Inom hållbar design har man under senare år börjat härma naturen för att hitta nya lösningar på människans problem. Naturens ekosystem fungerar som praktiska modeller för kretsloppsfungerande miljöer där energi och material tas om hand ? precis som visionen för den hållbara staden. Genom att dels förstå ekosystemets uppbyggnad, dels övergången från ekologi till design, kan man efterlikna ekosystem i den urbana miljön. Designstrategin biomimik är en tillämpning av detta förhållningssätt, där man efterliknar naturens processer i arkitektur.

Vi har gjort en kvalitativ studie om hur lärare arbetar med gruppdynamiken i klassrummet. Vi utförde fyra intervjuer vilka utmynnade i fyra huvudområden: definition på gruppdynamik, synen på ledarskap, lärares strategier och kopplingen mellan inlärning och gruppdynamik. Informanternas bakgrund varierade från att enbart ha arbetat några år i yrket, till att ha 40 års erfarenhet. Vårt syfte med studien var att undersöka vilka strategier lärare använder när de arbetar med en grupp elever för att åstadkomma ett bra gruppklimat. Vi ville även synliggöra lärares tankar kring sitt ledarskap samt deras syn på kopplingen mellan inlärning och gruppdynamik.

Sustainable development has become the ideology of the twentieth first century. As an important concept and as a framework of political action, sustainable development can at this point be considered as the very symbol of a paradigm in the international debate over environmental issues and the threats of climate change. But what does the concept of sustainability actually suggest? This thesis uses discourse analysis in order to examine the Swedish learning for sustainable development as to three different discourses on the national arena: the government and the municipals of Piteå and Växjö respectively. When the study foremost concerns official policy documents that contain associations with the study area, the methodology used takes into consideration both language, signs, metaphors and so called story lines.

Sustainable development has become the ideology of the twentieth first century. As an important concept and as a framework of political action, sustainable development can at this point be considered as the very symbol of a paradigm in the international debate over environmental issues and the threats of climate change. But what does the concept of sustainability actually suggest? This thesis uses discourse analysis in order to examine the Swedish learning for sustainable development as to three different discourses on the national arena: the government and the municipals of Piteå and Växjö respectively. When the study foremost concerns official policy documents that contain associations with the study area, the methodology used takes into consideration both language, signs, metaphors and so called story lines.

The current demanding business environment requires corporations to act fast in finding effective solutions to problems given the myriad of challenges they face (Dyllick & Hockerts, 2001). The challenges include the impact of climate change on business practices, natural resource consumption, chemical pollution, technological change etc. Moreover, the forces of globalization, heightened concerns about the deteriorating quality of the physical environment and increased stakeholder power are also increasingly having a real influence on business practices (Rainey, 2008). Since 1992, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has encouraged the adoption of the concept of ecological efficiency (eco-efficiency) to support business efforts aimed at addressing some of these challenges. The aim of eco-efficiency is to reduce the amount of energy and materials used in production processes to achieve economic and environmental benefits (WBCSD, 2000).

In order to continue to be competitive in the current industrial climate, producers must increase efficiency at their plants. Several Swedish companies choose to utilise the principles of Lean production. Tour & Andersson AB (TA) has elected to create their own model using Toyota?s productions system which has been named TAPS (Tour & Andersson Production System). Following two years of working with TAPS the company has decided to introduce Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). Most of the work carried out in the maintenance department today is in form of repairs to already faulty equipment.

The EU's Water Framework Directive aims to a long-term and sustainable use of our water resources and wants to ensure good water quality in Europe's water bodies. Discharge of polluted stormwater into receiving waters can be a threat to their ecological and chemical status. Municipalities are responsible for supervision of the environmental quality standards (EQS) and therefore need to gain knowledge of current stormwater management, the expected level of pollution emissions and possible appropriate purification steps to ensure that the goal of good water quality is achieved.This master thesis aims to provide this knowledge in the example case of Vallentunas urban area and wants to prepare future oversight so that it can be assessed how much the discharge of polluted stormwater into the local receiving water is a threat to its status. With the help of maps, aerial photographs, site observations and individual discussions those areas are mapped where appearance of moderate to highly polluted stormwater could be suspected. The degree of pollution at the discharge points is determined based on land use upstream and uses standard values according to the administrators assistance "Tillsyn av dagvatten" (MSL 2014).The study identifies 100 areas in need of supervision regarding their stormwater management.

The construction and real estate industry represents a significant part of Sweden's total impact on the environment and mainly affects the following national environmental objectives: reduced climate impact, a good built environment and a non-toxic environment. By establishing internal rules, companies within the industry can reduce their environmental impact. SMT (AB Sandvik Materials Technology), a part of the industrial group Sandvik AB, has set a target that during 2014 develop a guiding document with special consider to the environmental impact during construction of office buildings, that they establish at the Swedish regional capital Sandviken, for both internal and external tenants. This study therefore aims to clarify which environmental aspects that the construction and real estate sector mainly are responsible for, and therefore should be part of a guiding document for a company for establishing office buildings, and to present arguments regarding the use of such a document. The study is based on literature studies and personal contact with other companies, in the form of e-mail conversations and a telephone interview.

