues that the PlanetStewards Project seeks to address. The mapping exercise yielded a rich comparative framework that served as a foundation for the following day’s agenda. The discussion highlighted the need for greater coordination across institutional and disciplinary boundaries and emphasized the importance of integrating social science perspectives into technical and policy domains.
The second day transitioned to a focus on practical applications and capacity-building efforts. Presentations were delivered by representatives from the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the International Telecommunication Union, the European Space Agency, the European Commission, and the European Space Policy Institute, among others. These interventions showcased ongoing efforts to implement sustainable space practices through policy instruments, awareness campaigns, technical guidelines, and educational initiatives. Contributions also came from academic and civil society initiatives, including the PlanetStewards and GreenSpecies projects and the Space Actors and Governance Explorer (SAGE) research group.
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The PlanetStewards Project Team presented the project’s vision of the fundamental values, beliefs, and institutions that guide stewardship for sustainability which require a paradigmatic shift towards simultaneously caring for Earth and space, contributing to the broader conversation on building knowledge-sharing platforms and forging new collaborations between scientific research and policy-making communities. These discussions underscored the importance of a long-term, values-driven approach to capacity building in the context of increasingly complex Earth-space environments.​
In the final sessions, participants addressed barriers and opportunities in information sharing, with particular attention to space traffic coordination and environmental impact assessments. The event concluded with a synthesis session aimed at consolidating findings, articulating shared priorities, and outlining the next steps for collaboration across the participating initiatives and highly transdisciplinary actors. The workshop demonstrated the value of structured dialogue across domains and affirmed the central role of collaborative governance in addressing the growing challenges of space sustainability. The outcomes of the workshop will feed into ongoing activities within the FOGOS COST Action across all working groups, as well as the activities of the PlanetStewards Project. A draft policy paper synthesizing the workshop findings is currently in development and will contribute to shaping future research and policy directions in the field.