EUMETSAT expands to accommodate more staff

Ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the East building extension, with Phil Evans - EUMETSAT Director-General, Gertrud Husch - Director for Digital Connectivity - German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, Sabine Growth - Head of the office of the Space Coordinator of the Hessian State Government - Hessian State Chancellery, Hanno Benz - Oberbürgermeister City of Darmstadt

Europe’s Darmstadt-headquartered meteorological satellite agency, EUMETSAT, has inaugurated a €14 million building extension to accommodate its growing staff contingent.

The building will accommodate 120 staff members. In line with EUMETSAT’s push to reduce its carbon footprint, the building has a “green roof”, solar panels and heat pumps.

“The work carried out at EUMETSAT’s premises has never been more important, as Europe experiences more frequent severe weather events due to climate change,” Director-General Phil Evans said.

“EUMETSAT has grown from having just four staff members when it was founded in 1986 to more than 630 staff members and a similar number of contractors today.

“That reflects the significant advances in meteorological satellite technology and the supporting fields of expertise we require to enable meteorological services to keep their communities safe.

“At the same time, EUMETSAT is proud of the economic and cultural contribution it makes to Darmstadt, Hesse and Germany as a whole.

“A study conducted some five years ago found that this organisation directly contributes more than €70 million a year to the German local economy. That figure would undoubtedly have grown with the growth of EUMETSAT’s workforce.”

Evans thanked the Hessen and German governments for their continued support of the organisation and for providing the land for the construction. He also explicitly thanked all 30 EUMETSAT member states for providing the funding for the building and making EUMETSAT’s expansion possible.