AbstractThe aim of this Master thesis is to explore why some Swedes want to consume?eco-friendly? and whether this fact gives rise to articulated information needs. Two possible explanations for this ?eco conscious? consumption are being tested, either if it is based on a normative belief that it is the right thing to do if you, as a consumer, want to do something about the environmental degradation, or that it is a reaction to a perceived risk, due to the environmental degradation. The method chosen by the author in this thesis is a qualitative text analysis of five Swedish journals.

Sustainability Reporting has emerged and transformed over the past decades as a voluntary practice by companies across industries that desire to show proof of good conduct and environmental; social; and economic responsibility. As industrial food production is one of the largest contributors to contemporary environmental problems, it might be expected that reporting within the industry would be both well established and well understood. Unfortunately, it is neither. In light of the food industry?s considerable environmental impact and the growing popularity of plant-based food as a more sustainable alternative to dairy products, this paper assesses and briefly discusses the Sustainability Reporting of two companies in the plant-based food and beverage industry. The research was designed to compare the practices of Europe-based Alpro and US-based SoDelicious, and this study has two major purposes: to describe the reporting of the case companies and to subsequently compare their practices to the other as well as to global reporting standards. The empirical study in this paper was conducted through content analysis.

During recent decades several studies have investigated how different social roles and socialization processes between women and men affects our attitudes, values and priorities to environmental problems. Many empirical studies among the general public, indicates that women tend to show a greater environmental concern than men, because of women?s different health- safety- and risk perception. Even though the results are well established among the general public, when investigating if elected women in public offices tend to express a higher environmental concern, than do men, the results are not that clear. By using a dataset covering all the 290 municipalities in Sweden, this study aims to investigate if there is any correlation between the amount of female representatives in the municipality and the amount of emissions of CO2e per capita.

Miljöfrågorna och miljöarbetet har förändrats under de senaste åren och det har blivit uppenbart att något måste göras för att begränsa människans miljöpåverkan. I Rio, 1992 hölls FN:s konferens för hållbar utveckling och grunden för det internationella tänkandet om det ?uthålliga samhället? lades och gav genomslagskraft även i Sverige. Sveriges Ekokommuner är en ideell förening som jobbar för att utbyta kunskap, kompetens och erfarenheter inom ramarna för en hållbar utveckling och det uthålliga samhället..

With ever-increasing environmental problems in the world, I have with this thesis aimed at studying how the Inuit people of the Arctic organize themselves around the issue of environmental degradation. In focus for this thesis is the organization Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), an NGO that focuses on saving and protecting the social and cultural rights of the Inuit people, along with the environment in the four arctic regions. This aboriginal population has a strong connection to the environment they dwell in, as the area serves as a source of income and nutrition as well as an historically important place for their culture.I will in this thesis primarily investigate the methods of operation amongst NGOs, as well as their ability to influence and interact with the UN. These are three concepts that I, as a hypothesis, considered to distinguish ICC from other NGOs. With help from three theories about NGOs, I conclude that certain central elements of ICC differ from the average NGO, making ICC a new kind of actor in global politics..

The purpose of this Bachelor?s thesis was to examine the information needs of the international students at the University of Borås. A further aim was to examine the types of information sources the international students was using to satisfy their information needs and the environmental factors keeping them from achieving this. This was done through focus group interviews with international students from four different countries ranging from the ages 20 ? 35.

The aim of this thesis is to form a theory of the green consumer power and to distinguish whether this phenomenon could indicate a movement toward the ecological citizenship. To do so, scientific theories regarding the responsibility of companies have been used, as well as the public choice theory, to link individuals as citizens to individuals as consumers. The motives of corporate environmental responsibility, along with consumers ability to bring pressure in different dimensions, are later drawn on as indicators applied to empirical information. The largest producer of ecological products in Sweden, Arla Foods, is employed as case study to explore if the green consumer power can and does exist. The ecological citizenship uses the ecological footprint, to define in what ways we can minimize our part of environmental degradation.The study seems to strengthen the theory, consumers do have a power to make companies go green and they tend to use it increasingly.

Currently, the whole globe is faced with serious problems which negatively affect people around the world: increased pollution, excessive waste, and weather pattern changes. ?Left? and ?right? wing political parties alike have embraced ?green? politics and for many of these parties, environmental issues have become a top priority that is very much reflected in their manifestos. This study examines the environmental goals of two of Sweden?s largest political parties and how these ambitions are reflected at a local level.

