Climate changes today are mainly caused by anthropogenic activities and the increased emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and this has raised questions on how to reduce the usage of fossil fuels. Ethanol is a good alternative to conventional gas and has been used in Brazil since the 1970 ?s. In Sweden several newspapers has written about the poor working conditions on many farms thus making the Swedish company SEKAB design a certification for their ethanol to ensure that it can be considered to be a sustainable alternative.Furthermore WWF has developed a certification tool called Bonsucro in cooperation with Coca Cola, Ferrero group, BP and Shell. This is due to the fact that no global certification tool has been available up until now.

As a Swedish landscape architecture student living in Australia for five years, I have often wondered if my memories and my associations with the landscape and the nature in Sweden, are the same as other Swedish people living in Melbourne. Most of the Swedish people who live here in Melbourne remember and associate Sweden?s nature and landscape with where they grew up or where they used to live. The plants that most of the Swedish people I asked missed from Sweden were associated to special feelings or activities. The general type of landscape people remember from Sweden is that of a landscape covered in forests, which you can walk freely through. With these memories as a foundation and with inspiration from the Swedish landscape architect Thorbjörn Anderson?s way of creating places, by letting a few strong changes play against the existing elements,2 but also with consideration of the climate and the severe shortage of water that is current in Melbourne, will I create a design concept for the garden surrounding the Swedish Church in Melbourne. A design concept that will generate memories and associations to Swedish landscapes..

The municipalities of Sweden have a great responsibility when it comes to adapt the physical planning to a more sustainable development. The development of the society depends upon the growth of new communities and other public services, but to build new communities in a long-term sustainable manner you need good methods and guidance. This study presents four sustainability certification scheme intended to improve and adapt the planning, implementation and performance of new communities and infrastructure project to more sustainable methods based on economic, ecological and social sustainability. These systems are the latest versions of environmental classifications and similar rating schemes, but with a broader focus since they also include the social aspect of sustainability.This study aims to investigate what role sustainability certification schemes can play in local planning for sustainable development. The study compares the certification systems criteria to the tools and goals that the Swedish municipalities have been provided with, to lead efforts towards a more sustainable society.

An energy calculation model for Swedish houses   that is fast, flexible and user-friendly has been developed within the   framework of this thesis.  The model   also provides a set of actions which may be investigated in the model based   on savings and payback period. Energy use in a house depends on the technical   conditions, such as building envelope and heating systems, which outdoor   climate the house is exposed to and who lives in the house. Energy use for a   house can be divided into heating, hot water and household electricity. There   are several methods to calculate the energy use of a house. This report   summarizes the methods that may be suitable for a fast and user-friendly   calculation model.

Many tropical rain forests has been lost or degraded as a result of human activities and environmental factors. Since the level of biodiversity is high in the tropics, maintaining these areas is of great importance. Forests like these are often assumed to benefit from forest restoration and rehabilitation. The INIKEA project area in Eastern Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, aims to improve biodiversity and/or species richness in the degraded forest through enrichment planting with indigenous species. The objective of this thesis was to evaluate how different treatments (liberation, gap-cluster planting and line planting) affect the biodiversity of natural regeneration in different forest types in the Rain forest Restoration Experiment, located in the INIKEA project area.

Convective snowbands is a weather phenomenon that is associated with heavy snowfall in a limited area. They are formed over ice-free parts of e.g. the Baltic Sea when there is a cold easterly airflow over relatively warm water. These convective snowbands can cause large amounts of snow along the Swedish east coast, often causing traffic hazards. Sometimes they can even paralyze an entire community.  In this study, convective snowbands that have formed over the Baltic Sea during the period 1980-2009 are examined, in order to find out how often they occur, what place they are most common and in what month they usually appear.

Löslighet och transport av sällsynta jordartsmetaller i Källfallsfältets gruvsandsmagasinHugo de Campos PereiraSyftet med detta arbete har varit att kartlägga vilka mekanismer som styr lösligheten av sällsynta jordartsmetaller (eng. rare earth elements, REE) i sulfidhaltig anrikningssand vid den föredetta gruvan Källfallsfältet i Västmanland. För syftet har markvatten- och grundvattenprovtagning utförts, tillsammans med laktester och geokemisk modellering med Visual MINTEQ ver. 3.0.Resultaten visade att sulfidvittring är den främsta processen som styr pH i anrikningssanden, och därmed också indirekt REEs löslighet. Däremot är sulfidvittring ingen källa till REE i sig då ämnena inte föreligger sulfidbundna, något som oxiderat tillgänglighetstest NT ENVIR 006 visade.

