The municipalities of Sweden have a great responsibility when it comes to adapt the physical planning to a more sustainable development. The development of the society depends upon the growth of new communities and other public services, but to build new communities in a long-term sustainable manner you need good methods and guidance. This study presents four sustainability certification scheme intended to improve and adapt the planning, implementation and performance of new communities and infrastructure project to more sustainable methods based on economic, ecological and social sustainability. These systems are the latest versions of environmental classifications and similar rating schemes, but with a broader focus since they also include the social aspect of sustainability.This study aims to investigate what role sustainability certification schemes can play in local planning for sustainable development. The study compares the Certification systems criteria to the tools and goals that the Swedish municipalities have been provided with, to lead efforts towards a more sustainable society.

Certifications is common for IT in relation to individual program languages or program applications. Certifications for educations that endures several years is not as common to see. In this paper the situation for the Systems Science programme is researched, by investigating how the programme looks around in Sweden. Also by using interviews, show how companies and people responsible for the programme in Umeå, think the contact is between them and how the knowledge of the Systems Science students are from the view of the companies that employ them. In the end the conclusions show that there are differences in the Systems Science programme, and that the companies have quite a similar view of what the Systems Science students are good and not so good at.

During the past few years an increased attention has been paid to environmental issues in the construction and property sector in Sweden. In order to simplify the work with these issues a Swedish environmental certification system for buildings called Miljöbyggnad has been developed. This thesis aims to investigate the opinion of a selected number of selected property owners of Miljöbyggnad. From that basis recommendations and actions for the future work with the system will be presented.The investigation has been conducted through personal interviews with five property owners. The main issues that the interviews have been based on are their purpose, experiences, perceived complications and future prospects in terms of certification using Miljöbyggnad.The system intends to be cost-effective, simple and to offer a relevant environmental assessment of buildings and the result from the report indicates that this is largely fulfilled.

The objective of this study was to make an inventory and a potential analysis of the organic beef production in the region of Gävleborg, Sweden. A survey was conducted, where a questionaire was sent to all farmers in the region who had environmental subsidies concerning organic cropping systems in 2001. In total, there were 701 farmers, of which 46 % participated in the study. Three slaughter houses were interviewed to get their pictures of the development of organic beef production. The study shows that there are potentials and interests in the region to increase the production of organic beef.

Different groups in the forestry sector were likely to have different views regarding the responsibility for an environmentally sustainable forestry and the benefits of certification and this study aimed to examine the attitudes that existed in the forestry sector to the certification schemes FSC and PEFC. In the study a survey and a questionnaire were sent out to different groups. The investigation was made with respect to three groups: forest owners, forest contractors and employees working with the certification schemes on a daily basis at the forest company Södra. The groups agreed that the owner of the forest had the main responsibility for an environmentally sustainable forestry. The study revealed that all three groups highly valued the environmental aspect of certification.

Titel                                    Indirect economic impacts of a national environment certification as financial business strategyAuthors                              Ida Antonsson, Emma Hellberg and Linn RingströmAdvisor                              Arne SöderbomCourse                               Bachelor thesis ? business administrationSeminar date                     2013-05-27Purpose                              The main aim of this study is to describe and analyze how private corporations use national environment certifications as a business strategy to gain power and financial benefits. By studying already certified corporation in Sweden, this study aims to understand, explore and develop already existing theoretical theories and concepts concerning ?national environment certifications?.Background                      All corporations have an impact on the environment. Therefor many corporations use a variety of worldwide certifications to be able to prove to ?others? that the corporation meets national- and international set goals.

Environmental issues are global problems and they are a major challenge for any successful organizational business worldwide. Many challenges and opportunities emerge during the certification process of an EMS. Therefore it is interesting to contribute in understanding these emerging problems during this process.The aim of this study is to explore how the environmental objectives could be achieved at preschools in Uppsala, investigate the perceived challenges and opportunities and to identify the outcome of implementing the ISO 14001, Green Flag at such set up.A qualitative method is used and three Green Flag certified preschools, affiliated to the Uppsala Municipality and located at different geographical location were selected. A structured interview with the environmental representatives from the preschools and the municipality was completed. The so-called PDCA-cycle as a method of evaluating sustainable development and analysing the imperial data is used.The study showed that environmental certification constitutes a great challenge for the municipality of Uppsala.

