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Stockholm Environment Institute
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Origins of SEI

SEI was set up by the Swedish government in 1989 to act as an international institute in the field of environment and development. Its activities build upon the insights gained at the UN conference on environment and development in Stockholm in 1972, which emphasised the impossibility of separating environmental concerns from development.

When SEI was set up, it asked the then Director of the Beijer Institute in Stockholm to become the first SEI Executive Director. The work of the Beijer Institute was a foundation upon which the initial development of SEI was built, and one centre of the Beijer Institute had been set up by Professor Mike Chadwick, who had been an academic in the Department of Biology from early in the University’s history. Together with another centre in Boston in the US, the York Centre, under the Direction of Mike Chadwick, became one of the founding centres with Stockholm.

SEI Centres

SEI works from seven main locations, with additional offices linked to these. The SEI foundation in Sweden consists of SEI Headquarters in Stockholm, SEI Asia, SEI Africa, SEI Latin America and SEI Oxford. SEI Tallinn, SEI US (with office in Boston, California and Seattle)  and SEI York are separate entities and associations under the SEI umbrella and governed by the same Board of Directors.

SEI centres map

SEI Organisation

Executive Director

Board

The Board decides on SEI’s general objectives, planning and programme, and on issues of major importance.

Governance

SEI is a foundation registered under Swedish law, with principal tasks and structure set out in the Government Decision of 18 August 1988.

Management

SEI’s global management structure consists of the Executive Team, Centre Directors, the Global Management Committee and the Global Research Committee.

Science Advisory Council

Composed of leading international researchers, the Science Advisory Council advises on research priorities and follows up on our scientific achievements.

SEI INITIATIVES

To more effectively address key issues in sustainable development, SEI has invested in a set of initiatives that serve as research hubs, connecting and synergizing our projects and activities. Read more about these on the SEI website:

SEI Strategy 2020–24
The Strategy readies us to make a marked contribution to the changes needed in how human society governs and interacts with the environment.
Read the strategy
Annual report 2020
Our latest annual report – partnership for change – reviews how we made an impact in 2020.
Read the report