SEI Tallinn is a Green Office

Through our work on environmental research, policy analysis and other activities, SEI Tallinn contributes to creating a sustainable and environmentally friendly world. Thus, our daily work and working environment must also reflect these values ​​to be as sustainable as possible.

For many years we have been contributing to the development of environmental management systems both in Estonia and internationally. For example, SEI Tallinn was one of the founders and developers of the European Green Office scheme. Green Office is a simple environmental management system for organizations that aim to create a healthy and environmentally sound office-based work environment. Reaching the Green Office status and receiving a Green Office certificate require the application of certain sustainability principles. This includes monitoring environmental performance in the office (promoting energy efficiency, reducing use of materials and generation of waste), using sustainable transport related to work activities, green procurement, etc. These measures contribute to raising the environmental awareness of employees and creating a healthier working environment. To date, more than 40 Green Office certificates have been issued in Estonia.

Moving to a new office as a turning point

“It is a pleasure to say that while we have helped to implement the Green Office system in many other organizations, now we are also the holders of the Green Office certificate,” said Lauri Tammiste, director of SEI Tallinn. “Moving to a new office space became crucial in this process. Since 2018, we have been working in the renovated Arsenal Center, a former munitions factory building. The new office has enabled us to carry out the green principles and activities much better than in the previous working space. As a result, we were very glad to receive the Green Office certificate at the beginning of December,” Tammiste added.

Sustainable activities at the SEI Tallinn office

“The charm of the Green Office system is that each office, work environment and community is unique, and therefore every Green Office is different,” commented Harri Moora, Green Office co-founder and program manager at SEI Tallinn. “In addition to buying electricity from renewable energy sources, sorting waste, organizing our events at hotels that are holders of the Green Key certificate, which is what many Green Offices do, we also have begun our own traditions. Since our work is international and requires air travel, we measure and compensate our carbon footprint, and we offset it each year by planting trees with colleagues. Being something we have done for about 15 years now, it has become a long-standing tradition as well as an important spring event for the whole office,” Moora added.