This study aims to investigate development and reasons behind sustainability reporting in large Swedish companies. By examining 15 companies? environmental and sustainability reports between the years 2000 and 2008, data was collected on matters such as frequency, scope and design. Identified trends were to a large extent in line with previous studies on international development; sustainability reporting is growing in several aspects. The authors have found one major reason for this development to be increasing requirements and expectations from stakeholders and a need for companies to legitimize their actions.

Enligt kritisk rasteori är rasism en struktur som genomsyrar hela samhället och upprätthålls av vardagsrasism. Föreliggande studie syftar därför till att undersöka vita barns uppfattningar om "ras" i homogent vita förskolor i Sverige samt hur dessa kan påverkas genom bilderböcker. "Ras" ses här som en förändringsbar social struktur som kategoriserar in (rasifierar) folk utifrån fysiska attribut och föreställningar om agerande och egenskaper utifrån dessa. Utifrån fenomenografiskt förhållningssätt görs studien på 10 barn uppdelade på två grupper genom att läsa sex bilderböcker med rasifierade huvudroller under fyra veckor. De tekniker som används är fokusgrupp, i form av bokprat, och experimentorienterad bildspråksteknik.

Managing credit risk might be the single most important business area for any commercial bank. The assessment of "good" and "bad" corporate clients is a important task for a creditor. A bad debtor is a corporate client with hardships in meeting the continous claims (interest payments) that a creditor requires. One way of evaluating or separating a "bad" client from a "good" client is to assess the propensity for the client to file for bankruptcy. This thesis examines 226 firms in the Swedsh market in the quest of predicting corporate bankruptcy.

A trend since the early 90?s has been that some public libraries offer a special shelf containing environmental information to the community, but it seems as though the subject has been overlooked by the literature and the science community. The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to study how three independent public libraries work with environmental information that is made available to the community. The following questions were addressed: 1) Which arguments can be found as to why the libraries offer this activity? 2) How does the environmental work at the public libraries look and what does it contain of? 3) Are there any similarities or differences in this work between the three libraries?To answer these questions interviews with librarians were carried out; observations were made to complement the interviews.

This thesis aims to examine how the quality of data that is entered into and retrieved from a corporate group's ERP and Data Warehouse systems can be improved. The corporate group has already taken several measures that will improve the quality of data. For instance the corporate group has updated and merged the previous ERP systems into one. At the same time the corporate group adjusted the settings in the updated ERP system, so that it will be harder to register incorrect data in the ERP system. With regards to the processes and routines, the studied department has efficient written routines and processes.

In organizations today Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming a common means to try to gain legitimacy and credibility for their business. A successful CSR strategy has the potential to generate positive outcomes for a company and reaching out to stakeholders about the corporation?s contribution in the field is an important part of the work. In this study I examine how the employees at Max Hamburgare receive the corporation?s efforts within sustainability, how it is perceived and what this means to the employees.

Abstact: Syftet med uppsatsen Berättelser i organisationer - en analys av hur fyra organisationer och två konsulter använder Corporate Storytelling som ett strategiskt muntligt kommunikationsverktyg var att öka kunskapen om begreppet Corporate Storytelling samt att undersöka hur de intervjuade organisationerna och konsulterna använde sig av verktyget i en intern kontext. Vid användandet av Corporate Storytelling inom organisationer handlar det framförallt om hur berättelser kan användas som ett strategiskt verktyg för att förenkla och begripliggöra olika fenomen och budskap dels för den enskilda människan, dels mellan människor. Berättelser kan exempelvis användas för att förmedla känslor, politik och symbolism till medarbetare och omvärlden. Uppsatsen utgick från ett pedagogiskt perspektiv och frågeställningarna besvarades med hjälp av en kvalitativ undersökning bestående av sex intervjuer. I uppsatsen arbetade vi utifrån en abduktiv metod och resultatet visade att de intervjuade organisationerna och konsulterna som medvetet arbetade med Corporate Storytelling främst gjorde det i syfte att stärka organisationskulturen.

This paper is written to take a close look at teaching methods used at the Summer Academy (SHS), which is held at Södertörns Högskola in Stockholm. SHS is a subdivision of the institution of teaching education, which annually, during summertime, offers an eight-day program for pupils between 13-15 years of age, from different schools located in socio-economically disadvantaged suburbs of Stockholm. The intention of SHS is to give the participating pupils an insight into higher education, especially that of university. The purpose of the activities, such as field trips, guided tours and corporate visits, is to make pupils aware of their own responsibility for their educational situation through different methods of knowledge transfer, to diversify the means of the education, and to bring awareness to the array of possibilities which they have access to within the Swedish system of tertiary education.The study is based on six deep-interviews, three with pupils and three with student mentors. Together with 131 surveys from the course given during the summer of 2014, and theories of John Dewey on ?Learning-by-doing?, the results show that pupils participation in SHS give them a better understanding for, and knowledge about their own educational responsibility.Another question this paper seeks to address is how significantly the SHS program is changing the pupil?s experience of education in general and their view upon higher education specifically.

