Background and problem discussion: Sustainability reporting has recently risen in importance and a rising number of companies choose to issue voluntary stand-alone sustainability reports. Their non-regulated nature increases the opportunity for management to angle the information in these disclosures to their own advantage. Lately the focus has shifted from examining what kind of information is provided in environmental disclosures, to analyzing how the information is presented.Purpose: The purpose is to examine if managers in the energy sector use optimistic tone when issuing sustainability reports. The aim is to find out if the tone applied in environmental disclosures is in congruence with either the environmental or economic performance or if an excessively positive tone is being used to mislead readers.Limitations: This study is limited to information found in environmental disclosures from private companies in the energy sector, issued in 2012 or 2013. Environmental performance is defined as the amount of CO2e emissions and economic performance refers to annual company revenues.Methodology: The quantification of optimistic tone is conducted using a content analysis, relying on a pre-specified wordlist and a pilot study.

Hudiksvall Municipality will build a new preschool. The goal is that the pre-school should reflect the municipality's environmental goals and meet building regulations. The wall structures that are compared in the report is an insulated wooden frame and a frame of lightweight concrete blocks from H + HWall structures are compared within the areas of U-values, air tightness, thermal storage capacity, fire ratings, moisture, durability, emissions and environment. In these categories the two wall structures will be rated in a scale from 1 to 5 and then the categories are weighted against each other. The weighting is based on Hudiksvall Municipality's assessment of the categories importanse for their final selection.The results of the comparison show that the concrete structure is recommended for the construction of pre-school with 27.55 points against the wooden structures 23.70 points.

The purpose of this literature review was to describe the paths of exposure and accumulation of organic pollutants into the tissues of farm animals. Organic pollutants can be spread in the environment by air and rainwater. Farm animals can be exposed to these pollutants for example by eating soil or contaminated plants. Many of the pollutants can then accumulate in the fat tissues of the body because of their lipophilic character. Brominated flame retardants and perfluorolated compounds are both pollutants of current interest.

Penalty clauses is a term that can be put in an agreement and is an amount that shall be paid by a part of the agreement if they cause any damage to the other part by breaking the agreement. Penalty clauses have since around 100 years ago had a quite clear meaning in Sweden according to a lot of authors. These authors have the opinion that penalty clauses is an exclusive judgment of the compensation the victim has right to, that means that if the parties have put a lower amount in the clause the victim won?t get full coverage for the damages caused by the other party. That the penalty clause is an exclusive judgment of the victims right to compensation means that the victim doesn?t have the right to request other compensation above the compensation in the clause if nothing else is stated in the clause.A penalty clause may be viewed as a complement to compensation you get according to The Tort Liability Act (1972:206) where it is often difficult to obtain full compensation for damages when it is required that a number of conditions are to be met for damages deleted.

The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on a present trend of professionalization in Swedish local environmental politics, which have recently seen a decline in active participation of the citizens in favor of an increased governmental regulation. With the aim to closer investigate this relatively new phenomenon, the paper is a qualitative single case-study of environmental policies in the Swedish municipality of Karlskrona. In this case, the municipality is obviously balancing between regarding the interests of the national level and the interests of its own citizens at the same time. This motivates the use of system-theory, and relates to the classical political paradox between participation and efficiency which is also a present theme in the paper.This text-analysis based on interviews with personnel and documents from the municipality shows a visible trend of professionalization in the local politics of the municipality of Karlskrona, from a large grade of participation and a strong bottom-up approach in the days of Agenda 21 to now being more strongly top-down defined by national environmental objectives and principally operated on a professional level..

According to the theory of environmental Kuznets curve there is a relationship between carbon emissions and GDP. The relationship has an inverted U-shape. Carbon emissions rise initially and then decreases once a certain level of GDP is obtained.This essay interprets earlier studies in the field of environmental economics and uses public choice to seek answer on how the population acts on aggregate level. This essay analyses 115 countries in cross-sectional data. The analysis shows that there is a significant relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and GDP that is increasing at first and then decreases for a certain level of GDP.

ABB is one of the world?s leading engineering companies in power and automation technologiesand their solutions improve performance while lowering environmental impacts for energycompanies and industries. ABB FACTS designs equipment and plants for series and phasecompensation.This thesis has been performed at ABB FACTS on the Mechanical Design (DM) department inVästerås, Sweden. The purpose of the thesis was to develop and design calculations andsimulation tools for ABB FACTS?s standard series capacitor platforms.

