About Us

The HELLENIC INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTS (HIEA) is a non-profit organization whose institutional purpose is to carry out the following activities relating to sustainable development and the environment, as defined in its broadest sense to include the natural, economic and social environment.

The framework of its activities is divided into the following three sections.

Specifically:

Section A: Environmental Statistics and Accounts, mainly at regional and local level.

1. Advice and recommendations on environmental protection and improvement issues to central government agencies, local authorities – mainly municipalities – and other institutional entities in the broader public and private sectors.
2. Estimation of environmental variable statistics and compiling the corresponding environmental accounts and sustainable development indexes at the local level, mainly in municipalities or other local units, depending on the focus of environmental protection.
3. The preparation of environmental performance indexes at national and local level, as well as other measures through which the level of sustainable development and the general well-being of citizens will be represented over time, as expressed by the principles of the “Program of Beyond GDP”, both for the country as a whole and for the respective local units.

Section B: Statistics and Ecosystem Accounts.

1. Advice and recommendations for the conservation, development, and sustainable management of ecosystems at the local level based on the conclusive principle of the Paris Climate Agreement, which refers to “think globally, act locally”.
2. Assessment of statistics on ecological variables relating to biodiversity at the local level, particularly in municipalities or other local units, depending on the focus of interest in the area of ecological protection.
3. The preparation of ecosystem accounts at the local level, which are derived from the corresponding statistics on ecological and environmental variables that make up these accounts.
4. The development of indexes to reflect the level of environmental and ecosystem status in the area under study, as well as its change over time. These indexes will be a combination of many parameters so that they can be used as an effective tool for rational sustainable development that benefits the well-being of citizens.

Section C: Other actions

1. The introduction and documentation of new techniques and methods for assessing the environmental variables that define and shape their dynamics, and their incorporation into the methodological manuals of environmental statistics and accounts.
2. The development, promotion, and simplification of environmental scientific thinking and the dissemination of its principles at a practical level with the aim of slowing down and preventing climate change.
3. Introduction of the principles of environmental science into education through presentations and other activities at all levels of education, including lifelong learning.
4. Cooperation with other scientific bodies in Greece and abroad, including institutes, universities, and any other body related to the field of public or private environmental research.
5. In order to achieve its objectives, the company has the ability to organize conferences and workshops or participate in them, presenting its results and all necessary scientific documentation. These results, and in particular the statistical and environmental indexes, will mainly concern the environment, considered in its broadest sense, its sustainable development, and ecosystem balances.
6. All statistical and environmental indexes, as well as the results of all the company’s actions, will be published at regular intervals on the company’s website for use by all public and private entities that implement environmental policy in our country and in other countries.
7. In order to further disseminate the results of environmental research and inform the public, the company will issue press releases and make presentations to collective and scientific bodies.