Intern in the Climate and Sustainability Office within the Strategy Department

Our team and mission

This position is based at the ESA HQ - Paris, France

The Climate and Sustainability Office coordinates ESA’s contribution to the Paris Agreements on Climate Change and the European Green Deal, is responsible for defining, deploying, and monitoring the execution of all actions needed to address the ESA CSR Principles, and coordinates an inter-directorate working group related to sustainability and environmental protection.  

The Office oversees the implementation of the ESA Green Agenda (EGA) aiming at implementing the sustainability objectives included in the ESA Agenda 2025 and is responsible for: 

• Driving ESA social responsibility policies and projects and fostering sustainability and environmental thinking within ESA; 
• Implementing the EGA, aiming to reach the objectives included in the ESA Agenda 2025 concerning the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the inclusion of sustainability objectives in all ESA projects; 
• Coordinating an annual comprehensive assessment of the Agency’s environmental footprint; 
• Ensuring the participation and support of the Agency in the initiative on the Statement for a Responsible Space Sector aimed at increasing the involvement of public and industrial stakeholders in order to achieve a more inclusive approach towards a sustainable space sector; 
• Preparing and executing, in collaboration with the Communication Department, an internal and external communication and awareness plan on climate and sustainability issues; 
• ensuring, together with the EISC, the annual execution of the ESA-EISC Space Sustainability Award;  
• supporting the selection and monitoring of indicators relevant to the implementation of Environment, Social, and Governance activities, and measure the achievements; 
• Helping foster external networks of experts as well as partnerships, by representing ESA, when necessary, in international and national venues relevant to corporate responsibility and sustainability and interfacing with relevant authorities in the Member States and with other stakeholders, in collaboration with DG-O and SLE-E, when needed.

Candidates interested are encouraged to visit the ESA websites: http://www.esa.int

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic of the internship: Sustainability Strategy

Sustainability Strategy for ESA Downstream Activities

Tasks:

• Develop a consolidated framework to assess the benefits of ESA programs by extrapolating from various methodological approaches;
• Support the coordination of Sustainability Impact Studies for selected ex-ante studies;
• Digitise the Sustainability Maturity Assessment tool, including the development of user guidelines and training materials, and conduct a training session for future users. 

Key Words: Sustainability, Research, Digitalisation 

Reducing the environmental impact from space programmes using Life Cycle Assessment strategy

Tasks:

• Support the implementation of ecodesign and Life Cycle Assessments into ESA space programmes;
• Support the development of a tool to support Project Managers with their projects’ sustainability requirements;
• Participate and support the organisation of working groups and events related to the minimisation of programmes environmental impacts.

Key Words: Sustainability, Space programmes, Life Cycle Assessment, tool 

Communication and Awareness on Sustainability Activities

Tasks:

• Support realisation of a sustainability communication plan;  
• Write articles for intranet and internet;
• Participate, support and lead organisation of awareness events on sustainability matters at ESA and externally. 

Key words:  Sustainability Project / Stakeholder engagement / Communication / Awareness

Behavioural competencies

Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward Thinking

For more information, please refer to ESA Core Behavioural Competencies guidebook

Education

You must be a university student, preferably in your final or second-to-last year of a university course at Master’s level and you need to remain enrolled at your University for the entire duration of the internship.

Additional requirements

The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another Member State language would be an asset.

Knowledge and background in Corporate Social Responsibility, Life Cycle Assessment, Communication are assets for this internship.