Sustainability at Formas

Formas contributes to sustainable development in many ways, by funding research and innovation and through our other assignments. Our work is based on the vision “Knowledge builds a sustainable world”, and we strive to practice what we preach within our organisation.

A focus on the environment

With our sustainability efforts, our first priority is reducing the environmental impact of our activities and operations. We follow the environment-related requirements for the work of public agencies with environmental management system External link. and online meetings External link. (REMM - Virtual Meetings in Public Agencies). We also strive to be an attractive and responsible employer. Additionally, we are committed to integrating the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development into our activities and operations to more systematically amplify our contribution to the global sustainability goals.

Environmental policy and goals

We updated our environmental policy and our environmental goals in October 2024, based on the 2024 Environmental Assessment.

The Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Formas) is a public agency and research funding body. We invest in knowledge creation to enable a sustainable transition. We do this by funding research and innovation of the highest scientific quality and societal relevance. Our mission also includes systematic research compilations that can help Sweden in achieving its national environmental objectives and in communicating research and research findings. Since 2018, Formas has been the host agency for the Swedish Climate Policy Council, an independent interdisciplinary expert body that evaluates the Government’s climate policy.

We base our work on our vision “Knowledge builds a sustainable world”, and our daily work is focused on expanding the positive contributions of our activities and operations. We also strive to practice what we preach, and we want to reduce the negative impact our activities may have on the environment. For this reason, we encourage applying environmental considerations in our funded projects, the reduction of emissions from business travel, the use of online meetings and sustainable meeting formats, and placing environmental demands on the products and services we purchase.

We are to conduct systematic environmental efforts to achieve and contribute to applicable environmental legislation, ordinances and other binding requirements, Sweden’s national environmental quality objectives, and the Sustainable Development Goals from the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda.

We do this by:

  • Continually advancing the Council’s contribution to sustainable development
  • Protecting the environment through measures that prevent and minimise negative impacts
  • Reducing consumption and waste, promoting recycling, reuse and resource efficiency
  • Weighing environmental considerations when selecting products and services
  • Encouraging and creating opportunities for staff to take environmental considerations
  • Integrating environmental efforts in existing processes and striving to continually improve
  • Collaborating with stakeholders for sustainable development

The environmental policy includes environmental goals for Formas and an action plan for their fulfillment. These governance documents make up the foundation in our environmental management system and are to be revised at least once every three years. The environmental policy is made available to all.

Formas’ environmental policy, environmental goals and associated environmental action plan with division of responsibilities have been formulated with consideration given to the most significant environmental aspects identified in the 2024 Environmental Assessment. The target areas include overall long-term goals and milestones with shorter time horizons. Formas’ environmental goals for the period 2024–2027 are as follows:

  1. Reduce potential negative environmental impacts in projects funded by Formas.
  2. Achieve annual reductions in emissions from business travel, reaching net zero by 2030.
    2.1 Reduce carbon emissions from business travel by 90 percent by the end of 2027 compared with the base period 2017–2019, to a maximum of 11 tonnes carbon dioxide.
  3. Continue developing of online meeting formats and reduce the environmental impact of physical meetings.
  4. Reduce the environmental impact of products and services through systematic and environmentally adapted procurements and purchases.
  5. Reduce the use of resources and waste in our operations, with a focus on electronic products, food and office supplies.

Selected actions taken

We work daily in different ways to improve our sustainability efforts. This includes having a special policy for meetings and travel and initiatives to support online work that began even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

We encourage consideration of the environment in the projects we fund and have included environmental considerations in guidelines for procurements. At the office, we have comprehensive sorted recycling of waste and work for a more circular disposal of discarded IT equipment. A complete list of these measures is included in our report to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. This information is included in the annual compilation of work of public agencies with environmental management External link..

Opinions and ideas for our sustainability work are welcomed.

Contact information

Updated:11 November 2024
Page manager: Elisabet Blomberg