Assessing the outcome of corporate responsibility is often argued to be complicated due to long-term effects and qualitative aspects. Epstein (2008, p.261) establishes that: ?Though many think that sustainability is too difficult to measure, companies have found that unless the impacts are measured, they are commonly ignored in the resource allocation process?. Corporate responsibility is often referred to as a business case, i.e., that social and environmental concern add value to the business (Heikkurinen, 2010; Porter & van der Linde, 1995). Hence, for corporate responsibility to be a business case a strategy, corporate structure and systems, programmes and actions linked to performance measures need to be in place to assess the outcome; environmental, social as well as financial.

As the environmental requirements on businesses increase from various stakeholders, the incentives for businesses to work more with environmental issues also increase. Historically, the requirements were focusing on companies with direct emissions from operations. Lately, the environmental impacts that occur indirectly as results of corporate activities have become more topical. Companies and organizations that mainly offer services often have a greater indirect than direct environmental impact. This is because they are affecting third parties, which in turn have a direct environmental impact.

Författarna till examensarbetet har intervjuat tre företag som tillsammans lämnade in över 15 000 förbättringsförslag år 2010. Avsikten med examensarbetet var att finna exempel på hur företag arbetar med Ständiga förbättringar i praktiken.Examensarbetet påbörjades med en litteraturstudie med Ständiga förbättringar som bas. Litteraturstudien fokuserade på implementering av Ständiga förbättringar, dess framgångsfaktorer och fallgropar. Efter detta genomfördes intervjuer på tre företag med en kvalitetsansvarig och en operatör i den mån det gick. Staffan Olsson, Operation Excellence Manager på Coca-Cola Enterprises Sverige AB, Håkan Lööw, Operations Manager, och Mulugeta Gerzgher, teamleader på sterilavdelningen på St.

In June 2013 a debate concerning the consumers? right to a label of origin on food packages was held in the Swedish parliament (www, Riksdagen, 2014). The debate was sparked by some food scandals where labelling was falsely used, claiming something that was not true ? the horse-meat scandal, frozen strawberries infected by Hepatitis A, pork sold as beef, etc. These cases were not only wrong in terms of food safety, but also fraudulent and threating consumers? right to fair origin labelling.

In many European countries there is an increasing concern about the occasionally high concentrations of nitrate and pesticides in drinking water. The advent of the EU Water Framework Directive particularly highlights this. The directive states that all large drinking water sources should be identified and protected from pollution before 2009 and that by 2015 all water bodies should reach a 'good status'. In Sweden about 60 percent of the drinking water sources have protection areas. This means that about 700 new water protection areas need to be designated before 2009. This will affect many farmers, restricting their farming practices. The purpose of this study was to investigate which methods are used in other countries concerning nitrate and pesticide pollution from agriculture. From this, the expectation was to generate ideas on what could be undertaken in Sweden when designating new protection areas.

Wastewater handling of private sewage systems has become an all increasing matter. In Stockholm region the 90 000 private sewage systems contribute with larger phosphorus flows to the Baltic Sea than the two biggest sewage plants in the area, Henriksdal and Käppala, contribute together, even though these two plants purify wastewater from more than one million inhabitants. When summer house areas turn into areas for permanent living ? transition areas ? the load on the existing systems increases, systems that already often are unsatisfying. In those areas it is not clear what the best system choice is; On-site systems for single households; Local collective systems or Connection to central systems.

This bachelor of economics paper discuss that the increasing globalization has put the small companies in the Swedish textile and clothing industry in a situation where internationalization has become a necessity. Furthermore has the European Union lead to that this type of companies has to seek growth on foreign markets with great socio cultural distance from the home country, Sweden. Nowadays there?s no time to internationalize in the same course of action like before. Before, the Swedish companies begun their operations abroad in fairly nearby countries and only gradually penetrated more far-flung markets.

In the last decade, member states of the European Union have adopted a range of measures to decrease the dependency on fossil fuels. This has led to an increased use of biomass in heat and power production. In some countries, the lack of forest resource has led to large scale power producers importing their biomass needs. Due to high energy content and homogeneity, wood pellets have become an internationally traded commodity used for large scale power production. The Baltic States have emerged as one of the largest wood pellet exporting regions in Europe.

