The Swedish system of Environmental quality objectives is a so-called MBO, Management By Objective and has the purpose to guide the Swedish society towards sustainable ecological development. The system involves the whole society from the parliament and the government down to individual citizens. At the regional level, it is the county administrative boards that are responsible for the work with the system of environmental objectives. At the County Administrative Board of Västmanland County, it is the environmental unit who is in charge of work with the environmental objectives and they want input for how to improve their work with the environmental objectives, both internally at the Administrative Board and externally with external parties.The main purpose and goal of the study is to present the work of four other county administrative boards regarding their work with the Environmental quality objectives and to identify external parties? opinions of how they want the County Board of Västmanland county to work with them in this matter.The work is designed as a case study of four county councils, where the environmental objectives coordinators at the four county administrative boards were interviewed about their work with Environmental quality objectives.

Sweden?s environmental work is to set out from 16 national Environmental quality objectives. It aims to work for a sustainable society and to solve our current environmental problems today and not pass them on to future generations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate Uppföljning av handlingsprogram för miljömål (a follow up-study of a programme for Environmental quality objectives) and to propose new methods to work with the revision of Handlingsprogram ? så genomför vi de regionala miljömålen i Hallands län (a programme to implement the regional Environmental quality objectives in the County of Halland), a revision which will start in autumn 2010.

To reach an Ecological Sustainable Development, Sweden has established Environmental quality objectives. Green spaces are attractive for exploitation and in Sweden the access to large jointly green spaces has decreased, which has impact on humans recreation and the biodiversity. The economic aspect has great impact on the planning process which gives indications that the environmental objective may collide with other sector goals within the municipality. The thesis overall aim is to see how the management by objectives for the green spaces implements and how the green spaces is handled in the planning process in a specific case. The thesis builds on a content analysis, strategic interviews and a case study.

Environmental management systems are a way of systematizing and streamlining an organization's environmental efforts. Within its EMS the organization determines it´s environmental policy and various environmental objectives. In order to achieve their environmental objectives the organization produces action plans that describe how they will work towards the objectives. Stora Enso Skog AB´s districts have been assigned to produce action plans for the company´s environmental objective of 90 % approved everyday nature consideration in final felling and any targets included within this objective. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the districts work with these action plans and how this could be improved.

The aim of this dissertation is to examine why smaller municipalities[1] in Sweden experience difficulties when implementing the 16 environmental objectives that are designed to solve Sweden's environmental problems.The theoretical framework used for this dissertation is implementation theory which provides three conditions that need to be met in order to have a successful implementation.  These three conditions have shaped the research questions that examine if Torsby municipality has the "understanding," "ability" and "will" needed to implement the decision correctly.  The dissertation employs a case study method to examine why Torsby municipality has experienced difficulties implementating the target: programmes and strategies for planning, which is an interim target to environmental objective number 15: A good built environment.  Qualitative text analysis and interviews with politicians and civil servants from Torsby municipality and the county administration board of Värmland have been conducted in order to answer the research questions.   The material used for this dissertation is mostly from the government bills that are the foundation of the Swedish environmental policy and the documents and reports about the environmental objectives that the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket), the Swedish Environmental protection agency (Naturvårdsverket), and the Environmental objectives council (Miljörådet) have released.The result of this dissertation supports previous research which has shown that smaller municipalities have problems implementating the environmental objectives due to a lack of financial resources. This dissertation also shows that the problems can be due to a lack of understanding the purpose of the objectives.  This leads to a lack of political will to implement the objectives.  Since the municipalities do not have the political will to implement the objectives the appropriate resources needed for a successful implementation are not appointed and therefore the municipalities are not able to fully implement the environmental objectives. [1] Municipalities with less than 20 000 inhabitants..

Environmental objective 17: Sustainable consumption - An attempt to integrate the global impact of the Swedish consumption with the environmental objectives system The aim of this report was to integrate the global impact of the Swedish consumption withthe environmental objectives system through presenting a suggestion for a seventeenth environmental objective ? Sustainable consumption. How the Swedish consumption pressures the global environment and methods to measure the affects was investigated. The pressure was divided into five main fields: climate, air, water, land and chemicals. The impacton humans and the biodiversity was also discussed, as well as differences between how men and women affect the environment and get affected when the environment changes.

Societal expectations of responsible corporate conduct are currently a fact. It is manifested ina corporate need for limiting and managing external effects, such as environmental impact.An environmental management system is a tool for organizations to structure theirenvironmental work and increase their efficiency. Managing the corporate operations toaccommodate to environmental objectives requires an organizational understanding of theobjectives as well as the procedures. A condition for a successful implementation is the coworkers´ willingness to participate and collaborate.A study made on the co-workers attitude towards the ISO 9000 standard (i.e. qualitymanagement system) reveals that the earlier positive findings are not completely true.

