Environmental issues are global problems and they are a major challenge for any successful organizational business worldwide. Many challenges and opportunities emerge during the certification process of an EMS. Therefore it is interesting to contribute in understanding these emerging problems during this process.The aim of this study is to explore how the environmental objectives could be achieved at preschools in Uppsala, investigate the perceived challenges and opportunities and to identify the outcome of implementing the ISO 14001, Green Flag at such set up.A qualitative method is used and three Green Flag certified preschools, affiliated to the Uppsala Municipality and located at different geographical location were selected. A structured interview with the environmental representatives from the preschools and the municipality was completed. The so-called PDCA-cycle as a method of evaluating sustainable development and analysing the imperial data is used.The study showed that Environmental certification constitutes a great challenge for the municipality of Uppsala.

During the past few years an increased attention has been paid to environmental issues in the construction and property sector in Sweden. In order to simplify the work with these issues a Swedish Environmental certification system for buildings called Miljöbyggnad has been developed. This thesis aims to investigate the opinion of a selected number of selected property owners of Miljöbyggnad. From that basis recommendations and actions for the future work with the system will be presented.The investigation has been conducted through personal interviews with five property owners. The main issues that the interviews have been based on are their purpose, experiences, perceived complications and future prospects in terms of certification using Miljöbyggnad.The system intends to be cost-effective, simple and to offer a relevant environmental assessment of buildings and the result from the report indicates that this is largely fulfilled.

This thesis examines the environmental benefits resulting from the choice of Environmental certification scheme, with focus on energy. This was carried out by studying the measures that were implemented as a result of the certification of Sweco's three largest office buildings in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. The office property in Stockholm has been certified with the Swedish Environmental Building, Gothenburg with the British BREEAM and Malmö with the U.S system LEED.The results from the study indicate that an Environmental certification can reduce the energy consumption by up to 59 percent and the water consumption by 20 to 66 percent. However; the interviews, literature study and simulations in MATLAB indicate that the size and scope of these environmental benefits depend on several identified factors: the type of building and its conditions, system selection, grade level, the choice of indicators, the ambition of those involved and when in time the certification process begins. The comparison between Environmental Building, LEED and BREEAM showed that Environmental Building for the office property in Stockholm gave the largest environmental benefit in terms of reduced energy consumption thanks to several large measures.

The demands of environmental effects in today?s companies have been increasing more andmore. To be able to withstand customers, cooperatives and government demands the ISO14001 certification should not be neglected.In January 2007 the general management of SAS decided to introduce an environmentalmanagement system for SAS Tech. The work which has been carried out is a part of thecertification process of ISO 14001 which will be completed by the end of year 2009.The aim is to create auditroutines for the company in order to be able audit ISO 14001standard internally which is a demand to get certified and to keep the certification in thefuture. A schedule has been done which audits different part of the standard at every auditduring one year.

In the construction industry today there is a significant technological revolution goingon. New methods for automated processes and information management are developedcontinuously. Intense studies are currently taking place to ensure ways and means toembrace the new technology of BIM.At the present, Environmental certification systems are considered cumbersome andchallenging. However, the increasing demands of sustainable development in the constructionindustry imply that the Environmental certifications will not disappear. ThisMaster Thesis examines the possibilities to apply BIM technology within the field ofEnvironmental certifications to streamline the processes.The applications that provide the best opportunities are:- To use BIM to be able to, during the design stage, dynamically evaluate the resultor score a certain building will achieve.- To avoid unnecessary work through collection of data for calculations directlyfrom a BIM-model.- To be able to automate certain time consuming calculations that are currentlyperformed manually.- To automatically examine the completed model to ensure that the demands arefulfilled.The possibilities to use BIM within these areas are however limited by the technologyitself.

Different groups in the forestry sector were likely to have different views regarding the responsibility for an environmentally sustainable forestry and the benefits of certification and this study aimed to examine the attitudes that existed in the forestry sector to the certification schemes FSC and PEFC. In the study a survey and a questionnaire were sent out to different groups. The investigation was made with respect to three groups: forest owners, forest contractors and employees working with the certification schemes on a daily basis at the forest company Södra. The groups agreed that the owner of the forest had the main responsibility for an environmentally sustainable forestry. The study revealed that all three groups highly valued the environmental aspect of certification.

Titel                                    Indirect economic impacts of a national environment certification as financial business strategyAuthors                              Ida Antonsson, Emma Hellberg and Linn RingströmAdvisor                              Arne SöderbomCourse                               Bachelor thesis ? business administrationSeminar date                     2013-05-27Purpose                              The main aim of this study is to describe and analyze how private corporations use national environment certifications as a business strategy to gain power and financial benefits. By studying already certified corporation in Sweden, this study aims to understand, explore and develop already existing theoretical theories and concepts concerning ?national environment certifications?.Background                      All corporations have an impact on the environment. Therefor many corporations use a variety of worldwide certifications to be able to prove to ?others? that the corporation meets national- and international set goals.

