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Whether it’s governance, ease of doing business, or filing taxes, Estonia is renowned for its streamlined and transparent processes. And now there’s one more area to be disrupted, with AI in the game.
A new Estonian startup is tackling greenwashing in the construction sector with a digital platform that helps manufacturers worldwide create Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) – verified documentation of a product’s true carbon footprint.
Lodestar emerged from a 2022 Garage48 hackathon and is led by CEO Anni Oviir, the first EPD verifier in the Baltic states and co-author of Estonia’s national carbon footprinting method for buildings developed at TalTech. Oviir has assembled a team of Life Cycle Assessment professionals based at Lift99 in Tallinn, who already support building product manufacturers across Europe, the US, and UK. She has sat down with the Estonian Investment Agency to discuss Lodestar.
“Until now, the topic of sustainability has been largely led by marketers, which can lead to greenwashing,” explains Oviir. “But unsubstantiated environmental claims are worthless. Evidence shows they are now more likely to put off buyers and damage business reputation. Increasingly, it’s only verified impacts that really matter, and so we built Lodestar to make it easier to understand and declare them.”
Anni Oviir
From hackathon to market-ready solution
Lodestar’s journey began at Digital Construction 2022, a Garage48 hackathon at the Estonian Academy of Arts, where Oviir’s concept won first place. The development was supported by a €69,000 EU grant through the Estonian Climate Ministry from NextGenerationEU funds, which the team matched to build the initial tool iteration.
After extensive industry validation across Europe and the US, including time spent in California, the platform was completely rebuilt in 2025 by cofounder and CTO Tanel Teinemaa using the latest AI technology.
“What attracted me to the challenge of working on Lodestar is that the team has deep domain expertise and a very clear understanding of what value they want technology to deliver for building product manufacturers,” says Teinemaa. “They’re not just serial entrepreneurs trying another startup idea. They’ve thought deeply about this over a long period and yet it’s only in the past year that advances in AI have enabled the level of functionality required to build this service so it’s an incredibly exciting time.”
Why EPDs matter
The construction sector accounts for approximately 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with EPDs becoming essential requirements for Nordic construction tenders. These declarations use scientific methodology and independent verification to reveal the total carbon cost of products, including scope 3 emissions from the supply chain.
Despite Estonia delaying mandatory building carbon footprint assessments, many Estonian manufacturers have proactively adopted EPDs to boost export competitiveness and demonstrate genuine environmental transparency.
“For buildings, as well as almost anything we consume, most of the carbon cost is emitted further up the supply chain, known as scope 3 emissions. EPDs are the best way to factor these in and understand the total carbon cost,” says Oviir. “At present, though, high quality EPDs are often only accessible at a reasonable cost to manufacturers who can invest in them at scale. We want to make EPDs accessible to all manufacturers, big and small.”
Technology raising the bar
Lodestar’s platform provides quality reviews that guide EPD developers through complex requirements before verification, saving time and cost. The AI-powered system has shown unexpected capabilities.
“The biggest problem we had was that the AI technology seemed to be making too many corrections, until we realised that it was understanding the standards and requirements more deeply than we’ve seen human developers and verifiers apply them to date,” says Oviir. “That makes us really excited about how we can raise quality at scale and cement EPDs as the lodestar for growing a competitive business more sustainably.”
Manufacturers are also discovering that EPDs serve as optimization tools, helping identify where production and supply chain processes can be improved, as carbon efficiency often correlates with broader business efficiency.
Estonian advantage
Oviir believes Estonia’s straightforward communication style gives the country a natural advantage in leading this shift from marketing-driven to data-driven sustainability.
“Real sustainability is not about pretending to be perfect. I think buyers and consumers across all sectors appreciate a more straight-talking and tangible, data-driven approach to sustainability, far more than vague slogans,” she says. “Fortunately, we Estonians are already known for being blunt and getting straight to the point so it makes sense that we can help lead this change.”
While currently focused on EPDs in construction, where demand continues rising as EU legislation takes effect, Teinemaa notes the platform’s potential extends to regulatory and standards-based documentation across other sectors.