Intermodulated force microscope (ImAFM) is a type of dynamic AFM. ImAFM opens up possibilities for mapping the topography and making quantitative determinations of material parameters at the same time. With increased information the need to generate more informative images of the sample emerges. In this Bachelor's degree project I have created tools for rendering images of a sample. The topography is plotted as the height and a material parameter is color coded on topography.

Sweden experienced a decline in exports of 16 percent in the period after the financial crisis. The decline has created a lot of question marks regarding the traditional exports which has started a process with the aim of finding Sweden?s next cash cow in export.Sweden adopted stringent environmental laws early which positioned them as a strong nation in environmental awareness. The stringent environmental legislation meant that the Swedish companies were required to minimize the environmental impact, which created a demand for eco-efficient products. Despite the early demand for eco-efficient products, the international success of the Swedish cleantech companies has been modest.The government can increase firms international competitiveness by encouraging, supporting and promoting activities on the domestic market.

Abstract Considering the social dimension of sustainable development this thesis focuses on the qualities of life and how the environmental qualities that the inhabitants value can be incorporated in the physical planning of the municipality. The thesis deals with the problems that occur when the physical planning, whit its focus on the environmental aspects, also needs to consider peoples opinions, that springs from the individual experience of the place. The municipality of Mark, where this thesis takes its place, is characterised by the countryside landscape. Mark is situated in the western part of Sweden close to Göteborg, Borås and Varberg. The commuting is extensive and the demand for dwellings in the municipality is increasing. Those who strive to live in the municipality have a conception of what life on the countryside means and of which environmental qualities they want to assimilate.

Henriksson, Kristina (2009). Assessing student teachers through conversation - an interactional analysis of student-teaching conferencesThe aim of this study is to identify the characteristics of student-teaching conferences. During a school-based education for student teachers, teacher educators from the university visit the student teachers. They also have conversations, so-called student-teaching conferences, with the students school mentors to assess the student teachers knowledge. These conversations aim at assessing the student teachers professional knowledge at the end of a shool-based education.

With theories of creativity and aesthetic learning processes as a basis, this study explores the usage of the concept of creativity in the curriculum for the Swedish compulsory school (Lgr11) and in the various syllabi?s commentaries and the assessment guidelines for the subject of Sloyd produced by the Swedish National Agency for Education. The purpose of the study is, to examine to which extent an education and assessment that is directed towards the development of creativity among pupils in the subject of Sloyd, is underpinned and supported for in these texts, and furthermore how these wordings relate to the various other subjects? wordings about creativity. Creativity is a concept around which there is no proper consensus.

Traditionally risk-based measures have been used to assess animal welfare in legislation and certification schemes. With increased knowledge and research, debate today tends to focus on and advocate the use of animal-based measures. However this is not a panacea for welfare and the most sound conclusion should be that assessment of animal welfare needs both. The aim of this thesis is to identify the points that need to be taken into consideration to find the optimal balance in the use of input and outcome measures according to the aim of the assessment and how these should be applied when designing a certification scheme? To answer this, a comparison of the use of resource-based, management-based and animal-based measures in two certification schemes for dairy cow welfare, Freedom Food (UK) and Svenskt Sigill (SWE), was made.

The Swedish industrial society has left several areas with contaminated soil and water which today is of danger for the environment and human health. One of these areas with contaminated soil and water is the region where the former Glava glassworks operated during 1859 to 1939. The main object in this study has been to study the responsibility for the contaminations according to the Environmental Code. The method used is a qualitative content analysis of relevant literature to answer the following questions:What types of contaminations can be found in the area of Glava glasswork and what health issues can these cause?What kind of activity has been conducted in the area that have caused the contaminations in soil and water?According to law, what are the responsibilities for the contaminations in soil and water at Glava glassworks?The contamination in the region has been confirmed to originate from the glasswork due to the environmental engineering survey made in the area in 2009.

Background: In a world that are becoming more and more aware of the climate changes that occur as a consequence of the increasing emissions around the world companies? experience that the opinion blame the internal processors for this. Many companies feel forced to align their strategies to the environmental goals set by the community. Some of the emissions the companies? operations can be linked to business trips and it is therefore interesting to see how these can be reduced by using different performance measures.