Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a topic that is becoming increasingly important in today's society. CSR is a concept whereby companies voluntarily integrate social and environmental concerns both in their business but also in interaction with their stakeholders. The society of today sets high expectations for how companies take their social responsibilities, especially in industries where the risks to individuals and the environment are high. In this study, we tried to answer the following questions; what kind of responsibility do companies in the plastics and chemicals industry claim to take and why might this be due? What differences exist between the investigated companies in the industry and what may these differences be rooted in? The purpose of this study was to obtain an understanding of the interest in working on sustainability in the plastics and chemicals industry.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att analysera hur framgångsrika CSR-användande företag verksamma i Sverige har utformat CSR-arbetet. Utifrån denna information ska ett ramverk skapas innehållande styrverktyg och styrtekniker för att underlätta företags arbete med att styra CSR-insatser.Metod: Studien bygger på fem intervjustudier som är genomförda på fem framgångsrika företag verksamma i Sverige. Den teoretiska referensramen är framtagen genom akademiska tidsskrifter och böcker. Den empiriska datan är insamlad genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer genomförda på plats och genom telefon.Slutsats och rekommendationer: Resultatet av denna studie visar att den främsta anledningen för de undersökta företagen att arbeta med Corporate Social Responsibility bygger på ekonomiska fördelar. Intressentstyrning är den främsta faktorn för att lyckas med arbetet med Corporate Social Responsibility.

When studying the voting behaviour of the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) concerning the Services Directive within the EU, what patterns can be observed? With a starting point in previous findings about voting behaviour, this study analyses the results of the given Roll-call votes in the European Parliament in regards to the Services Directive. Here I focus on the division of votes within and between the member states and the parliamentary political groups; with the aim to identify patterns that might show clash of opinion concerning this issue. I found that ideology seems to play a role in the MEPs voting behaviour. Parties on the far left reach the highest level of cohesion and together with the party on the far right, they voted against the Directive, but due to different reasons.

This master?s thesis is about freedom of information ideas in the European Union data retention directive, 2006/24/EC. The directive means that data about electronic communications services will be retentioned. The aim of the thesis is to examine what ideas related to freedom of information that appear in the directive and how these ideas belong to the ideology of freedom of information that is common within the library community and to the juridical restrictions. In the light of surveillance tendencies that have occurred over the last years, the most well-known is probably the USA Patriot Act, it is interesting to study how freedom of information ideas appears when surveillance is legislated.

Sweden became a member of the European Union in 1995. Consequently Sweden became obligated to implement the Working Time Directive 2003/88/EC (formerly termed 93/104/EC). At that time Sweden considered that their legislation already gave their employees as high level of protection as the directive prescribed. Instead they decided upon an adjustment of the collective agreements concerning working time. A particular EC-restriction was incorporated in the Working Hours Act (SFS 1982:673).

Along with the development of technology, the cross-border trade is increasing and therefore there is a need for greater consumer protection. A good consumer protection creates a feeling of safety for the consumer and that by itself may help to increase cross-border trade. This is one of the reasons for why the EU has established regulatory framework for electronic commerce, for example the Directive2000/31/EC. The direc-tive strives to create a similar law for electronic commerce within the European Union. This paper?s main purpose is to ensure that the directive is implemented properly in Swedish law, and if there are other possible ways to achieve the objective, other than the ones that the Swedish legislator has chosen.

Sustainable development and sustainability is nowadays expected to be integratedin modern city planning and permeate the entire planning process. At the sametime, sustainable development has an inherent vagueness, leading to a greatdiversity of interpretations of the meaning of this concept. In this thesis strongsustainability and ecological modernization are used as two different interpretationsof sustainable development. Using these two interpretations, an analysis of thecurrent use of the concept of sustainability within the city planning of Malmö isperformed. The analysis shows that the interpretation of sustainable development inthe city of Malmö can be deduced to ecological modernization and thatsustainability is looked upon as one way to improve the attractiveness of the city.Investments to increase ecological and social sustainability must be legitimized asleading to a potential increase in economical sustainability (growth) and the focusof increasing the sustainability in the city has shifted from ecological aspects toeconomical aspects.

