The world is currently facing a huge severe challenge in handling the issue of climate change. One of the ways to lower the green house gas emissions, which is seen as one of the main contributor to the climate crisis, is to use renewable technologies such as for example photovoltaic (PV) systems. PV-systems are also suitable for so called micro production, small scale energy production facilities, since it can be placed on practically any rooftop with the right solar conditions. In Sweden the usage of PV-systems has not yet gotten any wider spreading, even though the solar radiation conditions are very similar to countries that produce a lot of solar energy, as for example Germany. The aim of this paper is to describe non-adopter perceptions of PV-systems. The study holds a qualitative approach using deep interviews for data collection.

In Sweden, there an increasing need for transport and this leads directly to fuel demand of the transport sector is expected to increase. Both politicians and industry believes that renewable fuels are a realistic and significant method to reduce the transport sector's environmental impact. This study aims to document the Swedish haulage contractor?s attitude to biodiesel. Also to document the strengths and weaknesses of biodiesel, based on opinions from the ultimate consumers.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how investments are justified in the Swedish data center industry, with a focus on cooling equipment. This is achieved through semi-structured interviews with 20 different interviewees. These interviewees represent different facets of the industry and facilitate an understanding of which factors, such as: investment costs, operating costs, reliability, environmental impact and the influence of external and internal actors, come into play and to which degree they impact the investment decision-making process. The results show that primarily low operating cost in the form of low energy consumption is the driving factor when it comes to the procurement of new equipment. A lower environmental impact is a positive side-effect of lower energy consumption.

The purpose of this thesis has been to assess whether leaching from one particular Swedishlandfill site, Skörbytippen, is contributing to elevated levels of heavy metals in a ditch runningfrom the landfill site to the lake Mälaren in the communal region of Håbo kommun. Since theditch is stretching approximately five km downstream from the landfill site, in situ observationsand maps with known points of inflow was utilized to determine appropriate test points for thecollection of samples.Soil, water and sediment samples were collected and analyzed for content of organic material, pHand conductivity. Data on plant-available elements and total amounts of heavy metals wasacquired through ICP-analysis.The results show that the Skörby landfill is currently in the methane-forming anaerobedevelopment phase, which indicates that the concentration of free and complex-bound metals inthe leachate water should be low due to chemical binding with other landfill compounds. The pHof the sediment samples was generally one unit higher than the soil samples and some of themeasured data, such as pH and conductivity, show that an environmentally disturbing dischargeof some kind of strongly alkaline chemical(s) has been made from Benders? takpanneindustri inclose proximity to the landfill.

In our everyday life we are faced with many choices that have consequences on the environment. One of these is the food we choose to eat since food production has a big impact on the environment. In organic production the aim is to have a natural production process, where environmental impacts are minimized. By choosing organic food it is therefore possible to contribute to a better environment. A large number of meals are served every day in the public sector, which makes it an important player in the consumer sector that could make a major difference for the environment..

Modelling of pollutants is commonly used in research and at departments working with environmental issues. The need to use large amounts of data when modelling creates the opportunity for more generalised models with lower data demands. Aggregating functions into coarser elements is a sort of generalisation of actual features in nature.A development of a method and a modelling tool called ?KadmiumKalkylatorn? has been performed to model cadmium pollution in rivers in Skåne, Sweden. The water runoff has been multiplied with cadmium standard concentrations based on membership in landuse classes.

Cumulative effects are seldom treated in Swedish Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA). This report treats these questions and which procedures and methods that can be used when assessing cumulative effects in EIA. This report is a literature study where also a case study is a part. The case study shows how existing methods for cumulative effects can be used in practice. The report is concentrated on biology and treats cumulative effects on premises of biodiversity and roads. Cumulative effects include both direct and indirect effects.

Emerging infectious diseases are a recurring threat to both human and animal health. Understanding the multiple causes behind the emergence of new diseases is key to the prevention of new and potentially devastating outbreaks. The list of underlying causes is long, including a variety of anthropogenic, environmental, molecular and climatic changes that promote the emergence and spread of disease. Two of these factors are central to the emergence of new diseases and receive special attention in this study. The spread of disease from wildlife to livestock and diseases that spread from animals to humans (zoonoses) are of importance as they implicated in the majority of EID events.

