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.

Social movements have long been valuable components of the struggle for a world with true justice. Along with the changing and modernization of society these movements also change, both in their actions as well as in the goals they want to accomplish. Technology is taking a greater part in many aspects of social life, creating new dimensions but also new social divides. This thesis examines how new social movements make themselves visible and affect the world around them through different kinds of networks. For the purpose of this study, we have chosen to study two social movements; the Zapatistas in Mexico, who have become known worldwide for carrying out the first informational revolution, and MoveOn.org, an American grassroots organization that struggles for increased democracy in the US.

If you have access to wood, a wood burning boiler is a cheap way to heat your home, but it is certainly not the most convenient option. Wood requires many operations and management, which takes time. One way to reduce this workload is to have a modern boiler with automatic ignition. Enertech/CTC has a desire to create an accessory with automatic ignition to a modern wood burning boiler. Today there is no boiler on the market that can ignite firewood automatically without the introduction of paper and sticks.

The notion of firms interacting with technology is not new; these types of systems were already in place in the mid eighties. E-business users worked with connections between their inbound logistics and procurement systems, and suppliers? order-entry systems. When these connections were described for the first time the vertical links between two, or more, value chains in a value system received more attention in firm strategy. The design of the linkages in the value system was said to be a product of the need for coordination and relative bargaining power.

This report is the result of a thesis work in Integrated Product Development, regarding hygienic features in dishwashers and especially disinfection by the use of steam.The thesis is performed at Electrolux Primary Development Dishcare in Stockholm and in collaboration with the Department of Machine Design at the Royal Institute of Technology.The targets of the thesis are to prove the advantages of a technology suitable to implement as a hygienic feature inside a dishwasher and to realize a functional prototype of a differentiated hygienic feature that does not exist on the market today.The process followed to perform the thesis is the process defined for Electrolux Primary Development.The technology chosen for development is disinfection by heating the water on the surface of the dishware, by the use of steam.A number of tests on how steam behaves when injected into the dishwasher tub have been performed, providing the results that have been taken in consideration when designing the prototype.The prototype consists of a pipe system provided with nozzles to eject the steam into the upper parts of the dishwasher. Tests of the final prototype show that thermal disinfection of water in a dedicated area of the tub can be reached within 9 minutes. The operation requires 0,17 liters of water and consumes 0.2kWh..

The research in this paper aims to producing a home version machine thatcan dry and make biological waste into compact pellets. This product ismade primarily for those who want to improve the environment and reducethe energy consuming process of separating the biological leftovers fromother waste in the large processing plants and save money due to reducedpickups of waste. Since there is no commercially available product thatdoes what we want to achieve we had to start from the beginning with boththe design and the mechanical aspects. The result is a machine, that fits inour homes, and in an easy and inexpensive way reduces the amount ofbiological waste that needs to be collected by the public wastetransportation system. This is done without reducing any of the energy inthe waste and it can still be used to compost or by large-scale plants that usethe waste to make electricity.

During 2007 the City of Stockholm installed five grid connected photovoltaic systems. The aim of this master thesis is to quantify the amount of produced energy and recommend routines to collect and analyse production data, to make production data accessible by the public and to gain experience for future installations.The total amount of produced energy until March 2009 is 227 000 kWh, with an annual rate of 150 000 kWh. The expected annual rate was 148 000 kWh.All system owners are positive about their plants and see economical benefits in scaling up such systems.The installations need very little attendance and maintenance, however it is recommended that an alarm function is installed for automatic feedback in case of a system failure. All future systems should be inspected during full operation to determine if the actual capacity is matching the installed capacity..

Skärgårdsstiftelsen, which is responsible for several of the archipelago islands in Stockholm, has chosen to explore the possibilities for more sustainable heating systems in buildings on the islands in collaboration with KTH. A reduction of energy use and improving the efficiency of existing heating systems are included as part of the environmental work. This report studies the island of Grinda, which is located outside the area of Vaxholm in Stockholm. The study area consists of a guesthouse consisting of a restaurant as well as conference facilities and four neighboring cottages used for overnighting. The cottages now run solely on direct electricity, both for heating and hot water.

