As investors come out of COVID they are more engaged on ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) issues than ever before. ESG reporting is haphazard and not uniform nor standardized at present. That leaves self-reporting or buying sustainability services from vendors mostly focused on public companies which are only 10% of the addressable market. For those private companies, there are software vendors trying to make these companies regulatory compliant.

The business opportunity for the space industry is massive. The use of GPS, Lidar and other technologies to measure and verify emissions, to measure Reforestation and Avoided Deforestation (tree planting and tree conservation) as well as agriculture monitoring and measurement need to be done through an ESG lens as investors are now demanding it.

This talk will focus on the state of this emerging market, which is not $17 or $30 trillion as is bandied about by many members of the financial press, but is more like $100 billion and growing rapidly. ESG investors are now demanding accountability and companies, banks and private equity funds are trying to comply. As an aside, the Green Bond market is only 1.25% of the global debt market at $1.25 trillion. Hype is one thing, but knowledge is more powerful.

The business opportunities for the space industry are only limited to your imagination. The world’s largest business is energy at $6 trillion, followed by agriculture at $5 trillion and the water industry which is $3 trillion. These three industries are being transformed this decade into a global ESG business.

Speakers include:

• Jason Rainbow, Senior Staff Writer, Space News
• Peter Fusaro, Senior Partner, ESG, Oxford Global Accelerated Ventures
• Hoyt Davidson, Founder & Managing Partner, Near Earth LLC. 
• Harriet Brettle, Head of Business Analysis, Astroscale
• Joseph D. Fargnoli, Co-Founder, New York Space Alliance (moderator)
• Louis Zacharilla, Director of Development and Innovation, SSPI (moderator)