Our modern society is in many ways built with and dependent on fossil fuels, which are used for energy production as well as for transporting humans and goods. Without the oil, many of the things we take for granted would not be possible. During the last century, the use of oil has increased steadily and will probably keep increasing as the world population and the economic well-being for many people increase. Since the oil is a finite resource, we will have to find other fuels that can replace it if we want to keep the same rate of development in the future as the availability of petrol fuels will decrease with rising prices as a result. Furthermore, fossil fuels have the disadvantage that they produce harmful Emissions when combusted and thus affect the climate and air quality locally and globally.

Den textila industrin, en egen värld, är nu under rampljuset som en av de största miljöpåverkande industrierna. Precis som i fallet med många andra industrier så måste textilbranschen intensivt arbeta med att minska sin negativa påverkan på miljön. Slutmålet måste vara att helt balansera uttagen och insättningarna så att man skapar en bransch som blir klimat- och miljöneutral. I denna rapport har en livscykelanalys gjorts på en underställströja från Helly Hansen tillverkad av 99 % polypropylene. Inom denna livscykelanalys har vi noggrant studerat och undersökt fakta för att hitta de processer som har den största påverkan på miljön.

The use of fossil fuels such as coal and gas are a contributor to the global warming. The climate change is a worldwide problem with far reaching consequences that is believed to be very expensive. The United Nations has been introducing a framework convention on climate change. One component of the convention is the Kyoto protocol. The protocol is obligating the developed countries to decrease their Emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2 percent during the time period 2008-2012.

The industrial sector accounts for a large share of greenhouse gas Emissions. To reduce its negative impact on the environment is crucial in the quest for a sustainable future. In discussions of the industrial sector's impact on the environment guidelines have been highlighted as a tool to assist the industries in their efforts to change the relationship between the consumption of energy and production. This by improving energy efficiency and a shift to the best available technology. During the past 30 years the steel industry has reduced its energy consumption per ton of steel produced by 50 percent.

Social inequality, economic imbalances and greenhouse gas Emissions are some of the greatest risks threatening society today. Society has become more aware of these risks and has started to demand firms to take more responsibility. During the last 30 years firms and mainly large firms has chosen to work with something called CSR. CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility which is the work firms engage with to take responsibility for environment and society as a whole. Scientists and business people has taken two sides towards CSR, one side argues that CSR cost more than it tastes and the other side argues that firms which engage with CSR will gain economic benefits.

Environment friendly transports are one of the main topics in the industry and society today.Shell organizes an annual university competition called Shell Eco Marathon. The goal is to buildthe car that consumes the least fuel during a race. KTH participated for the first time in 2006.The engine for this competition, DoubleTwo, has been developed within the school. Theprinciple is a two stroke counter piston HCCI engine with variable compression ratio. HCCIstands for homogenous charge compression ignition.

The transportation sector is the only sector of the Swedish society that is still increasing the Emissions of carbon dioxide and other green house gases. Diesel fuel represents one of the fuels that contributes to these Emissions and the use of diesel fuels is increasing every year. The main purpose of this study was to make an estimation of the current business situation for producers of liquid diesel biofuels in Sweden such as biodiesel, synthetic diesel and crude tall diesel and examine the forces of competition of the industry today and its future prospects. The study revealed that the rivalry among the existing firms was low mainly due to the geographical spread of the companies. Moreover the success of the biodiesel industry was influenced by a long-term guarantee of the tax exempt for biofuels and by the price level of petroleum diesel.

The purpose of this study is to compare the energy related and environmental consequences of implementing optical sorting as a means of waste collection with those of reducing food waste. In addition to studying the possibility of implementing optical sorting in downtown Stockholm, the yielded amounts of energy from waste collection and reduced wastage will be calculated. This is done by way of literature reviews and interviews. The amount of energy that can be generated through optical sorting and biogas production via anaerobic digestion in downtown Stockholm is 29-44 TJ/year, compared to 118 TJ/year saved by completely eliminating food waste. The generated biogas can replace fossil fuels, but the required food waste contributes to increased greenhouse gas Emissions as well as reduced bio diversity and eutrophication during the wasted food?s lifecycle.