Sweden has a natural gas grid extending along the west coast, from Trelleborg to Stenungsund. There are also several smaller local networks where a planned natural gas pipeline from Skutskär to Hofors prompted the need for a comprehensive study. This study examines the linkages that exist in terms of technology and market of natural gas and biogas in Sweden. Sweden has set high targets for the future with ambition to become independent of coal and oil as energy sources. Since 1985, a part of the solution has been import of Danish natural gas.

The consumption and energy use in today's society contributes to the on-going climate change that creates a debt of life quality for future generations (www, DN, 2007, a). The resources that are used by humans exceed by far what is sustainable (www, Regeringen, 2007, a). The purpose of this paper is to examine how a message about energy conservation should be designed to reach youths. This will be attempted by showing their thoughts on energy and environmental issues and also what it would take for them to get more involved in these issues. The views of the youths are gained by a number of focus group-interviews, which where carried out in the fall of 2007, with kids in the ages 12 to 19. Apart from these interviews, interviews where also conducted with representatives from different youth organisations in Sweden, which gave their views on how to get a message across to kids.

To make it easier for forestry planning the forest owners needs data which describe characteristics of the forest. Such data you usually get from some type of inventory. A relatively new technology which probably is getting more important in the future, is laser scanning because of lower costs. But because the laser technology is relatively new you need to compare it with conventional inventory technologies to get better understanding of the possibilities the laser technology gives. This work intends to estimate field measured characteristics of the forest from laser data with help of regression analysis and then see which of the field measured properties that best could be estimated and which laser variables that gave the best results. This study shows that heights has the best estimates, but biomass, diameter and volume also gives good estimates.

I detta examensarbete studeras kommande energikrav för byggnader i Sverige och i synnerhet kraven påspecifik energianvändning. Detta mot bakgrund av EU-kommissionens och EU-parlamentets direktiv,EPBD2, om nära nollenergibyggnader 2020. Därefter bearbetas ett förslag på en nyytterväggskonstruktion som med lägre U-värde än den befintliga ytterväggen ska sänkaFiskarhedenvillans olika hustypers specifika energianvändning. Syftet med sänkningen är att möjliggöraför Fiskarhedenvillan att uppfylla de kommande energikraven.Det är många parametrar som måste uppfyllas och det nya ytterväggsförslaget analyseras förutom urenergisynpunkt även med hänsyn till statik, fukt och kostnad. Beräkningar för statik och specifikenergianvändning har gjorts för ett referenshus.Resultatet av att byta ut den befintliga ytterväggskonstruktionen mot det framarbetade förslaget medca 33 % lägre U-värde gav endast en sänkning med ca 6 % av den specifika energianvändningen.

The development of solar photovoltaic (PV) is increasing,with declining module prices and with a strongenvironmental profile. Policies are developed around theworld to achieve the targets set for renewable energy.In Helsingborg, the local power company Öresundskraft isworking with solar PV to achieve the goals of the city.With their vision: - Energy for a Better World and Powerfor the Region, their work with developing the local solarPV market is continuing and the next step is to create asolar PV policy. Today their offer is 1 SEK/kWh for theexcess electricity delivered to the grid.It turns out that compensating the customer is a vitalpolicy and it has to be dynamic to follow the decisions ofpolitics. The same survey shows indeed, thatenvironmental and technical part is of interest. Solar PVwill be supported locally to act on environmentalsustainability and locally produced electricity and withthis Öresundskrafts vision will be achieved..

Disinfection methods for drinking-water produced at the two water works of Stockholm Water Co are compared in this study. Three different nethods are compared; disinfection with chlorine gas, disinfection with sodium hypochlorite and disinfection with UV-light and monochloramine. The method used is Life cycle assessment, LCA. LCA is defined as the compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and potential environmental impact of a product system shroughout its life cycle. The environmental burden is compared for the three different disinfection methods.

During the last decades the housing sector has increased continuously, and housings and services accounted for 40 % of the energy usage in Sweden during 2011. The expansion in number of buildings in society has resulted in an increase in both energy usage and emissions of greenhouse gases. It is crucial to enable a sustainable development of society and as a result, the demand to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide is a current question. In this study, the carbon dioxide emitted from the housing sector in Stockholm is estimated. The housing sector can be divided into different types of houses such as apartment blocks, single-family houses and holiday houses. By collecting information of the energy purchased in respective households, a computational model is generated that calculates the total emission of carbon dioxide.