Nature conservation on certified small private forest owners- a comparison between the two Certification systems FSC and PEFC in southern Sweden Today two different Certification systems are used in Sweden to certify forest, FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and PEFC (Pan European Forest Certification). During the last years certification of forests in general and different Certification systems have frequently been debated. FSC is a globally widespread system and about 10 million ha out of 23 million ha Swedish forest is FSC-certified. The FSC-standard is mainly used by major forest companies and to some extent also by smaller private forest owners. PEFC is a European system and about 2 million ha Swedish forests is PEFC-certified today.

In the construction industry today there is a significant technological revolution goingon. New methods for automated processes and information management are developedcontinuously. Intense studies are currently taking place to ensure ways and means toembrace the new technology of BIM.At the present, environmental Certification systems are considered cumbersome andchallenging. However, the increasing demands of sustainable development in the constructionindustry imply that the environmental certifications will not disappear. ThisMaster Thesis examines the possibilities to apply BIM technology within the field ofenvironmental certifications to streamline the processes.The applications that provide the best opportunities are:- To use BIM to be able to, during the design stage, dynamically evaluate the resultor score a certain building will achieve.- To avoid unnecessary work through collection of data for calculations directlyfrom a BIM-model.- To be able to automate certain time consuming calculations that are currentlyperformed manually.- To automatically examine the completed model to ensure that the demands arefulfilled.The possibilities to use BIM within these areas are however limited by the technologyitself.

The public libraries in Sweden has an obligation to serve all of its citizens, but despite of this they often fail to include their LGBTQ-patrons. Since the year of 2008 RFSL (the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights) have arranged a specially designed certification-process based on normcritical criterias that a chosen institution should fulfill to make their work more inclusive for LGBTQ-people. Sollentuna is the first municipal in Sweden to certificate all of their libraries. This study aims to examine what the certification have meant for the public library in Sollentuna and how a normcritical view can contribute to include LGBTQ-patrons at the library. As a method we used a qualitative interview-study to get a full picture of the certification-process and its influence on the public library of Sollentuna.

This study investigates the relationship strategies the group Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification holder has with the forest owners. The (FSC) standard enables an organization to manage a group of forest management units under a single certificate, a process referred to as group certification. Some certificate holders want a close relationship with the forest owner before they are offered to become part of their certificate. Other certificate holders have less strict demands on a close relationship with the forest owner before they are offered to become part of their certificate. The study shows that it is in many ways desirable to have a close relationship between forest owner and group certification holder..

Certification systems, that assess companies? work with social and environmental issues, have emerged in an increasing number of industries. Today, there are environmental certifications for the food industry, the forestry, the fisheries sector and several more. In apparel industry, certification for sustainable working conditions has been of major impact. The property sector is no exception from other industries.

AbstractThe customer demand for ecological products has increased in recent years, within the garden industry this mainly concerns herbs and other edible plants. The organic trend is increasing and more people are aware of the environment and want to take responsibility for it through their purchases for their garden as well.In this essay the aim is to investigate customer demand and the possibility of selling organicperennial plants in eight garden centres on the Åland islands and in Gävle/Sandviken. I include two garden centres with an organic profile to get a wider point of view. I investigate the global market for organic perennials and look further into existing certification standards on the Swedish market today.The methods I have been using are interviews and a literature study.The study shows that the experienced demand for organic perennials is small in both of myinvestigated groups. The biggest motivation for starting to sell organic perennials would be to find a supplier of these plants and that more customer would ask for them.

These days most companies conduct some form of work for the external environment, quality and safety. In connection with this work, some companies have chosen to get management systems certified by any applicable standard for one or more of the fields while other companies have chosen other ways that are not associated with certification.In light of the fact that the individual systems are becoming unmanageable an increasing number of these companies are faced with the decision whether to integrate and coordinate these different systems or not. In order to study the possibilities of a company?s system coordination an assessment of elements particularly interesting for the company was performed. The key elements and focuses in the evaluation were staff access to information, experiences from other companies and environmental work status for some of the organization's companies.

The aim with this study was to gain an understanding for teaching as an profession, and get a bigger knowledge about the certification of teaching and what it means for the teaching occupations status. To get an answer for this study two methods were used. The first method was a survey with questions that were sent out to working high school teachers in the North of Sweden. The second method was a document analysis of articales from three Swedish dailynewspapers. To analyse the results from this study a theory about professions is used troughout the whole paper.This studies resluts shows that profession as an definition is hard to undestand.