The relationship between free trade and the environment is often considered conflicting and the debates surrounding it are infected. My thesis deal with this conflict and how environmental concerns are integrated in three regional free trade agreements, North American Free Trade Agreement, The common market of the southern cone (MERCOSUR) and Southern African Development Community (SADC). I point out how the organizations differ from each other in this respect and I present a possible explanation to why they differ. The explanation is founded on the theory of the environmental Kuznets curve and that environmental concerns will depend on which level of development the member states in the organizations have. To judge and rank the organizations I have composed a model based on a pre-existing description of the trade and environment conflict.

A uniform environmental rating system for green buildings is demanded in today's society, where the requirements of the energy consumption for real estate are increasing. There are several different systems around the world used to rate buildings, all with different assessment criteria and starting points, which make it difficult to compare environmental rated buildings with each other.The purpose of this paper is to acquire knowledge about the differences between the Swedish environmental rating system Miljöklassad Byggnad and the American LEED, to discover which system is most advantageous. We also examine whether environmental rating affect the value of a property.Miljöklassad Byggnad is relatively simple structured, which makes it possible for private individuals to rate their property. LEED is better structured on the other hand in the case of environmental classification of commercial properties, because there are manuals for among others hospitals, schools and retail. The rating system for Miljöklassad Byggnad is good since the system seeks to fix the number of errors and deficiencies as soon as possible.

Environmental enrichment is of high importance for zoos. Borås zoo asked SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) for a student to perform a bachelor thesis for them. The task was to develop and evaluate environmental enrichment for their Humboldt penguins. A structure was made, consisting of a sinking skeleton with a floating bridge attached to it. It was presented in an area of the pool that the keepers had experienced that the penguins did not use to any extent.

To increase the quality and the cost-efficiency of contract archaeology in Sweden a revisedregulation for contract archaeology was established the 1st of January 2008. By including findstrategy as a concept with special demands in the regulation the Swedish Heritage Board is nowhoping that the conservators will be integrated earlier in the archaeological process and that theunpremeditated find accumulations will stop. This is making the competition between thearchaeological companies even harder. The questions are how the regulation have affected therole of the conservators in the field of contract archaeology today, what is affecting theintegration and the situation, and what can the different stakeholders do to make the collaborationbetween archaeologists and conservators more professional? The conservators are now hopingthat this is the change that will increase the collaboration with the archaeologists, which isimportant for the finds prosperity and the drive of information.To get an updated and generalised view of the impact of the regulation so far, phoneconversations and questionnaires were carried out with archaeologists, conservators, employees atcounty administrative boards and the Swedish Heritage Board.

Swedish government aid is divided into three main themes: democracy and human rights, the environment and climate, and gender equality and women's role in development. These three themes in aid are considered by the government to be vital in order to fight poverty and create fair and sustainable development. This study will examine two of the four focus areas designated under the theme of "environment and climate". The study observes the relationship between projects in energy and water and how it promotes a sustainable lifestyle. A survey on environmental habits will be conducted.

SummaryEurope?s public authorities are influential consumers. If they spend their money on greener products and services they can make an important contribution to the work towards a sustainable development. Green public procurement can thereby significantly improve the take-up of new environmental technologies. Through the effects of economies of scale, production costs be lowered and better equip us to fight environmental problems.

The concepts of environmental scanning and Business Intelligence have gained increased interest over the last years in a number of different organisational contexts. The research in this field has mainly been dealing with methods and issues regarding organisation but the aim of environmental scanning, the forming of new perspectives, has been largely ignored. The purpose of this thesis is to study how Swedish joint-stock banks put environmental scanning and Business Intelligence into practice. First a literature study is made to create a background and to explain the different conceptions. Then I describe the different functions of the different services in Swedish joint-stock banks.

When someone dies there will always be an inheritance, an inheritance that earlier has been seen as a national concern. However, every year there are about 450 000 deaths within the European Union linked to more than one country, either when the deceased has changed his state of residence or when he has assets in another state, for example a Swedish national with a summer house in Spain. The problem is to determine which na-tional law that is supposed to be applicable to the inheritance.There are two principles that can be applicable on the choice of law, the principle of na-tionality and the principle of residency. If the principle of nationality is used the inherit-ance will be regulated by the deceased`s citizenship while the principle of residency takes aim on the deceased´s last domicile instead. Conflicts can occur between the two principles so that the legacy must be divided between two different legislations.In October 2009 the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions and authentic instruments in matters of succession and the creation of a European Certificate of Succession was presented, a regulation that will try to create harmonized rules on in-teralia the inheritance matters.

