Stockholm Environment Institute

What Stockholm Environment Institute does

Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) is a non-profit research foundation established under Swedish law in 1989, with headquarters in Stockholm and seven regional centres across Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the United States. The institute conducts interdisciplinary research and develops policy guidance on environment, climate, water, energy, land, governance, economy, gender, and health issues, serving governments, UN agencies, multilateral development banks, philanthropic foundations, academia, and (increasingly) private-sector partners such as IKEA and Maersk. SEI's mandate is set by the Swedish Parliament and its operations are led by an internationally composed Board and Executive Director.

SEI's core outputs are a suite of proprietary analytical tools and platforms — most notably LEAP (Low Emissions Analysis Platform), WEAP (Water Evaluation and Planning), and Trase (a supply-chain transparency initiative co-founded with Global Canopy in 2015) — alongside 17+ specialized tools spanning ML-based wetland monitoring, SDG alignment, climate-data processing, policy tracking, and emissions accounting. The institute publishes a substantial body of peer-reviewed research (3,854+ publications, 169 peer-reviewed articles annually, 13,099 scientific citations) and operates a global network spanning 90+ countries with 257 active projects as of 2025.

SEI's revenue model is grant-funded rather than commercial. It does not sell products; its publications, tools, and policy guidance are distributed freely. Total income was 468 million SEK (~$44-46M USD) in 2025, with the Government of Sweden as the largest funder, supplemented by public research funders, philanthropic foundations, bilateral and multilateral development agencies (including the EU Commission, Norad, and Asian Development Bank), and project-specific partners. SEI reached 3,891 media mentions in 2025 with a 9.4 billion potential reach, and its Production Gap Report has been cited by the UN Secretary General and in the 2021 District Court of The Hague ruling against Shell.

Name

Stockholm Environment Institute

Legal name

Stiftelsen The Stockholm Environment Institute

Website

https://sei.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1989

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

Stockholm Environment Institute is a Swedish non-profit research foundation that conducts interdisciplinary environmental and climate research and builds proprietary analytical tools (LEAP, WEAP, Trase), serving governments, UN agencies, development banks, and select private-sector partners across 90+ countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Environmental Research and Policy Analysis

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169)

SIC

Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700)

akta.pro primary industry

ESG, Sustainability & Impact Research (BPAHALAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Sustainability & ESG Consulting (BPAHACAK), Sustainability, ESG & Climate Risk Advisory (BPAHAJAH), Sustainability & ESG Reporting (GRI/SASB/ISSB/CSRD) (EUAHAJAB)

Keywords

• Environmental research services
• Climate policy analysis
• Energy modeling tools
• Water resource planning
• Sustainability research

Headquarters

HQ city

Stockholm

HQ country

Sweden

HQ region

Europe

Offices10 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Government Funding: The Government of Sweden is the largest funder. SEI also receives funds from public research funders, bilateral and multilateral development agencies, and governments.
2. Philanthropic Foundation Grants: Funding from philanthropic foundations supporting environmental and sustainable development research.
3. Development Agency Partnerships: Bilateral and multilateral development agencies provide project funding for specific research initiatives.
4. Total Income: 468 million SEK total income reported in 2025.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

SEI conducts policy-relevant environmental and sustainable development research and operates a suite of proprietary analytical tools (LEAP, WEAP, Trase, SDG Synergies, Consumption Compass 2.0, EU Green Policy Tracker, Climate Neutrality Tool) used by governments, UN agencies, development banks, and researchers to inform climate, energy, water, and land-use decisions. The institute generates peer-reviewed publications, policy briefs, modeling platforms, and capacity-building programs disseminated globally at no cost.

Product overview

The Stockholm Environment Institute operates as a research institute offering a suite of data-driven analytical tools and platforms for environmental and climate planning. The portfolio includes flagship modeling tools (LEAP, WEAP), supply chain transparency platforms (Trase), policy tracking tools (EU Green Policy Tracker), and various specialized data analysis tools. These products are used for climate, energy, water, and sustainability planning, serving governments, researchers, and organizations worldwide. The offering is a platform-plus-specialized-tools architecture rather than a single unified product.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• LEAP (Low Emissions Analysis Platform): SEI's flagship energy planning and modelling tool for examining policies to combat climate change and build resilience against energy price fluctuations
• WEAP
• Trase
• SDG Synergies
• Consumption Compass 2.0

Products and services

• LEAP (Low Emissions Analysis Platform) Energy planning and modeling tool that allows nations to examine policies to combat climate change and build resilience against fluctuating oil and gas prices, with detailed transport planning capabilities.
• WEAP (Water Evaluation and Planning) Software tool for integrated water resources planning that supports stakeholders in water management decisions.
• Trase Data-driven transparency initiative that maps international trade and financing of agricultural commodities to address tropical deforestation.
• SDG Synergies Tool for exploring synergies and trade-offs between Sustainable Development Goals.
• Consumption Compass 2.0 Data platform tracking greenhouse gas emissions from households in Sweden for over 100 consumption categories.
• EU Green Policy Tracker Tool that tracks implementation of environmental and climate policies across EU member states.
• Climate Neutrality Tool Modeling tool that helps plan national-level transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
• Policy Research and Peer-Reviewed Publications Evidence-based policy research, peer-reviewed journal articles, briefs, reports, and working papers covering climate, energy, water, land, governance, economy, gender, and health for governments, UN agencies, and development organizations.
• Capacity Building and Partnership Programs Partnership-based capacity building programs (e.g., SUMERNET, LeadIT) empowering policymakers, communities, and companies to apply SEI tools and findings in climate and sustainability initiatives.