Purpose: The purpose is to examine more closely why the achievement of the environmental goals is so low. To within the thesis work to make this as interesting and with as good quality as possible, especially the environmental quality goal Reduced climate impact, but also Natural acidification and Protective ozone layer, has been chosen to be studied further. Method: A qualitative method and text analysis has been applied. Intervention theory, as Vedung 2009 describes, is used as an intellectual backbone and as a help to structure the essay. The three environmental quality goals correspond cases, or units of analysis. Analysis: The fulfillment of the respective environmental quality goals is analyzed according to its goal, policy instruments, implementation and its effects. To this some of the problems are analyzed that exist on the path to achieve the goals.

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.

The increasing public concern regarding the government?s priorities in spending public resources puts pressure on public organisations to address quality issues in their practice. In United Kingdom both BRTF (Better Regulation Task Force) (BIS, 2005b) and the Hampton report (BIS, 2005a) highlighted management and quality problems in public organisations in UK. These reports revealed obstacles within institutions? intent to offer recommendations and appropriate solutions for agencies working with legal enforcement and control.

Half of Sweden's productive forest land is owned by individual forest owners. Research studies show that forest owners have more objectives with their forest than a high net present value, and that the suggestions of the forest management plans doesn?t always correspond to the forest owners? objectives. Through a qualitative study we conducted a discussion about objectives at stand level with the aim of making a more specific formulation of the forest owners? objectives. We asked about the forest owners' objectives at stand level, what forest management they conduct in order to achieve the objectives and how this management affects the net present value of the property. Based on the results of the interviews, we analyzed what kind of factors decide where the objectives place themselves in the landscape and if the objectives at stand level are consistent with the overall objectives for the property. Many forest owners questioned the idea of talking about objectives at stand level, and they didn?t always have their objectives clearly defined.

Syftet har varit att undersöka om de Svenska miljömålen kan vara ett sätt att göra hållbar ut­veckling synlig för elever på byggprogrammet. Det har också varit att ta reda på vilka mervärden som kan skapas genom att hållbar utveckling synliggörs genom att miljömål integreras i under­visningen. Delmålen är verklighetsnära och direkt kopplade till byggbranschen, vilket kan med­föra ett ökat engagemang och vilja till att medverka till förändring.Resultatet visar att yrkeslärare, elever och platschefer på byggföretag inte hade kännedom om miljömålen. Svenska miljömål behöver integreras i karaktärsämnena på byggprogrammet för att politiskt fattade beslut om vad som krävs för att vi ska kunna nå hållbar utveckling förmedlas till de elever som skall ut i yrkeslivet, så att de kan komma ut med en hand­lingskompetens som kan leda till förändring. Nästan samtliga var överrens om att det skulle kunna ge mervärden att ha kunskap om hur de i sin vardag kan arbeta med hållbar utveckling.

Biodiversity consists of all life on Earth and in all forms. Biodiversity is often discussed at three levels: ecosystem, species and genetic variation within species. Biodiversity also provides many of the ecosystem services performed by nature and that we depend on, including cultural services such as aesthetic values, education and recreation. In Sweden the environmental objectives are central; there are 16 Environmental quality objectives, and "A rich plant and animal life" is one of them. Conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity is a prerequisite for achieving also most other environmental objectives. Another environmental quality objective that is tied to a rich biodiversity in cities and biodiversity is "Good built environment" where cities, towns and other built environment should provide a good living habitat and contribute to a good environment.

Nature?s Best is a quality-label for Swedish Eco-tourism. It is one of very few active ecotourism labels and the only one that claims quality as its main focus. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate the certification scheme Nature?s Best with regards to the values the certification creates for the companies that certify their products.

On-site sewage systems are common on the countryside of Sweden with approximately one million on-site systems installed. Due to insufficient function, these contribute significantly to the total discharge of phosphorus to rivers and lakes, causing eutrophication. In order to reduce eutrophication and to fulfil one of the Environmental quality objectives, the decision was taken by the Swedish Government in 2005 that 60 % of phosphorous in sewage sludge is to be recycled to arable land before 2015. To make recycling a reality, new solutions have to be found. Federation of Swedish Farmers (LRF) takes an active interest in this issue and has initiated this study. One problem is that the food industry is sceptical towards recirculation due to the risks that products from sewage systems may contain pathogens, heavy metals and unwanted chemical compounds, e.g.