The purpose of this essay is to study how feminists portray themselves and their opinions about gender issues and other political matters in popular feminist blogs. The blogs that are studied are Lady Dahmer, Fanny Åström, Hanapee and Genusfolket. The overall essay questions are: How does the feminist bloggers present themselves? Which subjects are discussed in the feminist blogs? Which rhetorical devices does the feminist bloggers use? The theories that are used to answer the essay questions are the four spheres where there are inequality between the sexes, theories about third wave feminism, the rhetorical concepts ethos, logos and pathos and the SPADER-model for writing good argumentation. A descriptive method is used to study how the bloggers present themselves, a quantitative content analysis is used to count which subjects the bloggers write about and a qualitative rhetorical text analysis is used to study the rhetorical devices the bloggers use.The result shows that the two bloggers Lady Dahmer and Fanny Åström describe themselves with provocative words while the other blogs have more neutral descriptions.

Background: Studies that have been made in male-dominated organisations shows that only few women have succeeded in advancing to the higher positions in all businesses. Statistics shows that merely 4 % of the managers in all building companies are female. The manager role has earlier always been classified as most suitable for men resulting in barriers for women who strive for management positions. This problem is now very renowned and is called the glass ceiling. To improve the current situation, both the organization's structure and culture, have to be modernized for more women to succeed and get the courage to get into the industry.

In recent years it has become more and more evident that man has contributed to much of the climate changes that have taken place during the last century. A major challenge today is to reduce emissions and energy usage at the same time as the global population is growing. To contribute to a better environment, Stockholms Stad has set at target of becoming fossil fuel free by the year of 2050. The construction of new districts is done with this goal in mind; energy efficiency and renewable energy sources are examples of methods to achieve this.Solar energy is considered to be a sustainable energy source and the most common techniques to harvest solar energy in Sweden are solar cells and solar collectors which produce electricity and heat respectively. This report aims to investigate whether an investment in any of these systems would prove to be economically beneficial at Kvarnholmen, a district under construction in eastern Nacka, Stockholm.Since the finished blueprints only cover a small portion of Kvarnholmen, the report examines the possibilities for a house where construction has already begun, Nya Kvarnen.

The world?s growing need for energy together with a desire to ward off the worst consequences of global climate change has resulted in a never seen desire to invest resources in renewable energy sources. Biogas production through anaerobic digestion is one of those growing energy sources. In Sweden there are over two hundred plants that uses this biological process to break down organic substances while producing carbon dioxide and the energy-rich gas methane.This master?s thesis has focused on development of the mixture of different organic substances that is treated at a specific plant, namely Mosserud biogas plant.

This study was made in an attempt to give the forest research centre Mógilsá a producedtetratherm map and a better understanding of how topography and temperature influencethe growth of two tree species. The digital tetratherm map model, covering the northernpart of Iceland, was developed to investigate the correlation between tetratherm and thegrowth of Picea sitchensis and Larix (sukaczewii + sibirica). The study confirms theusefulness of digital terrain models in providing data for a lot of different factors and forthe tetratherm model. Hopefully will this tetratherm map be used in future studies.Secondly, investigations were made correlating the growth of the two species againsttopographic factors representing height above sea level, distance to the sea, slope andtopex. Thirdly, investigations were made comparing the aspect and the ground shape tothe growth.The growth rate of Larix had strong significant correlations to the tetratherm and thedistance to the sea- factors.

Farmers are constantly facing changes, and the exposure to risk requires monitoring these changes. Financial risks, institutional risks, market risks and production risks are the different risk categories that the farmers face. Production risks stems from factors the farmer cannot affect or is beyond his control. The crop?s output is the basis for the primary income of agricultural operations, which is why it is important for farmer to manage their production risk. A tool to reduce the consequences of production risks is crop insurance.

Phosphorus is the single most potent contributor to eutrophication of freshwater and has also been shown to contribute to the toxic algae blooms in the Baltic sea. The dynamics and paths of losses of phosphorus from arable lands are not fully understood. It is known that phosphorus can be lost directly from plant material to water. In studies where plant material has been subjected to several freeze-thaw cycles, large amounts of phosphorus have been lost. Most studies have been conducted under field conditions, with many factors effecting the measured losses of phosphorus, such as weather and type of soil. This study was performed in a controlled environment without the presence of soil. Instead of soil, small glass beads were mixed with the plant materials in vessels, to make possible homogeneous leaching with water through the mixture of glass beads and plant materials. In this study, clover, ryegrass and dry straw were cut to pieces, approximately 2 cm long.