The purpose of this project was to evaluate how energy efficiently some of JM?s residential buildings can become in standard production. What kind of measures are needed to achieve the level of energy demand that is included in BBR12 (Boverkets Byggregler)? What measures are needed for achieving a lower demand so that the buildings could be classified as passive houses? The investigation has included a single family house and two different types of apartment blocks.The simulation programs Enorm and VIP+ have been used to calculate the energy demand of the buildings. The results from the programs have been compared with the measured energy demand for the three buildings.

Growth of small businesses is vital to the Swedish economy, and many entrepreneurs want their enterprises to grow. However, the business climate of today is more changing than ever, and attributes becoming increasingly important for companies in order to deal with this are flexibility, speed, and adaptability: characteristics normally attributed to small enterprises. As a larger organization often is associated with more rigidity as a consequence of a higher degree of formalization, entrepreneurs are hesitant to seize growth opportunities, as they fear it will have negative impact on the aforementioned competitive advantages their enterprise possesses as a small business. This simple case study of a growing small enterprise investigates the effects of organizational growth on a small business' organizational structure and through its above mentioned advantages. The study finds that avoiding formalization while growing damages the competitiveness of the firm, and concludes that a degree of formalization is a necessity to maintain the flexibility, speed and adaptability in a growing small business..

The well-being of employees has become a key concept in the rhetoric of the company boards and business literature of today. There is however not much statistic evidence of a connection between economic results and the perceived working climate. This thesis sets out to investigate whether there is a positive correlation between economic results and working climate on a work group level. It also aims to study which specific working climate factors influence the results. In order to meet its purpose this thesis analyzes employee satisfaction questionnaire data and economic results from more than 300 work groups.

The thesis focus on how organizations can improve the ability of absorbing coworkers ideas in purpose of gaining long term competitive advantage through innovations. The study was conducted at IKEA AB where a campaign to collect coworkers ideas was a big success given the quantity of ideas collected. This fact allows a comparative analysis of idea management in the shape of campaigns and in comparison, idea management in the everyday line-organization.The analysis show that fundamental factors for innovative environments such as organizational climate, culture and leadership perceives auspiciously by the respondents. However, lack of infrastructure such as systems and processes hinders coworkers ambitions to contribute with ideas.An important issue in idea management is the treatment of incentives for innovation. Results of the study show that the ?soft? incentives ?feedback, encouragement and attention have a higher impact in coworkers willingness to the contribution of ideas than for instance monetary rewards..

Environmental destruction is a growing problem in our world. Almost every day there are new reports concerning that we have to do something about the greenhouse gasses. Simultaneously is the human constantly more eager to have a life with higher standards and therefore uses more energy. The environment is a question that is highly up-to-date and more people try to find solutions on how to save our planet. One way to decrease the energy demand is to build passive houses, where the houses don?t have any active heating.

The world we live in becomes more globalized as a result of new communication media. Communication occurs over greater distances which leads to increased travel. In the report AR5, by IPCC, it is showed that the human impact of climate change is clear and that something has to be done. Therefore its very important to change the human impact. A part of it is to change the way we travel within the service which leads to the purpose of the thesis.

Together with NCC and Sweco we measured the air-flow on a semi-detached house in Jönköping. When a pressure measurement is made, the house gets exposed to over- and under pressure. This is done in order to examine the houses climate shell. The climate shell of the semi-detached house we tested exceeded the required air thickness in BBR-2002, hence, measures have to be taken.This report also displays the importance of building air thick houses and what consequences a non air-thick house can have for the ones residing the house. A discussion of different measures is on for the addressed problems with the flow-measurement and the alternative construction-solutions.Furthermore we have described in this report of how to account for the performance of the air pressure, what kind of equipment we used and how we came up with the results.

In Sweden, detailed development plans (DDPs) go through a screening process to decide whether their implementation could cause significant environmental impact or not. The criteria in the legislation were studied to see if an environmental impact assessment was needed. This study also investigated 26 DDPs from 12 out of 13 of the municipalities in Östergötland and how they meet up to the demands in relevant legislation, for example the rules for Environmental Impact Assessments. Plans that concerned suburban communities and new housing were selected. The environmental issues highlighted in the plan documents were compared to selected topics from the GIS data base 'Östgötakartan' to see if the assessments made by the municipalities were reasonable judged.

