Green public procurement (GPP) can be used as an instrument to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and consideration of environmental aspects within public procurement is becoming more common in Sweden and internationally. Two product groups that have been pointed out as especially important are transports and electricity, where the opportunities for public purchasers to reduce emissions are relatively large. This paper studies GPP which aims at reducing emissions, primarily of carbon dioxide, through environmental requirements within these two product groups. A theoretical analysis of cost-effectiveness, transaction costs and effects on technological development is performed, followed by a closer study of how these aspects appear in practice within GPP. The results indicate that a cost-effective allocation of reductions between the two product groups is most likely to be attained if the main part of emission reduction is achieved through environmental requirements on electricity. The cost for emission reduction within transports is relatively high, especially for heavy transports. For transportation services, more generally focused requirements on emission reductions could probably give greater environmental gains, but the existence of transaction costs steer the environmental requirements towards more technology specific types.

South Africa has been among the top ten wine producing countries for at least 20 years. Even though the land under grapevines is decreasing globally it is still increasing in Africa. The awareness of environment has strengthen the last years and South African producers experience a high demand of environmentally friendly produced wine, especially from the European market. This demand was the driving force behind the development of the world unique sustainability certification, Integrated Production of Wine (IPW), which is inscribed in the South African legislation. What makes this certification unique is that consumers can trace their product all the way back to the farming practices owing to the identity number specified on the IPW Integrity & Sustainability seal on certified products.

This paper deals with stable isotope analysis on the children of the early Christian cemetery in Varnhem, Västergötland. Human bone and tooth material from the cemetery has been analysed for stable carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotopes. The analysis showed that the diet had been homogeneous and that the children had been breastfed, with a possible exception of the child from grave 100..

The rainforests of the world are important not only to the countries in which they grow but to the world as a whole. They influence oxygen and water circulation as well as carbon sequestration which in turn affect global radiation and global warming. The forest also have great value and in Malaysia as in many other tropical countries large volumes are harvested which leaves great areas of degraded forest with little growth and biological diversity. Due to their low financial value these forests are often transformed and used for other purposes than forestry such as oil palm plantations. The trees are often transported out of the forest using large bulldozers. They are heavy which causes compaction of the forest floor and during transport the top soil layers are moved to improve mobility.

Lokala investeringsprogram was a subsidy program which supported environmental reforms during the years 1998 to 2002. The subsidies were given to Swedish municipalities. Most of the evaluations of the subsidised projects have now been completed and included in a database. The purpose with this thesis is to analyse whether the instrument has been effective with respect to carbon dioxide reductions and costs. These calculations have focused on subsidy and cost efficiency. The analysis has been compared with a previous report called "LIP ur ett samhällsekonomiskt perspektiv". The result shows that the reduction cost for one kg CO2 has been almost one SEK, which is twice as high as the cost reported in a previous report, half a SEK.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects on a simulated wastewater plant regarding GHG emissions and use of energy and resources when implementing source separated wastewater systems. The effects were studied for different restrictions of effluent quality and for different temperatures on the influent. The simulation model BSM2G calibrated for Käppala wastewater treatment plant was used. The task was executed by simulating nine different scenarios with an increase in influent load from new connections equivalent to 3, 10 and 30 % of the present connections. These new connections were served by conventional, urine separated or black water separated systems.

The effect of climate change places demands on how we build cities. Cities have to be built denser to meet the objectives of sustainability but as a result of this densification city green areas are at risk of exploitationand disappearing. The question this raises is whether there has to be an opposition between a dense and a green city?Urban trees are playing a very important role in cities. They stand as the major part of the vegetation in citieswhich are otherwise dominated with concrete and stone.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, OTEC, a technology using the temperature difference between cold deep seawater and warm surface water, can extract the work in the form of electricity. OTEC gives also synergies of drinkable fresh water. The temperature difference has an impact on the efficiency of the technology, which means that the feasibility of OTEC is geographically limited. The project intends to explore the possibility of replacing the atoll Tarawa?s present electricity generation with an OTEC plant and to explore synergies. In the present situation all of Tarawa?s electricity is generated by fossil fuels.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, OTEC, a technology using the temperature difference between cold deep seawater and warm surface water, can extract the work in the form of electricity. OTEC gives also synergies of drinkable fresh water. The temperature difference has an impact on the efficiency of the technology, which means that the feasibility of OTEC is geographically limited. The project intends to explore the possibility of replacing the atoll Tarawa?s present electricity generation with an OTEC plant and to explore synergies. In the present situation all of Tarawa?s electricity is generated by fossil fuels.

Due to recent legal enactments regarding carbon dioxide emissions, the car industry is facing higher demands. An effective way of reducing these emissions is to minimize the weight of the vehicle. This thesis constitutes a feasibility study on whether or not it is applicable for the car industry to utilize an inner floor structure comprising composite materials. The principal was the projectSåNätt, in which the main participant was Volvo Cars Corp. In consultation with a reference group, consisting of delegates from the industry and KTH, a specification of requirements was produced.

This study will identify the environmental impact in terms of carbon dioxide for a boiler house on behalf of Kvänum energi. The boiler central consists of a main building, which in turn contains multiple components such as boilers, pipes, etc, the boiler central uses pellets fuel. It also includes a silo and an ash container. The total weight of the boiler is about 63 tons. Each boiler has an output of 600 kW; the central includes three boilers with room for a fourth if necessary.

This report is a bachelor's thesis of two students from the Energy and Environment degree at KTH Stockholm. Grinda is an island situated Stockholm archipelago. Skärgårdsstiftelsen is landowners and manages the area. Grinda Wärdshus, a guest house located in the island, currently uses an oil-fired boiler as a heating system. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether wood chips or pellets is, from a sustainability standpoint, a suitable heating method for the guest house.

Due to recent legal enactments regarding carbon dioxide emissions, the car industry is facing higher demands. An effective way of reducing these emissions is to minimize the weight of the vehicle. This thesis constitutes a feasibility study on whether or not it is applicable for the car industry to utilize an inner floor structure comprising composite materials. The principal was the projectSåNätt, in which the main participant was Volvo Cars Corp. In consultation with a reference group, consisting of delegates from the industry and KTH, a specification of requirements was produced.

Climate change is one of the most difficult problems that humans have to deal with. Today, the evidence of human effects on the climate change and the rise of temperature on earth are strong. It is extremely important that all countries get together and cooperate in order to be able to solve the problem with climate change. One step in the work on climate changes is the Convention on Climate Change, which was agreed on in 1992. The Convention on Climate Change resulted in the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement between a number of industrialized countries to limit or reduce the green gas emissions.

På senare år har en ny trend inom miljöarbetet uppstått. Istället för att bara vara miljövänliga tar vissa företag och organisationer det hela ett steg längre och klimatkompenserar för de utsläpp de har. Företag som klimatkompenserar hävdar att de gör allt de kan för att först och främst minska de direkta utsläpp som de förorsakar. Som en sista åtgärd, för att ytterligare minska företagets påverkan på miljön, kompenserar företagen för sina utsläpp genom att delta i något miljöfrämjande projekt. De bakomliggande motiven till att klimatkompensera är främst ett starkt miljöengagemang inom företaget sedan tidigare.