The aim of this study is to find a method to incorporate the energydemand of a building in the investment cost estimate.The study is based on an actual apartment block. The significant energyaspects are identified, and changed to more energy efficient options.These are then simulated using the energy calculation program VIP+.The calculated energy need is used in the investment cost estimate, andthe simulated alternatives are compared in regards to their economicalprofitability.Depending on the focus, different alternatives are the most advantageous.Since this study aims to show which alternative is the mosteconomically profitable, the annual profit is the parameter of mostimportance. This means that individual measuring of heating and hotwater use is the recommended change of the original house. A changeof the windows to new ones with a U-value of 1,0 as well as 0,8W/m2K also results in a positive change of the annual profit comparedto the original house..

The aim of my thesis is to obtain knowledge of textile wastewater and textile sludge from an environmental perspective, which can be used as a basis for the  ?Sweden Textile Water Initiative? guidelines for a sustainable sludge management. In my study I have mainly focused on textile dyes, salts and metals and their routes during wastewater treatment.This paper is partly a literature review, which I began by identifying the pollutants discharged from each textile process. Then I studied wastewater and sludge quality, environmental aspects, possible treatment and recycling methods. I have also tried to find existing type of guidelines in order to make comparisons.

Sustainability is a term that is constantly gaining focus in our society and we are becoming more and more aware of the need to take the next generation into consideration when making decisions. The sustainable activity within the core business is growing and is also connected to profitability in ways that have not been seen before. However, the activities that are not included in the core business have not yet reached this long-term perspective. These non-core businesses within an organization goes under the term Facilities Management (FM).This paper focuses onReal Estate businesses, FM-suppliers and the relation between them.The purpose is to investigate current knowledge regarding outsourced FM-services and the real estate organisation?s use of these services.

This report describes honey, its origin, properties and effects on human health. Honey has been used for a long time in most civilizations and apiculture is an important activity sector in many parts of the world. The trend is an increase in honey production but a decrease in the number of beekeepers in Sweden. Honeybees live in a highly developed society with a strong hierarchy and a well organized distribution of the tasks. They visit a broad spectrum of plants and collect nectar to store it as honey.

Bakgrund och problem: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) är ett ramverk som beskriver företags sociala ansvar och engagemang. Vidare förknippas CSR även med stakeholder management som handlar om företags bemötande och balansering av sina intressenters intressen. Oenigheter i teoretiska definitioner av CSR tyder på att det empiriskt sett kan uppstå missförstånd kring ramverket. Carlsberg Sverige och Spendrups är två företag som tar ställning och socialt ansvar via CSR men kritiseras trots detta på grund av sin produktion och försäljningen av flaskvatten, som även visat sig har en negativ påverkan på företagens försäljning. Detta tyder på att det kan vara av företagens intresse att vilja bemöta och åtgärda de kritiska aspekter vilket görs utifrån CSR.Syfte: Studien syftar till att teoretiskt och empiriskt undersöka förhållandet mellan två bryggerier och dess kritikyttrande intressenter, vilket bidrar till ökad kunskap om komplexiteten av ramverken Corporate Social Responsibility och stakeholder management.Metod: En kvalitativ metod har använts där studien baseras på sekundärkällor för undersökningen av de två fallföretagen Carlsberg Sverige och Spendrups samt en undersökning av kritiken som riktas mot flaskvatten och dess produktion.Analys och slutsats: Produktionen, transporterna samt materialåtervinning och ?förbränning kritiseras för att ha en negativ påverkan på miljön.

Intresset för vattenfrågor har ökat efter införandet av EU:s ramdirektiv för vatten (vattendirektivet, 2000/60/EG) och inneburit att vattenvård och hänsynstagande till vatten inom skogsbruket fått större fokus. Målet med vattendirektivet är att alla vatten inom EU (Europeiska Unionen) ska erhålla en god kemisk och ekologisk status innan år 2015 samt att ingen försämring får ske. Skogsbruket kan i vissa fall ha negativa effekter på vattenmiljöer. NPK+ och Blå målklassning är två skogliga vattenplaneringsverktyg som har utvecklats för att öka vattenhänsynen i skogen. Verktygen utgörs av ett inventeringsprotokoll som bedömer vattenmiljöns naturvärde (N), påverkan (P), känslighet för skogsbruk (K) samt plusvärden (+).

Open ecosystems, such as grasslands and pastures, have naturally been shaped by disturbances like fire and grazing. These processes play a crucial role in creating habitats with high biological diversity, particularly favourable for a wide range of herbaceous plant species. In recent years, many of these disturbances have ceased, leading to encroachment, fragmentation and habitat loss. The aim of this study was to examine and compare the effects of fire, herbivory and a combination of fire and herbivory on the emergence of herbaceous plants. The study was conducted at the Ecopark at Nordens Ark.

Abstract Westerholm, I. (2011). Gravidas hälsovanor. Hälsopedagogiska programmet. Akademin för hälsa och arbetsliv, Högskolan i Gävle.This study aimed to investigate whether pregnant women change their health habits following recommendations and, if so, find out where they get this information from.