The world is in a stage of climate crisis where the average temperature is rising, with consequences such as, melting ice sheets, increasing sea levels, and floods. The climate panel of the UN, IPCC, has stated that this is a reaction of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. The most important gas is carbon dioxide, which contributes with 80 per cent to the on going climate crisis.The increasing emissions of carbon dioxide are connected to human consumption patterns. This puts pressure on the earth, as humans demand more and more resources. Today the earth needs one and a half year to regenerate the resources humans? demand of it, by the year 2030 we will need two planets in order to cope with this increasing demand of resources.At a global level it is established that richer countries have a stronger consumption pattern than poorer, and thus generate higher levels of carbon dioxide emissions.

The aim of this study is to find out if, and in what way the Maasai pastoralists affect the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) through Bomas (Maasai settlement) and keeping of livestock. The study was carried out in the Maasai Mara National Reserve and the adjoining group ranch, Koyake GR, in South-western Kenya.Data was assembled through transect driving, with instantaneous scan sample during two seasons, December 2003 and May-June 2004. Study area contained 12 bomas with three different type of transects each: T1 (0.5 km from boma), T2 (3 km from boma) and T3 (5.5 km from boma), to create a gradual decline in human and livestock impact. Results show that there are differences in the hyena's utilisation of transect type during the day and during the night. The spotted hyena tend to avoid transects close to the boma during the day time, but go there during the night time.

The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the possibility to communicate messagesrelated to sustainable development through cultural works. Culture is here synonymous toliterature or, more specifically, the fiction genre. According to ecocritical research, this genrehas the capacity to contribute to a more sustainable development and is therefore interestingto analyse from an environmental point of view.The novel selected for the study is Vips så blev det liv - eller en hyllning till blågrönalgen(2010), written by the Swedish author Bob Hansson. The analysis is mainly focused on howthe book?s climate related messages are formulated and integrated in the story.

In this thesis we have tried to answer the question of whether or not the peaceorganizations working in Israel and Palestine have an impact. We have answered the question by analyzing six different organizations; three who work with children and the other three with women issues. The analysis contains a case study of each organization and then a comparison between the two groups. This study is built on theories about; grassroots organizations, women in organizations and intergroup communication. Our conclusions in this thesis show that there are some similarities between the groups as well as there are differences.

AbstractTitle: A changing climate? A study on the changes of the communicativeclimate. Klimat i förändring? En studie om det kommunikativaklimatets förändring.Author: Anne BjörckAim: The aim of this essay is to study changes in the area of the communicative climate and link that to Karl Weicks thoughts on communication and change. Karl Weick is famous for his contribution to organizational theories and he is still very well used around the world and that is the main reason to why his theory is served as a base in this essay.Method: The essay has a theoretical base with elements of qualitative explorative research method.

The aim of the study was to install a biogas system consisting of three tubular polyethylene biogas digesters at a rural household in Malawi and to evaluate the constructed biogas system with regards to relevant system parameters. The purpose was to evaluate if the technology is a possible solution to reduce deforestation and support Malawi in climate change mitigation and adaptation. The study was carried out in the southern part of Malawi in cooperation with the University of Malawi. Locally available materials were used to construct and install the system. Three different feed materials, cow, goat and a mix of cow and goat manure, were used in order to determine which one was best suited to utilise as a digester substrate. After the installation, measurements of temperature, pH, biogas production, biogas composition and system functionality were made. The results of the study show that a biogas system with tubular polyethylene biogas digesters can be successfully installed at a rural household and that the most suitable feed material is a mix of cow and goat manure.

Sweden has an environmental goal to achieve until the year 2020. To achieve this goal the construction business has to take an initiative to use the modern techniques that are available to lower the energy consumption I buildings. There?s also a debate going on today regarding the energy demands set by the Swedish government through Boverket, some communities throughout Sweden thinks that the demands are to low and have therefore set up own demands regarding energy in buildings.The possibility to construct energy-saving buildings is today very great, with energy-efficient heating-systems and dense climate envelope. The interest to raise energy-efficient buildings have also increased as a consequence that the population have become more aware about their impact on the environment.