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.

Traditional product features such as price, quality and supply service have been extended and nowadays includes environmental aspects as well. It raises new and increasing demands on haulier companies. The transport sector is responsible for a large part of the pollutants causing today?s environmental problems. The business is being closely monitored and to operate environmental friendly is seen as one of the most important elements for the industry?s future development.

During the past few years an increased attention has been paid to environmental issues in the construction and property sector in Sweden. In order to simplify the work with these issues a Swedish Environmental certification system for buildings called Miljöbyggnad has been developed. This thesis aims to investigate the opinion of a selected number of selected property owners of Miljöbyggnad. From that basis recommendations and actions for the future work with the system will be presented.The investigation has been conducted through personal interviews with five property owners. The main issues that the interviews have been based on are their purpose, experiences, perceived complications and future prospects in terms of certification using Miljöbyggnad.The system intends to be cost-effective, simple and to offer a relevant environmental assessment of buildings and the result from the report indicates that this is largely fulfilled.

This thesis provides a good introduction to the American Environmental certification system LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and trough compar-isons between Sweden and the United States an explanation to the systems design is given. The work is closely linked to a LEED Core & Shell project in Stockholm, Swe-den, where the goal is to reach the second highest rating in LEED - Gold.This thesis gives a broad description of the LEED system and a more profound study of the energy sector, Energy and Atmosphere. Here, for example, an analysis has been made of how the energy consumption of an imaginary building designed according to the requirements of the BBR (Swedish building code) performs in comparison to the Baseline building in LEED.The existing model of Borgarfjord 3, which served as a case study in this work, has al-so been modified to investigate the energy savings that could have been achieved by adding extra insulation to the building. A description of the problems, regarding how the Swedish district heating system (DES) is treated in LEED, is given as well as the suggested modifications. This is an issue that will be pursued during the process of shaping a new, international, version of LEED due to be launched 2012..

This report is a degree paper made for the Engineering program in Technical Chemistry at the School of Engineering, Jönköping University.The intention of the project which is described, is to answer whether HV71 might become environmentally certified according to the criteria of "miljödiplomering". The project also included an investigation of which further steps and measures must be undertaken by the enterprise in order to achieve the certificate. The final part was to implement the necessary requirements for the certification.The report starts with a short background where the origin and function of environmental management is briefly explained.The report continues with how the practical work with the Environmental certification was done according to requirements of Jönköping municipality. Motivations behind each part of the process are given as well as explanations of how each part of the process was carried out.The final result of the project was that HV71 took the measures needed to live up to the required demands. After a revision made by Miljöstrategen i Jönköping AB, HV71 passed the demands and became thereby an environmentally certified business..

How the renovation of the vast Swedish existing building stock with renovation needs will be performed is considered as decisive in order to achieve the target set by the Swedish government of reducing the energy use by 20 percent by 2020. Consequently, the challenge of the building sector consists in reducing the energy use in the existing building stock but at the same time ensuring that the indoor environmental quality is improved and the cultural values are maintained.So far, there have been a few renovation projects which strongly have reduced the energy use and at the same time have taken into account the environmental aspects and the cultural values. The main reasons are that there have been few incentives and a lack of routines in order to steer efficiently a ?sustainable renovation?.The participants in a Nordic project on sustainable renovation thought that it would be a strong advantage to link the concept of sustainable renovation to the Miljöbyggnad certification system. Indeed it is trusted by the Swedish building and construction sectors and can provide sustainability targets in order to steer renovation processes.The objective of the master thesis is to show how the Miljöbyggnad certification system could be integrated in practice in the renovation process of Riksbyggen, an organization which administers housing associations (Bostadsrättsföreningar) and build houses.

During the past decade environmental challenges have been intensified and given increased attention. This implies that businesses in all sectors strategically need to manage these challenges. The service sector is often considered as a sector with a low environmental impact if the direct environmental aspects are assessed. Still, it has been argued that the environmental impact that the sector gives rise to can create severe indirect environmental impacts. The products and services that are produced by this sector have a relatively limited use of physical resources which may make the environmental impact challenging to visualize. Banks belong to the service sector and it is partly banks that make the development of societies possible.

Södra is a co-operative of private forest owner organisation which is owned by 35 000 private forest owers in southern Sweden. Forest owners in Sweden can choose to certify their Forestry. Södra uses PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes) as their certification scheme for their members. Those who choose to certify their forest are obligated to follow the demands for forestry which PEFC requires. A ?Green? forestry plan is another important tool in the ambition to reach a sustainable forestry.