This thesis calculates and compares the values of improved environmental quality due to future possible investment alternatives in biogas production facilities at Käppalaförbundets Reningsverk (Käppala Sewage Treatment Works) in an attempt to determine which alternative yields the highest such value. Käppala faces three investment alternatives for the usage of biogas. The alternatives are production of vehicle fuel, district heating and thirdly, heat and power production. Estimates of the value of environmental change are calculated for each of the three investment alternatives, and these estimates are then compared. The environmental change in question is the change in discharge levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particle matter.

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.

Bakgrund: Förutsättningar för företag förändras ständigt. Samtidigt har kunder och anställda fått nya betydelsefulla roller för hur verksamheten utformas och vilka värderingar som företaget arbetar efter. Företagen förväntas i allt högre grad ta ett aktivt samhällsansvar, men satsningarna har hittills varit för kortsiktiga och inte visat på några ekonomiska resultat. Samhällsansvaret bör därför ses ur ett långsiktigt perspektiv och förankras strategiskt i företagets affärsidé.Problemformulering: Vilka faktorer är viktiga för att företag ska kunna överföra långsiktigt samhällsansvar till sin affärsidé?Syfte: Att analysera och utvärdera sambandet mellan interna strategier och överensstämmelsen mellan ledning och anställda med avseende på samhällsansvar.Metod: Uppsatsen bygger på en kvalitativ undersökning utifrån en deduktiv ansats.

AbstractA useful tool for companies to use in their differentiation process is proposed to be employee branding. Employee branding is developed and put forth by the management with the main task to formulate the brands vision and values, and communicate them to the employees. To promote the employee engagement and their relationship with the company, corporate storytelling can be applied, with is an internal communication that strengthens the internal rumour and values that represent the brand. Since engagement and motivation is important factors when creating a strong employee brand, there is a need for further research on how corporate storytelling is used by companies to influence employee engagement and motivation, as corporate storytelling leads to deeper commitment among employees.PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how companies use corporate storytelling to influence their employee branding.MethodologyThe authors conducted a qualitative case study on how the retail organization Boomerang. The empirical material was collected thru semi-structured interviews with Boomerangs management and employees.ConclusionThe conclusion shows that the employees prefers when corporate storytelling and various communication is put in context, this because it?s easier for the employees to understand.

Humanity?s increasing consumption has resulted in an increasing use of resources and thus an increasing environmental impact. Hence, the environment has become an important political issue. The increasing demands from stakeholders on companies to "green" their products and work internally with environmental issues makes it more and more important for enterprises to address these issues. Small enterprises constitute the majority of all enterprises and therefore they have a significant impact on environmental problems.

To integrate environmental concerns into non-environmental policy making has become an important policy objective within the European Union. This essay investigates policy instruments in use to achieve environmental policy integration in the EU's transport sector respectively fisheries sector. The point of departure is a theoretical discussion about governance and the use of different policy instruments for environmental management at the EU-level. The focal point is the argumentation that regulatory policy instruments alone cannot achieve environmental policy integration satisfactory. By using Jordan et al's classification of so called "new" environmental policy instruments (market-based instruments, voluntary agreements and ecolabels) as complements to regulatory measures, the essay investigates whether the first-mentioned are used within the two sectors.

BACKGROUND & During the last century, the Swedish chemical industry has developedPROBLEM: considerably in regard to respecting the environment. Following various discharges and pollutions during the first half of the 20th century, environmental concepts such as CSR, Responsible Care and REACH have developed in order to improve the situation. Today, environmental issues play a central role in the society, but what are the reasons behind this increased environmental commitment? PURPOSE & The purpose of this thesis paper is to study the driving forces behindDELIMITATIONS: the increased environmental awareness in companies. Is this mainly due to stricter legislations, or do factors like pressure from the general public, the industry or customers play a more vital role? Furthermore, do economic incentives exist, that make it interesting for companies to invest in environmental awareness? Since the chemical industry spans over a wide spectrum in regard to environmental issues, this paper will focus on a specific area of the industry.