The scope of this investigation is to decide how and to what extent the energy consumption of apassive house is affected by the users? knowledge and habits. To achieve this a literary study hasbeen made and as a complement the planning of a passive house was completed.The result of a primary study of the rules and regulations that effect passive houses in Swedenshows that the user?s influence on passive houses is a completely unregulated area. Even thoughthere is no regulation, a need for some general knowledge of the passive house concept has beenexpressed.To further investigate how the users? knowledge and habits affect the energy consumption and ifthere is a difference between different households? energy consumption , three main factors havebeen identified.

The purpose of the project has been to work out recommendations that reduce the energy-related costs and environmental impact of HPW Fresh & Dry Ltd., a fruit drying factory in Ghana. The factory produces electricity with diesel and biogas but also purchases electricity from the national electricity company. Heat for the drying process is produced from biogas, kerosene and solar panels. In the project the energy system was analyzed by measuring production and consumption of heat and electricity. The project results show that the factory can become self-sufficient on heat if the available energy is used more efficient. The production units for both electricity and heat have low efficiencies.

Increased trade and eased policy restrictions have brought markets closer together. Prices at different locations are much likely to affect each other to a certain extent. Since the adaption of Common Agricultural Policy in 1995 the Swedish wheat market has been exposed to the world market and Swedish farmers are facing new challenges. A broader knowledge about market integration and price transmission will facilitate Swedish farmers, banks and politicians in making rational decisions. Therefore the aim of this research is to explain how global wheat prices are transmitted on Swedish wheat prices.

WSP building physics in Stockholm has certified the preschool Temmelburken in Bromma with the system of certification Miljöbyggnad. The rating of the building became BRONZE. In this thesis the preschool has been investigated with respect to the three areas: thermal climate, use of energy and improving of the level of certification. The thermal climate at the preschool has been investigated by a questionnaire survey and by measurements in order to do comparisons between the results from the two investigations as well as with the results of the simulations that WSP has done at the certification of the preschool. The differences between the results from the simulations and the questionnaire survey for winter as well as from the measurement performed with a comfort meter the 19th of March are concidered to be reasonably small since they give rise to the same rating according to Miljöbyggnad.   Operational data for the use of energy for the preschool have been obtained in order to do comparisons with simulations performed by WSP and Svenska Besiktningar AB. The comparison shows that the simulated values for the specific use of energy are lower than what the real specific use of energy would be for the preschool, since just the operational data for the heat energy is higher than the simulated values. At the investigation of the possibility of improving the level of certification it was found that the rating of the preschool can be raised from BRONZE to SILVER by improving the ratings of the ?thermal climate summer? and the ?daylight?.

Using the Introductory Carbon Balance Model, ICBM, five different crop rotations with rye 1. Rye-Ley-Ley-Rye-Beans-Rye 2. Rye-Rye-Rapeseed-Rapeseed 3. Rye-Ley-Ley-Rye-Potatoes-Rye 4. Rye-Rye-Potatoes-Wheat 5. Rye-Rye-Potatoes-Beans-Wheat-Rye-Potatoes-Rapeseed were tested theoretically in four different cultivation scenarios ? Straw left on the field, biogas digestate added as fertilizer. Labelled ?+straw+BD?. ? Straw left on the field, only synthetic fertilizer. Labelled ?+straw-BD?. ? Straw harvested, biogas digestate added as fertilizer.

China is considered as one of the world?s fastest growing economies and the future of China looks promising. Even though the Chinese market attracts many new foreign companies to enter the market there are entry barriers which companies may encounter as obstacles, which will aggravate the market entry in China. As a result companies loose business opportunities and therefore it is of great importance for Swedish companies, which are planning a Chinese market entry, to identify which entry barriers that are considered to be the most difficult obstacles to overcome.The purpose of the thesis is to examine which entry barriers that are generally considered to be the most difficult obstacles for Swedish companies to overcome when entering Chinese markets and to rank the five most difficult entry barriers to overcome.Information about these entry barriers have been gathered from Swedish companies, which have carried out successful market entries in the Chinese markets, through an e-mail questionnaire.The result generally shows that the most difficult entry barriers to overcome in China were: bureaucracy, property laws, language, cultural differences and difficulties finding local partners. The ranking of the entry barriers? result shows that bureaucracy is the most difficult obstacle to overcome, followed by cultural differences, language, relations and access to distribution channels.We conclude that companies experience different difficulties overcoming these entry barriers, which depends on the companies? size, years in China, markets and if the entry barriers were considered controllable or uncontrollable.

