After spending 32 years in the Royal Air Force, Ralph Dinsley (known as Dinz) used his expertise to set up a space technology business in Northumberland, which was quickly acquired by technology company Raytheon UK. Dinz is now working on a new start-up, 3S Northumbria Ltd, which will focus on space sustainability. We asked him how sustainability applies both to his work in space and to his business operations here on Earth.

What is ‘space sustainability’?

It’s about keeping the space environment usable and negating the kinds of impact we’ve had on our terrestrial environment, long before the same thing happens in space.

As part of that we’re looking at how we can recycle materials used in the space industry when they’re still in orbit. My concern is that, currently, when these objects re-enter the atmosphere they generally burn up. What residue are they leaving in the atmosphere? Shouldn’t we be recycling those materials instead, when they’re still in orbit?

Additionally, I believe that for the UK – or any nation – to achieve net zero, we need to look at the space and terrestrial environments together and address sustainability across both.

At what stage of developing your new business did you start thinking about sustainability within the business operations? Before I even launched 3S Northumbria Ltd I went on NBSL’s ToNetZero course.

It really informed me about the carbon emissions associated with businesses, like mine, which carry out a lot of data analysis.

How does data lead to carbon emissions?

Basically, more data we store, the bigger our carbon footprint is.

It’s not just about the energy you’re using to run your computers, it’s also about the data you’re using - somewhere there’s a server housing your data that’s also using energy and generating emissions.

3S Northumbria Ltd will deal with huge amounts of data, but even for businesses that work with smaller amount of information, it still has an impact and is something you can mitigate collectively.

And what kinds of steps are you taking within the business to reduce carbon emissions?

I used what I learnt to help educate the team on carbon footprints and what we can do to either reduce or offset this, and I plan to share what we do with colleagues working in a similar way, in locations around the world.

Firstly, we’re using an energy company which guarantees the electricity we use is from sustainable sources. And, as the work we do involves a lot of big data, we’re looking at how we can use carbon offsetting to counter this, as our data analysis ramps up.

Everything we’re doing in terms of our work in space is about sustainability, and I’m doing everything I can to make sure that this focus transcends the space environment and includes our impact on Earth as well.

What’s your advice to other business owners?

We should all be embracing sustainability as part of our business plans – no matter how small or large your company is.

Look at every angle of what your business is doing. And making changes doesn’t have to be costly. Reducing your carbon emissions is achievable and it can unlock new ways of working.

The problems we’re facing are everyone’s problems and we can all do something to help.

Are there things you could do to reduce carbon emissions from your business? Take a look at the resources in our Net Zero toolkit to help you make changes.