The purpose of this study is to describe the All inclusive concept and to what extent it can be described as sustainable from economic, social and environmental aspects. The empirical study is based mainly on qualitative interviews with four respondents. Two of the informants find the All inclusive concept to be sustainable while the other two are critical to the concept. In the discussion the essay writers argues around the empirical results of the study and how the All inclusive concept possibly could become sustainable. To consider the All Inclusive concept to be sustainable, it is important that the economic, social and environmental aspects are integrated with each other at the destination..

Miljörevisioner har en betydelsefull roll för att arbetet med miljölednings-system vid verksamheter ska utvecklas och leda till ständiga förbättringar av miljöprestandan. Syftet med arbetet är att granska effektiviteten av interna och externa miljörevisioner med utgångspunkt i Pfizer Site Helsingborgs miljörevisionsarbete. Dessutom syftar arbetet till att undersöka möjligheterna till utveckling av såväl interna som externa revisioner inom de definierade ramarna för miljörevision..

Questions concerning the Cultural Heritage must be integrated in social planning.Therefore there is a need for adequate methods for cultural environmental analysis, toreceive knowledge that is relevant in an integrated conservation. The thesis is a review ofmethods for cultural environmental analysis and discusses the qualifications necessary fora method in order to receive adequate information as well as it discusses what kind ofinformation to be considered relevant. The thesis also analyzes a specific method forcultural environmental analysis in order to exam if it has got the qualifications concludedas necessary if it is to be used in an integrated conservation. The conclusion is that amethod for cultural environmental analysis should collect information about the entireenvironment (integrated information about nature and culture, in a historical perspectiveand how it is today), about social structures, physical remains (buildings etc) and what thecollected information tell about the history of the studied area, as well as what is importantin the landscape of today. Information about how the environment should be treated in thefuture is also of importance.

Questions concerning the Cultural Heritage must be integrated in social planning.Therefore there is a need for adequate methods for cultural environmental analysis, toreceive knowledge that is relevant in an integrated conservation. The thesis is a review ofmethods for cultural environmental analysis and discusses the qualifications necessary fora method in order to receive adequate information as well as it discusses what kind ofinformation to be considered relevant. The thesis also analyzes a specific method forcultural environmental analysis in order to exam if it has got the qualifications concludedas necessary if it is to be used in an integrated conservation. The conclusion is that amethod for cultural environmental analysis should collect information about the entireenvironment (integrated information about nature and culture, in a historical perspectiveand how it is today), about social structures, physical remains (buildings etc) and what thecollected information tell about the history of the studied area, as well as what is importantin the landscape of today. Information about how the environment should be treated in thefuture is also of importance.

Green public procurement (GPP) can be used as an instrument to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and consideration of environmental aspects within public procurement is becoming more common in Sweden and internationally. Two product groups that have been pointed out as especially important are transports and electricity, where the opportunities for public purchasers to reduce emissions are relatively large. This paper studies GPP which aims at reducing emissions, primarily of carbon dioxide, through environmental requirements within these two product groups. A theoretical analysis of cost-effectiveness, transaction costs and effects on technological development is performed, followed by a closer study of how these aspects appear in practice within GPP. The results indicate that a cost-effective allocation of reductions between the two product groups is most likely to be attained if the main part of emission reduction is achieved through environmental requirements on electricity. The cost for emission reduction within transports is relatively high, especially for heavy transports. For transportation services, more generally focused requirements on emission reductions could probably give greater environmental gains, but the existence of transaction costs steer the environmental requirements towards more technology specific types.

During the spring semester of 2012 did Petra Hollsten independently a thesis on reducing the environmental impact of capsule for coffee, tea and chocolate. The work was performed at Karlstad University, Faculty of Technology and Science under the Bachelor of Science program in innovation, technology and design. The project's scope is at 22.5 points.The employment for this project is the company Löfbergs Lila AB in Karlstad. Supervisor at the Principal has been Maria Herou Wallner and Sandra Lyxell, product managers. Supervisor at Karlstad University is Monica Jakobsson, lecturer and program leader for innovation and design engineering program.

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..