This thesis has been carried out at the Department of Urban and Rural Development at SLU Ultuna during the spring semester 2009. The topic of the paper is how energy consumption can be influenced through design and if the conditions for good design decreases when solutions based on energy efficiency are used. The report is divided into one literature study and one part where energy efficient solutions are used in a design. The thesis work has its origin in a project called "Energihus i Uppsala." The planned building will be a center for energy research in Uppsala. The project aims to demonstrate to the public what is currently happening in research related to energy.

Title: CSR and profitability in three dimensions ? practical examples, Economic Value Added and previous researchAuthors: Linda-Marie Emilsson & Martina Classon Subject: Business AdministrationDate: 2011-05-26Mentor: Krister BredmarProblem description: Scientists have for a very long time disagreed about whether or not companies should work with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and if there is any correlation between CSR and profitability. There are mainly three different views according the correlation: CSR have a neutral impact on financial performance, CSR have a positive impact on profitability and CSR have a negative impact on profitability. One of the reasons behind the disagreement is the complexity measuring CSR. Scientist claims that EVA is a measure that can be used to measure the correlation between CSR and profitability.        Purpose: The intention with our essay is to find out if there is any correlation between CSR and profitability.

The concept of Enterprise Architecture (EA) has become increasingly common within enterprises today and aims to describe an enterprise?s structure in a standardized way. Implementing EA within an enterprise is a way to describe the how various domains affect each other and by defining uniform procedures and guidelines, particularly in the link between IT-activities and business activities, you can streamline you enterprise. An effective EA is a huge asset for an enterprise since it enables the full usage of the business potential of the IT-domain. However a malfunctioning EA can lead to an enormous drain of valuable organizational resources.

Sala Silvergruva AB är ett av många företag som just nu kämpar med höga energi-kostnader. Denna rapport undersöker vilka möjligheter det finns att skapa ett hållbart energisystem i Sala Silvergruva med avseende på ekonomi, miljö samt sociala aspekter. Rapporten undersöker nio tekniker; vindkraft, vattenkraft, solfångare, solceller, pelletspannor, värmepumpar, effektivisering samt lagring av värme från växthus respektive fjärrvärme. Dessa analyseras var för sig med utgångspunkt i tio krav som speglar hållbarhetsaspekterna. I samband med analysen ges rekommendationer angående investering i respektive energilösning. Rapporten mynnar ut i en resultatskarta där det tydligt framgår vilka krav de olika teknikerna uppfyller. Den följande diskussionen leder fram till en slutsats som presenterar vilka åtgärder som bör vidtas i syfte att skapa ett uthålligt energisystem för Sala Silvergruva AB. Pelletspannor och värmepumpar visar sig i nuläget vara de mest uthålliga tekniklösningarna.

While studying at the landscape architect program in Uppsala I found stress to play a major roll in the education. To help myself and others to handle the negative stress within the profession and the education I choose to write my thesis about landscape architects' work cultures. Swedish Association of Architects is in second place in the SACO study on long-term sickness for fatigue syndrome, stress and depression. The issue needed to be addressed. My purpose with the thesis has been to study the work cultures in the landscape profession and training and to study and find ways to manage negative stress in the profession and in education.

In today?s modern age, energy consumption has become a major issue, both from an environmental viewpoint and cost perspective. Because of a rapid technologic change and increased costs of production of electricity, the demand to develop effective methods for energy efficiency industries have grown.The electricity-intensive industries, such as plastic industry, the demand to reduce energy consumption has grown significantly over the past 10 years, which have led to the development of different methods to determine and locate energy-consuming parts in the industry. This also means being able to prioritize and organize activities in the industry.In this study the measurements of voltage, current, power and PF performance on injection molding machines (K-TEC 275 form Ferromatik Milacron in Germany) with a focus to locate, within a machine, various measures that could improve energy use in the plastics industry, in this case RostiGP in Gislaved. These measurements have been carried out with the help of a power quality clamp meter to carry out time logs of the machines for some time during normal word rate.

Information technology (IT) with its enormous capacity involves more and more in our daily activities and public sector is using IT to make their activities more efficient. The government goal with electronic government (e-government) among other things is increasing the availability and service to the public as well as improving the democratic process. Democracy can be strengthened by involving citizens in public decision making process but this goal has not been achieved yet and the development of e-government has mostly been focused on improving efficiency within administration and electronic services (e-services). Promoting the democratic process has been postponed in the development of e-government because of the lack of political commitment and decision. Digital divide is also preventing public sector to promote democracy with the support of IT.

