Background: Sweden has, since 1983, had a statutory audit for all joint-stock companies. However, according to EG?s fourth corporation directive, member countries can decide on their own if this applies for small joint-stock companies. An investigation was launched in the fall of 2006 to form an opinion on the importance of the audit reporting by law and what an abolishment of this rule would mean for small joint-stock companies. Critics are claiming that the cost of audit for small companies is exceeding the cause in these micro companies.Audit is regulated by Swedish translation (RS) of International Standards on Auditing (ISA) and is to be applied in all companies comprised by the statutory audit.

The purpose of this thesis is to try to understand, with the help of existing theories and empirical findings, the parameters which are of importance in the development of the pricing capability. We have used a qualitative and abductive methodology approach. The empirical findings have been collected via semi-structured interviews which we have conducted via personal and telephone interviews. Seeing pricing as a capability within the company our theoretical framework mainly consists of the resource-based view and an article explaining and given proof how pricing can be seen as a capability. We also describe the most used pricing strategy today within business-to-business companies, the cost plus strategy.

The master thesis, conducted at Metrima AB, concerns the development of a non-intrusivedistribution meter as a basis for individual tap water billing in apartments.The project is conducted in response to the market interest in individual tap water billing inapartments as an answer to environmental concerns regarding water consumption. Due to thehigh installation cost of traditional water meters, a new method of determining waterconsumption, without having to cut water pipes, is proposed.The proposed method distributes the total water consumption for an apartment complex toindividual apartments according to distribution meters, measuring water run-time, in eachapartment. The water run-time is estimated by measuring the water pipe?s outward vibrationsand temperature changes.A test environment was established and a prototype built, using a tilt- and vibration sensor forvibration sensing and a precision temperature sensor to measure temperature changes. As bothsensors work well in the test environment, further testing was done in 3 apartments for aduration of 5 days.

AbstractElectricity consumption is a globally increasing problem caused by the high share of electricity produced in coal power plants. These contribute to high carbon emissions when only about 1/3 of the heat generate electricity and the remaining 2/3 of the heat cools off. Combined heat and power plants (CHP) have high efficiency because they use the residual heat for domestic heating. The CHP plant often use fuels from renewable resources, giving them a lower carbon footprint, but are also depending on the heat demand. If electric powered products such as drying cabinets convert to heat powered products more environmentally friendly electricity will be produced by CHP plants, which can supplant electricity, produced from coal power plants and reduce carbon emissions.

Sammanfattning- ?Tids- och arbetseffektivitet i ett konsultföretag ? jämförelse mellan Lean och HighWay?Nivå: Magisteruppsats i hållbar verksamhetsutveckling och management, 15 HPInstitution: Akademin för ekonomi, samhälle och teknik, EST, VästeråsNyckelord: Tidseffektivitet, arbetseffektivitet och LeanFrågeställning: Hur skiljer sig effektiviteten i arbetet mellan de två systemen Lean och HighWay och skulle det vara en fördel för Hallvarson & Halvarson (H&H) att byta till Lean? Hur skiljer sig tids- och arbetseffektiviteten åt inom de två olika systemen?Syfte: Syftet med studien är att ta reda på om Lean, som från början var utvecklat för produktionssektorn, skulle kunna vara ett mer framgångsrikt system än HighWay för ett tjänsteföretag som konsultföretaget Hallvarsson & Halvarsson.Metod: Informationen har hämtats från vetenskaplig artiklar och litteratur samt internetsidor. Undersökningen bestod av två intervjuer, med system ägaren och VD på Hallvarsson & Halvarsson. Intervjuerna bestod av personliga möten.Slutsats: Förbättringsförslag för ökad effektivitet redovisas, där ett av förslagen är att HighWay skulle kunna införa en process- och kvalitetsövervakande roll med syfte att säkerställa ständigt och omedelbart förbättringsarbete för att uppnå perfektion likt Jidoka-principen..

Title: Besparingar inom Barn- och utbildningsnämnden.Seminar date: 29th of May 2009Course: Degree thesis in Business Administration, bachelor thesisAuthors: Amela Smajlovic and Sten SundfeltAdvisor: Leif HolmbergPurpose: Our purpose is to explain the cost-saving process that many municipality organisations face because of the global financial crisis.Limitations: We have limited our study to the municipality of Landskrona and Kristianstad.Method: Our study has a qualitative approach. By using open interviews we have been able to get an open dialog with our respondents.Theory: We have compared with different theories, such as Rombach?s budget-theory and Wildavsky?s role theory.Empirics: The material is based on interviews and conversations with key figures in different levels of the organisations in Landskrona and Kristianstad.Conclusions: The success of a cost-saving process depends on the engagement, awareness and how inclined to changes the persons in the organisations are. Has everybody the willingness to take responsibility fore the organisation and the changes that the surrounding world claims?.

Green public procurement (GPP) can be used as an instrument to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and consideration of environmental aspects within public procurement is becoming more common in Sweden and internationally. Two product groups that have been pointed out as especially important are transports and electricity, where the opportunities for public purchasers to reduce emissions are relatively large. This paper studies GPP which aims at reducing emissions, primarily of carbon dioxide, through environmental requirements within these two product groups. A theoretical analysis of cost-effectiveness, transaction costs and effects on technological development is performed, followed by a closer study of how these aspects appear in practice within GPP. The results indicate that a cost-effective allocation of reductions between the two product groups is most likely to be attained if the main part of emission reduction is achieved through environmental requirements on electricity. The cost for emission reduction within transports is relatively high, especially for heavy transports. For transportation services, more generally focused requirements on emission reductions could probably give greater environmental gains, but the existence of transaction costs steer the environmental requirements towards more technology specific types.