During the last decade, there has been an increase in the use of technology-based self-services within the retail sector. The increase is particularly noticeable within the grocery market. The reason behind the increased use of these systems is partially due to the fact that companies within highly competitive retail markets continually look for ways of decreasing costs while upholding efficiency. The problem is that it is difficult to understand the true economical implications of investments relating to these machines. The purpose of this study is to investigate and contribute with new insights regarding the cost-structures of the stationary self-checkout systems and traditional cashier desks, within the retail grocery market.

The aim of this report has been to investigate the use of electricity energy before and after a conversion of foodservice. The ambition was also to highlight the food safety and the retention of nutrients in relation to the conversion. The methods being used were qualitative interviews, case studies, study visits and literature. The equipment and the use of energy was the same in 2008 as in 2011 for hot-holding of the tested component, sauce with ham. The chilled system used more than three times the energy and cost for one portion than one portion in the hot-hold system.

Miljonprogram is a Swedish building program from 1964 to 1975. During that time about a million homes were constructed. Now, almost 50 years later, they are in desperate need of renovation. In order to fulfil the Swedish environmental objective to decrease energy consumption 50 per cent until 2050, considerable housing stock built under the Miljonprogram has to be renovated.Focus in this thesis is on the building services and theirs profitability that can decrease energy consumption in households build during the Miljonprogram. Building construction is not considered in this report.

Two elementary schools are now being built in Gråbo (in the municipality of Lerum),Röselidsskolan and Ljungviksskolan, which are both designed with solar thermalcollectors for the schools domestic water heating. During the summer while thelargest amount of solar heat can be generated, the activity hence the domestic wateruse in the schools are heavily reduced. Both schools are connected to the local districtheating system which makes it possible to use the solar collectors to deliver heat tothe district heating.The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the two systems mentioned above and todetermine which system is more suitable to apply on a school. The building whichconditions were used for this evaluation is Röselidsskolan.A solar heating plant of each system type was dimensioned from the expected andknown conditions of the building. The purpose with the dimensioning was to makethe solar plants replace the ordinary energy source as much as possible.

The demand for shorter lead-times and increased delivery reliability puts pressure on companies to provide more efficient logistic services. One strategy to deal with this demand is by outsourcing logistics to a third part. The development of logistics information systems enables increased control over business supply chains. This is why Green Cargo aims to create a Logistics Control Tower (LCT) solution to provide it?s customers with better information with higher availability.

This report is a joint venture with SCA Forest, Ångermanlands forest man-agement area. The purpose of the study is that SCA Forest wants to know what the landowners in Ångermanlands forest management area think about SCA Forest and who they deliver their timber to. SCA Forest is the largest private landowner in Europe, with an area of about 2.6 million hectares. Today, SCA offers lumber, wood products, tis-sue and packaging and has factories all over the world. SCA Forest has five forest management areas in the north of Sweden, with the headquarters in Sundsvall. A questionnaire was sent to 265 landowners, where they had to answer 15 questions with possibilities to give comments. The survey was sent out on 21 of February with a response requested by 3 of March 125 landowners responded to the survey, giving a response rate of 47%.

I dagsläget har världen en stadigt växande befolkning och där igenom en stadigt växande energiförbrukning. Med en växande energiförbrukning har det under de senaste åren uppenbarats diskussioner rörande samhällets hållbarhet och miljöpåverkan.  Samtidigt sker det en kontinuerlig teknikutveckling och människan är mer beroende av konstant elförsörjning än någonsin tidigare. Teknologiska framsteg, tillsammans med önskan att sträva mot ett mer hållbart samhälle med hög elleveranssäkerhet, har mynnat ett begrepp kallat smarta elnät.Till följd av att elnätet involverar en stor bransch råder det delad mening över vad som utgör ett smart elnät. Detta har lett till uppkomsten av olika definitioner och modeller av konceptet. I syfte att skapa en övergripande uppfattning har en litteraturstudie utförts för att sammanställa de huvudsakliga områden som utgör det smarta elnätet.

During the last decades the fertility of dairy cows has declined in the same rate as the milk yield has increased. This is a result of the negative genetic correlation between milk yield and fertility, failure to show estrous signs and metabolic problems in the cow. The purpose of this review was to investigate the function of metabolites and hormones as markers for disturbances in fertility, health and production in the dairy cow. There are several metabolites that are suggested to indicate the cow?s energy balance.

This final thesis consists of an investigation of how suitable it is to vertically integrate forest in Swedish forest companies. Different strategies to obtain raw materials have been evaluated and the advantages and disadvantages have been weighted against each other. The investigations contain a number of interviews with represents from companies with different strategies and persons that in different ways have faced the question of issue. An account study of SCA´s forest ownership has also been performed. The benefits for a forest company to vertical integrate forest consist mainly of safety in delivery, control over the supply chain and company image.