This paper investigates the autobiography of Damien Echols. The autobiographical subject, Echols, depicts his life as a marginalized youth during the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties in Arkansas, USA. It also explores the years that Echols spent on Death Row after having been arrested along with two other youths for the murder of three eight-year-old boys; a crime all three of the accused denied having committed. In 2011, after eighteen years of incarceration, the three now grown up men were released from prison. The author of this paper discusses biography and especially autobiography as a genre and explores to what extent memories represent the actual life the autobiographical subject, Echols, has lived and if memories are or can be truthful.

Abstract: The world in which companies are acting today offers challenges in the sense that it is rapidly changing and that a vast amount of information is available. In order to ensure the competitiveness and survival of the company, an effective and efficient environmental scanning is essential to the company. Our aim with this Master's thesis is to investigate what factors constitutes important and basic conditions in a well functioning environmental scanning and how companies strategically can go about to achieve this. In order to highlight and specify how these factors can be applied on a specific company Thule has been our focal point. Thule.

Illegal logging and its related trade is of great concern around the world. The European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR) is a regulatory approach by the EU to prevent illegal timber and timber products to be placed on the European Union inner market. This means the regulation affects both actors in the member countries as well as the actors exporting timber and timber products to the EU from non EU member countries. This study aims to study the implementation process of the EUTR in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B-H), and its preconditions. Institutional theory is used to understand and explain how the EUTR affects B-H organisations? business environment, and how the organisations choose to respond to the EUTR.

The demand for environmental assessments on buildings and energy consumption is increasing as well as the energy performance requirements for buildings. At the same time it is increasingly common with self-producers of heat and electricity generation.The main purpose with this master thesis is to investigate how time resolution affects the environmental assessment of energy consumption in office buildings connected to district heating (DH). Environmental assessments were done with both attributional LCA and consequential LCA with system expansion.Fortum´s DH system in Stockholm was analyzed and district heating production was simulated in a Matlab-model. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the production were calculated. The heat demand of the office Gångaren 16 in Stockholm was simulated in IDA ICE.

Sweden currently has no legislated regulation of lobbying, but the professional lobbyist can voluntarily subscribe to, among others, the professional code of standars created by the trade association of Public Relations, Precis. There is an ongoing discussion in Sweden to regulate lobbying, both in mass media and in politics. This study examines this debate and focus on which arguments there are for and against lobbying regulation in Sweden. It also attempts to identify the differences, if there are any, between left and rights parties with regards to their views on regulation of lobbying.Tha main method used was document analysis of parliamentary bills which have been raised concerning a lobbying regulation in Sweden. In the theory section, I include four different types of requirements placed on democratic lobbying (se for example Jaatinen 1998, Kitchen 1999, Larsson 2005, Möller 2009 and Naurin 2001).

Environmental chemicals are transported to the Arctic through the air and oceans, once within the Arctic they spread through rivers, lakes and other watercourses. Polar bears and sledge dogs in-gest high concentrations of environmental chemicals since many of the chemicals are fat-soluble and their diet mainly consists of marine mammals. The aim of this study is to describe how environmental chemicals spread in nature, how they reach the polar bears, and finally how they affect the animals reproduction, with reproductive hormones and genitals in focus. The animals are exposed to a cocktail effect which complicates the assessment of the chemicals impact on the reproduction. Studies show that the genitals can decrease in size or become malformed, sexual maturation can be affected and the reproductive hormones can be disturbed.

AbstractThe aim of the present study was to investigate if and how pre-school teachers reach the objectives in the national curriculum concerning the environmental issues.Another angle of this study is to find out if there are any involvement amongst the preschools regarding the environmental issues and if the teachers encourage the children to join in and make them a part of discussion.I have randomly chosen 10 preschools throughout Sweden and interviewed one staff-member from each school. Most of the preschools were well aware of the goals to follow according to the national curriculum.After comparing the answers my conclusion is that preschools act quite differently concerning environmental issues. Some worked almost exclusively with the children involved. Others occasionally involved the children whereas a few didn?t include the children at all.In every case the teachers would want to dedicate more time to environmental issues.