AbstractIn the fall of 2003 a project was started in the Swedish building sector that is called BASTA (the building sectors’ termination of especially harmful substances). The project is operated by the building companies NCC, Skanska, PEAB and JM, the Swedish Building Industry and the Swedish Environmental Institute IVL. The purpose of the project is to create a common environmental assessment system for the entire building industry and with the help of this system phase out the use of especially harmful properties from building products.In a large sense BASTA works like this; On the BASTA web site there is a database, to which a supplier can register the company and the company’s products. Only those products with a substance content that fulfil the demands of the BASTA system, is to be registered. As it is the supplier himself that carries out the registration of the company and the company’s products to the system, the BASTA-organisation annually controls that the companies that are registered in the database, fulfils BASTA’s demands.Since NCC is one of the companies that operates BASTA, BASTA is probably going to be the environmental assessment system that is recommended for the company in the future.

Wastewater handling of private sewage systems has become an all increasing matter. In Stockholm region the 90 000 private sewage systems contribute with larger phosphorus flows to the Baltic Sea than the two biggest sewage plants in the area, Henriksdal and Käppala, contribute together, even though these two plants purify wastewater from more than one million inhabitants. When summer house areas turn into areas for permanent living ? transition areas ? the load on the existing systems increases, systems that already often are unsatisfying. In those areas it is not clear what the best system choice is; On-site systems for single households; Local collective systems or Connection to central systems.

Al Gore may have helped put global warming on the agenda. However, it is not a new subject. Neither is so called green marketing a new phenomenon within branding and communication. As more and more companies establish environmental strategies there exist beliefs that the environmental focus is becoming a triviality, which is the reason for this study. Implementation of words such as ?environmentally friendly?, ?green? and ?global warming? is becoming more and more widespread and frequently used within marketing communication.

AbstractIn the fall of 2003 a project was started in the Swedish building sector that is called BASTA (the building sectors’ termination of especially harmful substances). The project is operated by the building companies NCC, Skanska, PEAB and JM, the Swedish Building Industry and the Swedish Environmental Institute IVL. The purpose of the project is to create a common environmental assessment system for the entire building industry and with the help of this system phase out the use of especially harmful properties from building products.In a large sense BASTA works like this; On the BASTA web site there is a database, to which a supplier can register the company and the company’s products. Only those products with a substance content that fulfil the demands of the BASTA system, is to be registered. As it is the supplier himself that carries out the registration of the company and the company’s products to the system, the BASTA-organisation annually controls that the companies that are registered in the database, fulfils BASTA’s demands.Since NCC is one of the companies that operates BASTA, BASTA is probably going to be the environmental assessment system that is recommended for the company in the future.

Global climate change is one of the greatest challenges in our history. As the average temperature is rising due to anthropogenic emissions, impacts such as floods, droughts and hurricanes, affect the lives of millions of people. Though the least developed countries are least responsible for emissions, they are the worst affected. This thesis focuses on environmental justice in the adaptation discourse. By outlining the adaptation discourse from the United Framework Convention on Climate Change principles, to the Marrakesh Accords, via the Kyotoprotocol my ambition is to analyse how environmental justice has been interpreted in relation to the adaptation discourse.

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 Swedish government has a goal of achieving a fossil-free vehicle fleet in 2030. Heavy transport constitutes a significant part of Sweden's transportation sector and the vehicles are driven almost exclusively by fossil fuels. Siemens has developed eHighway, a concept for electric road systems enabling electrification of trucks, in order to reduce the environmental impact of heavy transports. This study aims to investigate the potential that eHighway has on transporting iron ore from the mine of Mertainen to a processing plant in Svappavaara. Electrified trucks are compared with conventional trucks, and diesel and electric trains.The evaluation was made with respect to energy consumption, environmental impact, and cost.

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..