For the Benefit of Earth

Blue Origin’s Sustainability Story

Our Commitment to Earth, Space, and Community

Earth is humanity’s forever home. Yet Earth is finite, and it’s our job to preserve and rejuvenate it for future generations. This requires developing short, and long-term sustainability solutions at home and in space. Blue Origin exists for the benefit of Earth.

Protect Our Home

We recognize the importance of protecting and restoring our planet and strive to minimize our carbon footprint and promote sustainable practices in all aspects of our operations here on Earth. Elements of our sustainable practices include:

Reusable Rockets

Building a road to space starts with our reusable vehicles. New Shepard and New Glenn have been designed for operational reusability and minimal maintenance between flights from day one, to decrease the cost of access to space, reduce waste, and help preserve our environment.

The booster is vertical on the landing pad. The area on the pad immediately around the booster is scorched by the engine's flames, and the desert and mountains can be seen in the background.

Reusable Engines

New Shepard’s BE-3PM and New Glenn’s BE-4 engines can be fired many times and are highly throttleable, allowing for precision landing and high asset utilization.

Cleaner-Burning Fuel

By using liquid oxygen and hydrogen to fuel New Shepard and liquefied natural gas for New Glenn, less fuel is required to produce the same thrust, as compared to fuels like Rocket Propellant-1.

A close-up of the bottom half of New Shepard, including the engine nozzle, next to the launch tower just after liftoff. A plume of fiery exhaust and light pink smoke clouds surround the vehicle.

Sustainable Supply Chain

We’re instituting a sustainable economic model in our supply chain, helping to reduce, reuse, and recycle materials. By working with raw material marketplaces and distributors whose customers value renewable energy systems, we will continue to reduce the cost and impact of space access.

Striving for Green, Day to Day

At every Blue location, we’re setting sustainability success against carbon emissions, energy, waste, and water usage goals. In our manufacturing and operations across Kent, Huntsville, Cape Canaveral, and West Texas, we’re building recycling, reuse, and conservation into our day-to-day practices.

An aerial view of Launch Complex 36, located on the coast of Cape Canaveral, where New Glenn will launch. Two lightning towers, a large white building, and a water tower are in view.

The BE-4 is hotfired on the test stand, expelling fiery exhaust that transforms into horizontal plumes of white smoke. The sky is filled with bright stars, including what appears to be a nebula in the sky above the test stand.

Harness Resources From Space

As pioneers in the space industry, we understand the importance of sustainable practices beyond Earth's boundaries. Our Space Resources Program has been developing technologies to enable us to live off the surface of the Moon and beyond. These sustainable technologies do not require carbon, water, or other chemicals, and result in applications that are solar-powered, carbon-neutral, and non-toxic.

Hundreds of Blue Origin employees stand and kneel in multiple rows on the landing pad in front of the booster that powered New Shepard's first four crew members to space. An employee in the center of the first row holds a sign emblazoned with the First Human Flight mission patch; white billowy clouds fill the blue sky.

Safeguard Earth and Space, Together

This mission will take all of us. In collaboration with our nonprofit Club for the Future, STEM partners, conservation collaborators, and industry partners aligned with our passion for preserving Earth, we’re building a coalition of organizations to support sustainability, education, and scientific discovery initiatives.