Quantifiable outcome

• Influenced the COP28 agreement to transition away from fossil fuels through the Production Gap Report
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• Trase (data initiative)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 27 April 2025Trase is a not-for-profit partnership founded by SEI and Global Canopy in 2015 that maps international trade and financing of agricultural commodities. It enables companies, financial institutions and governments to address tropical deforestation.
• Global CanopycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGlobal Canopy is the co-founding partner of Trase, SEI's flagship supply chain transparency initiative. Founded together in 2015, the partnership enables data-driven transparency in agricultural commodity trade to address tropical deforestation.
• University of YorkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSEI York is a unit in the Department of Environment and Geography at the University of York. The partnership conducts joint research on environmental policy, deforestation, and sustainability.
• Leiden UniversitymajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated with SEI and University of York on the EU deforestation footprint analysis report, providing research expertise from the Institute of Environmental Science.
• Jupiter IntelligencemajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSEI partnered with Jupiter Intelligence to map climate risk across global mineral, energy and food supply chains. This research partnership assesses cross-border climate risk across the minerals-energy-food (MEF) complex.
• WattTimemajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerUS-based WattTime collaborated with SEI, Klimatkollen, and Berget AI on investigating the true carbon impact of AI to enhance transparency in the sector.
• KlimatkollenmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated with WattTime, SEI, and Berget AI on AI carbon impact research collaboration.
• Berget AImajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with WattTime, Klimatkollen, and SEI on investigating the carbon impact of AI technologies.
• LeadIT (Leadership for Industry Transition)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSEI co-leads LeadIT with the Indian Institute for Technology. Through this project, SEI helped 18 Indian and Swedish companies set up pre-pilot decarbonization projects, a model for public-private climate cooperation praised by India's Environment Minister at COP30.
• IKEAmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSEI partnered with IKEA on making air pollution a key part of sustainability reporting, contributing to a new framework for logistics emissions now used by 14,000+ organizations in 100+ countries.
• MaerskmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSEI collaborated with Maersk on air quality and logistics emissions framework that is now used by over 14,000 organizations globally.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Climate Analytics: Climate Analytics is a climate science and policy institute that produces scientific analysis on the 1.5°C limit and supports vulnerable countries in negotiations; it operates with the same science-to-policy model and similar grant-funded revenue base as SEI's climate practice.
• International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED): IIED works with partners on climate, biodiversity and sustainable livelihoods, with strong emphasis on local action and inclusion, closely mirroring SEI's community-led, partnership-based approach and its funding mix of Northern foundations and development agencies.
• Germanwatch: Germanwatch is a non-profit environmental and development think tank producing policy analysis, advocacy and indices on climate and trade, with a similar grant-driven model and science-to-policy approach centered on European and global climate negotiations.
• Global Canopy: Global Canopy is SEI's co-founding partner on Trase, focusing on deforestation and commodity-driven nature loss; it shares a non-profit science-to-policy model and overlapping funder network, making it a close peer in transparency tools and nature policy work.
• Resources for the Future (RFF): RFF is an independent, non-partisan research institution producing rigorous economic and policy analysis on environmental, energy and natural resource issues, operating as a comparable non-profit research institute addressing science-to-policy challenges akin to SEI's mandate.
• International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD): IISD is a non-profit think tank producing policy research and tools on trade, investment, climate and natural resources; like SEI, it bridges science and policy and serves governments, multilaterals and development agencies, making it a near-direct peer in mandate and funding sources.
• Wuppertal Institute: The Wuppertal Institute is a German applied research organization producing energy transition, climate and sustainability policy analysis; like SEI, it combines modeling tools, policy advisory, and project-based public funding across multiple thematic areas.

Broad incumbents

• European Environment Agency (EEA): The EEA provides independent environmental information and assessments across EU member states, overlapping with SEI's EU Green Policy Tracker and pan-European policy analysis work; it serves as an EU-level institutional counterpart in scope and authority.
• UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme): UNEP sets the global environmental agenda and produces major assessments that drive policy; SEI partners with UNEP on methane and climate work, positioning them as peers in convening authority on environment and development research.
• World Resources Institute (WRI): WRI is a global research organization working at the intersection of environment and development, producing flagship datasets (CAIT, Global Forest Watch) and policy analysis that compete with and complement SEI's LEAP, WEAP and Trase offerings across governments, multilaterals and corporates.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/SEIresearch
• Facebookfacebook.com/StockholmEnvironmentInstitute

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Subsidiaries7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Stockholm Environment Institute