Origins

SEI is an international non-profit research institute established in 1989 by the Swedish Parliament. The creation of the Stockholm Environment Institute and its name were derived from the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972, which culminated with the Stockholm Declaration. This was the first UN conference on the connections between human development and the environment, and it gave birth to the concept of global environment cooperation. The principles set out in the Stockholm Declaration remain relevant 50 years later; these include human rights and wellbeing, safeguarding natural resources for present and future generations, maintaining renewable resources, conservation, pollution, disaster risk, financial and technological transfer, urbanization, scientific research, international cooperation, and integrated development policy and planning. These principles have since been repeated, updated and mainstreamed in landmark global forums such as the Brundtland Commission in 1987, the Rio Summit in 1992 and more recently in the articulation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015. They are a key foundation and frame of reference for SEI’s conception of sustainable development.

SEI’s vision is a “sustainable, prosperous future for all” and its mission is “to support decision-making and induce change towards sustainable development around the world by providing integrative knowledge that bridges science, policy and practice in the field of environment and development.” SEI has its headquarters in Stockholm (Sweden) and centres in Bangkok (Thailand), Boston, Davis, and Seattle (US), Oxford and York (UK), Tallinn (Estonia), Nairobi (Kenya) and Bogotá (Colombia).

The SEI Foundation includes SEI HQ, SEI Asia, SEI Africa, SEI Latin America and the subsidiary SEI Oxford Office Ltd (registered in the UK under company No. 4404220).