Almost every company sooner or later ends up in a more or less difficult economical situation. The reason for the economical crisis varies for each individual case but common for them all is that it is the management group that has failed in their work to guide the organisation to avoid a negative result. The next common denominator is that it is the management group that has to handle the changes in the company's environment and lead the company out of the crisis. But how can they do this and take decisions in a rational and effective way and is there warnings signals that the management group missed before the crisis was a fact? This is some of the questions that this study is going to discuss and analyze. The aim of the study is from a management perspective chart the strategic work of the company's management work when handling an economical crisis.

AbstractThis master thesis is a hermeneutic inspired case study of how the value base regarding the environmental and social responsibility in the Swedish coffee company Löfbergs Lila AB is affecting the company's business. A thesis inspired by hermeneutics means that it is based on two ideas, the one of interaction between entirety and partitions and the one of interpretation (Alvesson & Sköldberg 1994). This cause that the emphasis is on how the reality is interpreted and that it never can be seen as completely objective.The case study was conducted during the spring semester of 2010 at Karlstad's University and consists of both empirical and theoretical material collected during this time. The empirical material in this thesis includes, among other things, interviews with four representatives of Löfbergs Lila AB, written material from the company regarding its work related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), some information about the coffee industry as a whole and different certifications for "ethical? coffee that exists on the Swedish market.The basic idea with CSR as a business strategy is that it can be financially beneficial for companies to take a social and environmental responsibility outside of the company (Vogel 2005).

The objective of this essay was to analyse if the same housing needs are assessed equally by Swedish welfare agencies in ten districts in Malmö. If not, why?Welfare officers from all districts were interviewed. They were all working with homelessness among families. We had an idea that the districts were forced to prioritize because of the meagre recourses, and that clients who really needs help doesn't get what they need.

Det växande intresset för miljöfrågor har ökat kraven på företagen. Intressenterna kräver att företagen kan hantera miljöfrågorna på ett tillfredsställande sätt. Att införa ett miljöledningssystem är ett sätt att arbeta med miljöfrågorna. För att kommunicera ut miljöarbetet används företagets miljöredovisning. Under 1990-talet har intresset för miljöredovisning ökat kraftigt men är i mångt och mycket fortfarande ett storföretagsfenomen.

The purpose of the thesis is to illustrate how payments of damages between companies are treated from a taxation point of view, and to analyse, in a tax law perspective, the consequences that follow the transactions. Furthermore, a comparison is made between damages and transactions similar to damages, such as amicable settlements and fines between companies, to ascertain whether they are treated similar. Finally, there is an analysis of the consequences of taxation of insurances, both premiums and compensations, followed by a comparison with the consequences of taxation of damages..

The subject-matter of the following essay is to investigate the relationship between what is commonly called Deep Ecology or Biocentric Philosophy, as articulated by the co-founder of the Deep Ecology Movement, Arne Naess, and later proponents of the biocentric school of environmentalist thought. I contrast Naess? concept of Self-realization as founded in his Ecosophy T to the ideas of american conservationist and co-founder of the radical green movement Earth First! Dave Foreman, and to the controversial finnish environmentalist and ecofascist Pentti Linkola?s ideological agenda of population-reduction respectively.According to some critics of the movement, especially the social ecologist Murray Bookchin and French liberal philosopher Luc Ferry, the Deep Ecology ideology is essentially misanthropic and totalitarian in structure. A central idea among deep ecologists is that ecosystems and natural entities have intrinsic value in themselves, even outside a human social context. This idea is thought of among deep ecologists to create a philosophically sound basis for counteracting the environmental global crisis.

Organic agriculture is financially promoted in Sweden by special environmental support and as consumers we are all encouraged to buy organic food. At the same time scholars at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences claim that organic farming does not provide any environmental benefits. The main criticism is that organic farming has lower yields than conventional, which means that more land is needed to produce the same amount of food as in conventional farming, leading to deforestation and loss of biodiversity. As for climate change, the critics claim that the significantly higher productivity in conventional crop production compared to organic, releases surplus land, which could be used for bio-fuel production and thereby replace the fossil fuels. The critics also claim that organic farming causes higher nutrient leaching than conventional.