SEI-Tallinn (SEIT) was established in November 1992. The Institute serves as the local Tallinn Centre of its original founder - the international network of Stockholm Environment Institute - fulfilling its mission in Central and Eastern Europe, simultaneously being an independent non-governmental nonprofit foundation registered in Estonia. The institute name (Estonian Institute for Sustainable Development) was extended in June 2000 to stress its local significance for Estonia.
Our priorities are to create an international network and to promote sustainable development, environmental protection, nature conservation, environmental policy and management analysis, energy efficiency, and energy conservation-related environmental studies. In its commitment to bridge the gap between science and policy-making, SEIT employs innovative methods in communicating its work to the governments, private sector, other research institutes and the whole society. SEI-Tallinn has been well integrated into the Estonian environmental community and established partnerships with a number of Baltic counterparts, as well as international organisations, which are represented in the region.
The research groups at SEIT have formed around the programme areas and goals of SEI, the scientific interests and research expertise of our team, and local environmental demands. At present there are three programme areas:
Sustainability Measures Programme (co-ordinated by Kaja Peterson M.Sc.) focuses upon development and analyses of integrated environmental policy. One of the main challenges is promoting sustainable (long-term) planning. Community planning according to the principles of sustainable development includes sustainability indicators, methods and analyses, public awareness rising and capacity building (publishing, lectures, seminars).
The work also concentrates on the issues of the so-called green environment – nature protection policy and management – biological diversity, EU habitat and bird directives, sustainable forestry, sustainable tourism, landscape management and planning, EIA and strategic environmental assessment. Sustainable spatial planning is also an important part of the work, especially analysing urban and transport planning policies, integrated planning approaches, and issues concerning EU enlargement and its influence on national transport policy.
Environmental Management Programme (co-ordinated by Harri Moora M.Sc.) mainly deals with the so-called grey environment that is with industrial pollution and its prevention, the problems inherited from the Soviet period and introducing environmental thinking to current enterprises. Work thus focuses upon issues such as environmental management (EMS, ISO 14000 series, EMAS), environmental auditing, eco-efficiency, integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC), best available techniques (BAT), hazardous waste management, environmental impact assessment (EIA, SEA), sustainable industry.
Climate, Energy and Atmosphere Programme (co-ordinated by Tiit Kallaste Ph.D.) main activities include related issues of climate change, energy and air quality in Estonian, European and international context. Locally, one of the main topics is promoting wider application of renewable energy sources (wind power, biomass, small hydro) instead of oil shale based power production. Increasing attention has been paid to environmental economics and economic instruments in influencing environmental processes. Recent work has also included capacity building in climate change issues among the local authorities and decision makers, focusing on the Kyoto protocol and its implementation.

RESEARCH TEAM: Kaja Peterson, Piret Kuldna, Helen Poltimäe