Material handling is a term that includes all kinds of handling of material from a raw product to a finished one. ABB is active in the following segments; foundry, packaging and palletizing, metal industry and plastics industry.The demands for efficiency and reliability have been set very high in the industrial sector. Optimizing of the material handling will give the company higher cost-effectiveness. Around the robot there are different kinds of material flows, to optimize the cycle time, consisting of carriages combined in different ways.Motion Control is a complex system with main functions such as; positioning, synchronizing, indexing and more. The products in the system need to cooperate to make these functions possible therefore integration of motor- and servo products are important.

This report discusses the IT archetypes "governance strategy" and how it could be linked to the IT benefits at the company. The study is based on IT investments that have taken place in ten banks operating in Sweden today, where the reality was modeled on the basis of a questionnaire survey and an additional interview. The aim was to examine whether it is possible to find any correlation between the governance in the banks and obtained benefits for an IT investments.While the competition is intensifying in most companies there is a greater demand for efficiency in IT. The need for IT solutions is greater than ever and the number of IT investments is increasing significantly in most workplaces today, especially on banks. But even if the investments are increasing in numbers it does not necessarily mean that all types of investments are effective and beneficial to the company.

The construction industry works today with a time limit, therefore it is important to have rational tools to improve the efficiency in the building process. That?s the reason for this report, where a standard for interior finishes has been developed for Sandvik. The standard for interior finishes is designed as a program for room functions and includes office space and sanitary areas. It is a proposal showing how Sandvik can design their premises in the future.

A possible way to reduce pollution and slow down the process of global warming is to increase the usage of renewable energy sources. One of these renewable energy sources is solar power. With the aid of solar panels and solar cells the energy from the sun can be transformed into both heating and electricity. The requirement to use the sun in this fashion is a suitable surface, for example a big roof, an angle between 40-60 degrees and that the surface should be exposed to the south. Almost every farm meets these requirements.

The aim of this project has been to raise the production efficiency of Daliff Precision Engineering through reduced transportation time and a more standardized manufacturing process. The problem has upraised because of a big and diversified product flora without any standard products and with just small batches ordered. The report also tries to show the work procedure with general analytical methods and be an example of how a similar problem can be resolved. The transportation time is being proposed to be reduced through a change in the layout of the factory. By moving a few manual machines, dispatch and burring to more efficient locations, the total transportation time will be reduced by 55 %.

Evaluations of open Ditch status and function, with an assessment of suitability of a conversion to a two stage ditch as a low maintenance alternative. To illustrate Swedish drainage problems this work focused on two agricultural drainage associations assessed in detail with a new method called MADRAS (Minnesota Agricultural Ditch Reach Assessment for Stability). With the assessment of the MADRAS method estimates were made to conclude the ditches operating problems. This was made through measurements of sediment depths, mass bank failures etc. in order to quantify ditch problems and propose practical actions for improved ditch stability and water quality. The MADRAS surveys were conducted in two main ditches that drains 2900 hectares of land on the northern shores of Mälaren. In the study measurements of the ditch cross-sections were also conducted to compare actual profiles with the original map profiles. The evaluation showed that parts of the studied ditch sections were operatively poor; main reason was mass bank failure, undercut channel banks, sediment aggregations and narrowed ditches. The profile survey shows that a majority of the profiles 80 % has sediment accumulations there remains only 64 % of the original profile from the map.

AbstractWith increasing population and increasing demands for comfort and thus an increase in energy demand, it is necessary to examine various energy-efficiency measures. This work deals with the ability to control the flow through the heating system to achieve the desired comfort with as little energy as possibleA heating system contains of different parts, roughly speaking, you can divide it to three main components: Heat source, Distribution and Heat emitters. All components are working together to bring heat to the building. What is examined in this report are different ways of adjusting the flow and supply temperature and how it affects comfort and energy use in a building.At today ?s date the conventional method is to use a high flow through the heating system, which affects pressure drop and cooling of the fluid.

Considering that the current technology is constantly improving, it becomes increasingly important to have an efficient logistics in a company to maintain profitability while achieving a competitive business. Efficient logistics may be accomplished by improving the internal materials handling. In this thesis the internal material handling of steel frames has been studied at a factory in Vaggeryd. The goal of this study is to investigate the problems that exist with the current production flow of products and provide suggestions on how it can be developed to reduce unnecessary handling and movement.The study has a deductive approach where the authors has been using literature studies parallel with empirical analyzes conducted at a company to achieve the purpose of the study. Documentation from the company and interviews with staff and observations form the basis for the data collection carried out.