This project was conducted on behalf of the organization SABO (Swedish Association of Public Housing Companies). The aim of this project was to investigate which relevant environmental aspects and indicators there are for housing companies to present in their sustainability report. The project consists of three main goals: to decide if there is a need for common guidelines when conducting a sustainability report, determine appropriate environmental indicators and to create a simple model of how the companies can present them. This was done by a literature study, analysis of 13 sustainability reports and interviews with seven housing companies. The result of the project suggests that there is a need for common guidelines to, among other things, make it easier to make a comparison with other companies.

Wind power in Sweden is expanding in response to the government's decision that 49% of Sweden's power should originate from renewable energy sources by the year 2020. Problems with noise and sound Emissions related to wind turbines are a constant argument against the wind power expansion and this paper means to examine if vertical axis wind turbines might be a viable alternative to the conventional horizontal design for noise sensitive areas. In order to determine factors like difference in frequency, noise propagation and noise emission level, measurements of both horizontal and vertical axis wind turbines have been completed and the data analyzed with MATLAB. It is shown that there is a difference in how the noise from the two types of turbines propagates due to avariation in the frequency spectra of the emitted sound. It is also shown that vertical axis wind turbines generate a lower sound emission with less intensity inthe lower frequencies..

This thesis describes how large Swedish companies finance their debt and identifies some factors that affect their decisions. The study is based on 10 well-known companies of which 9 are listed on Nasdaq OMX Nordic. The results show that the companies display several similarities concerning their debt structure and the factors which their choices are based upon. All companies in this study primarily use corporate bonds for their long-term borrowing, commercial papers for the short-term borrowing, and bank-facilities as back-up. There is a tendency that smaller companies in larger extent use bank-loans for long-term borrowing due to larger Emissions costs when using market financing.

Solid waste management is one of the most essential functions in a country to achieve asustainable development. In India, it has been one of the least prioritized functions during thelast decades. The most common ways to treat waste in India today are open dumping anduncontrolled burning. These methods are causing severe environmental pollution and healthproblems. India is one of the world?s largest emitter of methane gas from waste disposal.Since methane is a strong greenhouse gas, even small Emissions have large impact on theclimate.

This is a graduate work at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, The Department of Urban and Rural Development, Ultuna. The purpose of this paper has been to find out and describe principles for designing parks that offers good recreational and aesthetical values and require little amount of carbon dioxide Emissions during their maintenance. The purpose has also been to see if it's possible to use city wastewater in some extent to assure the plants water supply and to find other means to make it less necessary to use purified water for watering. Recently made studies as well as older ones show how important green areas are in dense city structures both from a health and a climate perspective. Trees and other plants adsorbs different forms of air pollution and can also lower the temperature in the surrounding area through their transpiration.

Turboaggregat med variabel geometri har länge funnit hos automobiler, men det dröjde ända tills 2008 innan det första dök upp på ett fartyg. Syftet med denna undersökning har varit att kontrollera om de fördelar som Man B&W hävdar att VTA-aggregatet skall ha stämmer, samt att undersöka om VTA-aggregatet kan lösa de problem som uppkommer i och med att man kör med reducerad fart, s.k. slowsteaming. För att undersöka detta har jag bedrivit litteraturstudie, med insamling av data mestadels från Internet.Resultatet av undersökningen visar på att ett VTA-aggregat kan minska bränsleförbrukningen och vissa emissioner vid reducerad fart jämfört med en konventionell turbo av samma storlek. Den minskade bränsleförbrukningen leder i sin tur till ekonomiska vinster.

This report is commissioned by the Water and Sewage Agency in The City of Mariehamn, Åland. The basic aim is to investigate positive or negative effects of a relocation of the sewage pipe from a wastewater treatment plant, Lotsbroverket. The environmental licence of Lotsbroverket is to be revised and The Environmental Appeal Board at Åland?s Government and Administrative Board has made demands that several possible locations in an outer water area should be examined. The present location of the sewage pipe is in Svibyviken, which has been classified as an ?inner water area?.The objective of this work is to study to which extent the nutrient loading from Lotsbroverket influence the environmental conditions in Svibyviken, and to investigate the suitability of different locations of the wastewater pipe from Lotsbroverket.The way a coastal area looks, i.e., its morphometry, determines to a large extent its ecological characteristics.