Nature conservation has for a long time been founded on the assumption that high ecological values depend on low human impact. In Sweden this has led to forests with these characteristics being strictly protected from human influences. However, it is also known that historical land-use can enhance ecological values in forests. Mountainous forests in Sweden, which have not been affected by modern forestry, have for a long time been considered as untouched by people. However, forest history research has in recent years shown that even these areas have been used by people for a long period of time.

Unwanted vegetation on the land of electric transforming stations is a problem, in the sense that it contributes to higher fire risks and also constitutes an obstacle for people performing maintenance operations at the station. Such unwanted vegetation is controlled using herbicides and mechanical measures. Since the use of herbicides implies environmental hazards, there is a need to find alternative ways of fighting the unwanted vegetation. Investigation into suitable plants for ground cover, trials in the greenhouse, trials in the field, soil analyses and compilation of experiences from similar trials are parts of this work. The paper also contains analyses of possible environmental benefits and economical gains. There is also a final discussion of some proposals regarding alternative weed controlling methods.

This master of economics paper discuss that the globalization has lead to increasing internationalization among small Swedish IT- companies in the service sector. Sweden has a long history of foreign trade but in the beginning of the industrialization only large companies that produced goods answered for the foreign trade. Before, the Swedish companies begun their operations abroad in fairly nearby markets and only gradually penetrated far-flung countries. Now this is no longer possible. When small companies nowadays seek growth in other countries there is no time internationalize with the same approaches as before, especially when the company offers a service.

Executive summary This master thesis was originally based on a specific assignment given to the authors from ABB Full Service, a unit specializing in providing maintenance outsourcing: ?How can ABB Full Service expand its offering of providing fundamental maintenance by seamlessly incorporating the business concept with competencies and solutions from other ABB divisions?? The academic issue was developed throughout the thesis, resulting in the following formulation: ?From an organizational perspective; how can service providers bring continuous added value to intra-organizational outsourcing partnerships?? Many of the key findings of this thesis are reflected in the issue. The term intra-organizational outsourcing is a proposed addition to the terminology in the academic discourse on outsourcing. The definition of the term is: ? Where an organization outsources a business process interlinked with the physical operations, requiring the service provider to take over a preexisting unit and its employees.This is an accurate description of the form of outsourcing that ABB Full Service is engaged in.

HSB Göteborg owns and manages the property Masthugget 11:13 also called the Corvette in Gothenburg. The Corvette contains mostly office space but also shops, homes and garages. HSB Göteborg utilizes approximately 5000 square meters to its headquarters but in December 2014 they will move operations to Johanneberg Science Park. The risk of an increased proportion of vacancies in combination with relatively low rents and other tenant terminations allows HSB to ask for a future plan for how the real estate should be developed in order to remain profitable.Through studies of the area, urban office prospects, property current status and legal and economic conditions have different potential types of businesses been evaluated. City Planning Office program proposal forms the basis for the analysis of future plans for the area.

Being an architect I create spaces with roof, walls and fl oor. The availability of the essential materials to create such spaces is practically unlimited. The materials also play a significant part to the character of the created space. I hope to contribute to the general understanding of materials as elements in the design of urban spaces by having intensely explored one specific material in depth, pointing out its bad and good qualities. I am of the opinion that the reason for choosing a material shouldn?t be because of a shortage of knowledge, facts or references, but what character you want for the room. When travelling across Europe, it sometimes feels like clay paving is everywhere, but back in Sweden it is almost unseen of in modern landscape architecture.

Efter att ha ägt fastigheterna benämnda som Polstjärnan, belägna i stadsdelen Lindholmen på Norra Älvstranden i Göteborg, under många år ställs Wallenstam nu vid ett vägskäl. Med byggnader som åldrats och ett område som utvecklas ifrån dem växte fastighetsutvecklingsprojektet Polstjärnan fram.Syftet med arbetet är således att utreda en framtida utvecklingsplan för fastigheterna som är väl förankrad i området Lindholmen och kvarteret Polstjärnegatan-Karlavagnsgatan. Till att börja med ville jag få en bild av Lindholmen ser ut och vad det finns för planer för fortsatt utveckling i området. Därför kontaktade jag Johan Altenius, planarkitekt på stadsbyggnadskontoret i Göteborg och Anna Eckerstig, byggprojekt och verksamhetsansvarig på Chalmers Fastigheter.För att sedan skapa en gällande utgångspunkt för arbetet har flera personer på Wallenstam intervjuats. I dessa intervjuer har de fått ge sin bild av fastigheterna, dess historik och tidigare tankar på vidare utveckling.