Background: During the 2000s, there has been an increased interest in studying business management and strategy implementation with customer focus in public organisations. To achieve business goals it is important to continuously work with strategies to meet customerdemands for increased efficiency and service. Purpose: The aim of the essay is to examine how to work on strategy implementation in a municipal real estate company from a management perspective in order to achieve overall goals. Method: The study?s methodology is a case study based on qualitative telephone interviews that were conducted with representatives in managerial positions from various levels of the company. The choice of the qualitative data was considered relevant in relation to the chosen topic of the thesis. The empirical data was then compared to the theoretical framework of the thesis. Results: Strategies guide the company to achieve the overall goals, which are later on broken down into operational targets.

This report is a thesis for collegeengineering program in structuralengineering at Uppsala University andwas commissioned by the Swedishcontractor Svevia. The study aims toprovide an overview of the mostbeneficial bridge material from bothenvironmental and economic point ofview.The life-cycle analysis covers onlycarbon dioxide emissions, since it isthe most spoken of in today?s climateagenda. Furthermore, this study aims tohighlight which parts, of the systemboundary, that contributes to greatercarbon emissions for the wood- and theconcrete bridge.The life-cycle cost analysis wascalculated with a lifespan of 40 yearsand covers the basic cost of investment,operating and maintenance, anddecommissioning costs.The analyzed constructions in this studyare existing projects that are almostcompleted. Both bridges were designed tohandle loads up to 60 tons.

AbstractThe future of ethanol is depending on good solutions for the production. ENA energy power plant produces electrical power and district heating by heating biofuel. By building an integrated bioenergy plant surplus steam could be used to produce ethanol as fuel to vehicle.This would mean that ethanol is produced renewable energy and the energy for the process derives from the surplus of power.  ENA energy, MDH (the University of Mälardalen) and the energy authority has initiated a research project were different bioenergy combinations integrate with existing power plant.  As a part of the project which size an integrated factory should be to gain the best efficiency for the plant was investigated. Consideration will be taken to the cost of the production in order to be competitive to the price of imported ethanol.  Etanolens framtid vilar på bra lösningar för framställning.  I ENA energi kraftverk i Enköping produceras el och fjärrvärme genom eldning av biobränsle.  Genom att bygga ett integrerat bioenergikraftverk där skulle man kunna använda överskottsånga till att framställa etanol som fordonsbränsle.

In the EU the amount of waste increased by 14 percent during the years 2000 to 2010. EU?s target to reduce waste generation runs parallel with the aim of increasing the efficiency and profitability aligned with energy recovery. In Sweden the energy recovery through incineration is increasing steadily, and 46 percent of the municipal solid waste (MSW) is treated by combustion. This report aims to examine the profitability of processing MSW into Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) from an economic-, energy- and environmental perspective.

When the Swedish Forestry Act was changed in 1994, brushing of young stands became non mandatory. Since then the annual need for brushing in the country has increased by about 100 000 hectares per year. In later years the price for biomass energy has increased to the same level as pulp wood. The high price on biomass energy and the large areas of stands in the need of brushing has created a new market with its own technical, economical and environmental conditions. There is a development of various techniques to manage the forestry stands with late brushing.

The company Olofsfors AB manufactures drive belts for forest machinery, known as ECO-Tracks, and abrasion-resistant steel and cutting edges for graders, excavators and tractors, known as Bruxite and SharqEdges. Manufacturing these products requires the steel to be heated and molded, then submerged in water and hardened. The water used in the hardening of steel is pumped to the process from pits below the floor and then pumped back to the pit after it?s been used. Since the temperature of this water rises after being used to harden the steel the temperature of the pumping pit needs to be adjusted to maintain its setpoint of 21°C.

The Swedish Armed Forces is a public institution and consequently obliged to follow Swedish and international legislation. Thus, they are subjected to contrarious demands from different actors operating in its high-technological and high-institutional environment: to be a legitimate institution and at the same time operate with a high level of efficiency. This thesis is conducted with the aim of investigating whether The Swedish Armed Forces' steering document for gender equality is used to achieve visible and quantifiable results or if the document constitute a medium for reverberating legitimacy. To answer the research question, we applied a critical discourse analysis on the relevant documents and on the conducted semi-constructed interviews with members from different levels and positions in the organizational hierarchy. Subsequently, we came to the conclusion that the Swedish Armed Forces manage the demands for efficiency and legitimacy, which are forced upon them from the technological and institutional environment, by talking about them.

Energy consumption is at present a major political issue, and numerous projects that comprise many nations are currently in process to increase energy efficiency and bring down energy dependency. As a member state of the EU, Sweden now faces the challenge of implementing substantial energy-saving measures until the year 2016. One of these measures is the project ?Green Islands? financed by the EU that intend on creating sustainable islands in areas around the Baltic Sea. The Archipelago Foundation leads the project that concerns the Stockholm archipelago, where focus has been placed upon decreasing energy usage in businesses and services on Utö among other islands.