Scotland Launches Comprehensive Space Sector Sustainability Assessment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Edinburgh, 5 February 2026 – Callala Ltd, trading as SustainabilityOf.Space, today announces a pioneering project to conduct the first comprehensive assessment of Scottish space companies across sustainability, safety, and security.

Funded by Space Scotland and the UK Space Agency, the Scottish Space Sector Sustainability, Safety and Security Maturity Assessment is creating an evidence base to guide strategic action across Scotland's growing space industry and support the work of the Space Scotland Environmental Task Force.

Through confidential engagement with over 50 organisations, the project is mapping company capabilities, identifying knowledge gaps, and establishing baseline understanding of sector readiness across these three critical areas.

Building Scotland's Space Sustainability Evidence Base

The assessment addresses three interconnected dimensions:

• Space Sustainability: such as environmental impact, decarbonisation readiness, and long-term responsible business practices

• Space Safety: including debris mitigation, collision avoidance, and end-of-life planning

• Space Security: for example, operational resilience and supply chain robustness

"This project represents a significant step forward in moving from aspiration to evidence-based action in reducing space-based harms," said Andrew Iwanoczko, Director of SustainabilityOf.Space. "Establishing where Scottish companies are today, we can design targeted interventions that enable responsible growth without sacrificing competitiveness."

Understanding the Economics of Action

A critical element of the assessment distinguishes between actions companies can readily integrate into their operations and those requiring external support. The project is identifying which safety, security, and sustainability measures are already on organisations' critical paths and economically viable to deliver today, contrasted with those that are internationally urgent and important but challenging for individual companies to lead on without broader intervention to alter the economic framing.

This nuanced understanding enables policymakers and support organisations to focus resources where they can have the greatest impact, whether through knowledge transfer, standards development, or reducing the cost barriers to positive action.

Proven Methodology, Novel Application

Building on the internationally recognised Space Leaderboard methodology, the project reframes assessment from public disclosure evaluation to confidential capability mapping.

Unlike the Leaderboard's focus on what companies choose to disclose publicly, this work captures what organisations know and do regardless of reporting readiness.

The approach emphasises readiness to act over performance assessment and identifies specific capability gaps and intervention needs rather than comparative benchmarking. All findings are being strictly anonymised and aggregated to ensure commercial confidentiality while generating actionable sector-wide insights.

Strategic Alignment and Impact

The project directly supports the Space Scotland Environmental Task Force and multiple elements of Scotland's Space Sustainability Roadmap, including incentivising compliance with international guidelines, developing sector-specific skills, and identifying research priorities. It is also providing novel empirical insights for UK space standards development through the Earth∞Space Sustainability Initiative (ESSI) and British Standards Institution (BSI).

"This work positions Scotland as a thought-leader in operationalising space sustainability frameworks," added Andrew. "Along with assessing current state, we're identifying what's needed to enable future progress and informing standards development with real-world evidence of what can be achieved, technically and pragmatically."

Demonstrated Track Record

SustainabilityOf.Space brings established credibility to this work, having previously developed and published comprehensive Space Leaderboard for the UK and Asia-Australasia regions, established academic partnerships with the University of Manchester and University of Auckland on lifecycle assessment frameworks, and built a global database indexing sustainability practice across 1,750+ space organisations.

Project Timeline and Deliverables

The assessment delivers:

• A Scottish Space Activity Taxonomy mapping the sector by operational activity

• A comprehensive anonymised Maturity Report identifying capability ranges, common challenges, leading practices, and priority intervention areas

The project is scheduled for completion in March 2026.

About SustainabilityOf.Space

SustainabilityOf.Space, operated by Callala Ltd, is an independent research organisation advancing transparency and evidence-based action in space sustainability. Through the Space Leaderboard programme and strategic research initiatives, SustainabilityOf.Space supports the global space sector in understanding and improving sustainability performance across environmental, safety, and security dimensions.

For more information, visit www.sustainabilityof.space

Contact: Andrew Iwanoczko, FRGS FRSA, Callala Ltd (trading as SustainabilityOf.Space) hello@sustainabilityof.space

*Graphic Design: Victoria Beall

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Notes to Editors:

• The Space Leaderboard is a comprehensive global methodology assessing space sector sustainability

• The project supports Scotland's Space Sustainability Roadmap and UK space standards development

• All company engagement is conducted under strict confidentiality with anonymised reporting protocols