We at the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) provide information and services for political decision-making, sustainable business activities, and for research partners. For citizens, we offer up-to-date information on the environment, tools for assessing their own environmental footprint and for communicating their observations, for example, through these online services: Lake and sea wiki, Climate Diet ja Climate Guide.
Since 2001, Syke has been the designated national reference laboratory for the environmental sector. In our laboratory, we provide interlaboratory comparisons for testing and sampling purposes. Our expert and research services cover environmental measurements on a large-scale, both in the laboratory and on the field.
We provide open environmental information, which can be utilised by introducing spatial data and satellite observation data, data stored in environmental information systems, or various interface services. We also offer several map services, which facilitate the familiarisation with environmental information. Examples of our map services include the Liiteri information service for living environment (in Finnish), the Watermap (in Finnish), describing the ecological and chemical status of waters, and the accurate terrain resolution satellite image map service, Tarkka.
We coordinate several networks to solve environmental issues: Hinku municipalities aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by the year 2030. In the Canemure-project, seven Finnish regions work together for climate change mitigation. FISU municipalities are committed to common resource wisdom goals, and the CIRCWASTE network of pioneering municipalities is driving Finland towards a circular economy. Finnish water restoration and management network provides information and experiences on the restoration of water bodies.
Aranda is a modern ice-reinforced research vessel suitable for multidisciplinary, year-round marine research. With well-equipped laboratory facilities and a data-processing system, samples can be analysed, and results processed already during the journey. The vessel is rented for marine research. Although, primarily designed for research in the Baltic Sea, Aranda is capable to operate in all other seas of the world as well, from the Atlantic to Antarctic.
Flood centre situational picture and forecasting service
The Flood centre predicts and warns of floods and maintains a continuous situational picture related to them. The services are provided for regional authorities, as well as, for residents and operators of flood areas.
Hydrological services provide up-to-date hydrological information from all over Finland. We provide information for flood management, river basin regulation, flood forecasting, hydrological modeling, land use planning and research projects. Our services include design of hydrological monitoring network, evaluation service for river basin management and hydraulic modelling service.
We have a solid expertise in the development of local environmental administration. In transition economies and developing countries, we have strengthened the countries’ capacity in areas, such as, water monitoring, spatial data expertise, and laboratory know-how of environmental authorities.
Environmental permits are mainly granted by Regional State Administrative Agencies and municipal environmental authorities, but Finnish Environment Institute grants a few special permits: CITES export and import permits and EU certificates for endangered species of wild fauna and flora, and transfrontier shipments of waste.
Market surveillance and official duties
At the Finnish Environment Institute, we handle import and export notifications of banned or severely restricted chemicals, and the market surveillance of the EU ecolabel, the quality of transport fuels, ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases). We are also responsible for the reporting of F-gases in Finland and the official duties regarding ODS and F-gases. and provide related information and advice.
We organise various environmental events, seminars, and training for stakeholder and customer groups. Seminars related to research and development projects can be found on the project-specific pages.
More information
Service development director
Heli Karjalainen
Finnish Environment Institute (Syke)
firstname.lastname@syke.fi