The purpose of this study is to examine how Viking Line, Tallink Silja and Birka Cruises work with economic and environmental sustainability, and also to see how they work with new environmental legislations. In 2015 a new environmental legislation will be introduced, by the name Sulphur directive. The Sulphur directive entails a reduction in Sulphur dioxide emissions from ships where the emissions cannot exceed 0,1 percent. There are three alternatives to achieve the new environmental legislation, the use of Marine Gas Oil, LNG or scrubbers. All three alternatives will lead to increasing costs for the shipping industry.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera och systematisera vilka drivkrafter som är aktuella idag gentemot tidigare framtagna drivkrafter, för publika företag, för att upprätta en hållbarhetsredovisning.Metod: I denna uppsats har den kvalitativa arbetsmetoden tillämpats. Vi ansåg att den kvalitativa metoden var mer tillämpbart på vår studie då vi hade avsikt att på en djupare förståelse för företagens drivkrafter bakom hållbarhetsredovisningen. Vi har valt att genomföra semistrukturerade intervjuer i form utav både ett personligt möte och via telefon.Empiri: Det sammanställda resultatet från vår undersökning är att det finns en hel del olika drivkrafter bakom företagens hållbarhetsredovisningar. Majoriteten utav företagens drivkrafter är likadana, skillnaden är inte betydande.. Många utav drivkrafterna från tidigare gjord forskning är inte förekommande idag.Slutsats: Slutsatsen med denna studie är att drivkrafterna till varför publika företag upprättar en hållbarhetsredovisning till en viss del skiljer sig gentemot tidigare framtagna drivkrafter.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept that is growing increasingly important, with more and more companies acknowledging that they have an obligation to the environment in which they operate. We were interested in inquiring into why companies chose to do so, even though there are no laws that condition them to engage in CSR. One answer to this might be that companies use CSR as a way to distinguish themselves from the competition as well as to gain trust and goodwill from the stakeholders. When it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility, the question is no longer whether or not companies should engage in it, but how they can gain competitive advantage by doing so. This study aims at providing a framework for possible ways of integrating CSR and branding, as well as different strategies for CSR-communication. We also tried to define how, and why, consumers respond to CSR-initiatives.

The explosion of new digital media puts pressure for developments within copyright law both in Sweden and internationally. These developments are taking place on two different international areas: (1) WIPO which is a part of the UN family and (2) the EU where a new directive on copyright law is being prepared and probably implemented during 2001. The aim of this thesis is twofold: (1) to study which considerations libraries must make when handling the new digital media both under today's copyright laws and under those which are being developed internationally. (2) What will be the consequences, for Swedish libraries, if the new EU-directive on copyright law is implemented in Sweden? By analysing current copyright laws, international treaties and the proposal for a new EU-directive as well as the national debate the thesis brings attention to a number of central issues for libraries.

Along with the development of technology, the cross-border trade is increasing and therefore there is a need for greater consumer protection. A good consumer protection creates a feeling of safety for the consumer and that by itself may help to increase cross-border trade. This is one of the reasons for why the EU has established regulatory framework for electronic commerce, for example the Directive2000/31/EC. The direc-tive strives to create a similar law for electronic commerce within the European Union. This paper?s main purpose is to ensure that the directive is implemented properly in Swedish law, and if there are other possible ways to achieve the objective, other than the ones that the Swedish legislator has chosen.

Along with the development of technology, the cross-border trade is increasing and therefore there is a need for greater consumer protection. A good consumer protection creates a feeling of safety for the consumer and that by itself may help to increase cross-border trade. This is one of the reasons for why the EU has established regulatory framework for electronic commerce, for example the Directive2000/31/EC. The direc-tive strives to create a similar law for electronic commerce within the European Union. This paper?s main purpose is to ensure that the directive is implemented properly in Swedish law, and if there are other possible ways to achieve the objective, other than the ones that the Swedish legislator has chosen.

Reporting harvested and forwarded volumes are important for the forest industry as it provides information of the size of the stock and facilitates logistics. Figures from Holmen Skog show low reporting frequency. The purpose of this study is to investigate the reason and find suggestions for improvement. A total of 17 machine operators were interviewed using a questionnaire combined with open questions. The results show that the majority of the machine operators find it simple to use the reporting system, although, some of them reports that it doesn?t always work as supposed to.

Sweden became a member of the European Union in 1995. When Sweden entered the Union the government also agreed on implementing every law, regulation and directive the Union have and will have in force. One directive the Union wants every country to implement is the Directive (93/104/EG) concerning certain aspects of the organization of working time. This directive includes regulations concerning the relationship between employer and employees. The regulations in the directive must be in force before January 1 2007.One of the main points in the directive is the possibility for the parties on the labour market to reach agreements through collective agreements that deviate from the legislation concerning work hours.