During the 90s most companies organized and adopted routines for their environmental work. This work included for example eco-efficiency improvements and the introduction of environmental managing systems. At the UN conference in Rio in 1992 the concept Sustainable development was defined, but it was not until about the year of 2000 that companies in Sweden shifted their work from environmental management to sustainable management. A consequence of this is that they now have to focus on environmental aspect in conjunction with social and economic aspects.The purpose of this study is to gain understanding of what a change of focus to sustainable development means for companies. Has the environmental work suffered in the competition with social/economical aspects under the new sustainable focus? How will the new way of working affect the balance between environmental and social aspects? Changes were studied in five companies by analysing their annual-, environmental- and sustainability reports and through interviews of sustainable managers.

BACKGROUND & During the last century, the Swedish chemical industry has developedPROBLEM: considerably in regard to respecting the environment. Following various discharges and pollutions during the first half of the 20th century, environmental concepts such as CSR, Responsible Care and REACH have developed in order to improve the situation. Today, environmental issues play a central role in the society, but what are the reasons behind this increased environmental commitment? PURPOSE & The purpose of this thesis paper is to study the driving forces behindDELIMITATIONS: the increased environmental awareness in companies. Is this mainly due to stricter legislations, or do factors like pressure from the general public, the industry or customers play a more vital role? Furthermore, do economic incentives exist, that make it interesting for companies to invest in environmental awareness? Since the chemical industry spans over a wide spectrum in regard to environmental issues, this paper will focus on a specific area of the industry.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has progressively revised the rule of purely internal situations to ensure a wider scope of application of the economic freedoms as well as the EU citizenship right to move and reside freely within the Union. This development, combined with the increasing importance of fundamental rights, has strengthened the family life protection of those EU citizens who come within the scope of EU law. The limit between the individuals who may benefit from a EU right to family reunification and fundamental rights protection and those who find themselves in purely internal situations has, however, become more legally uncertain. The disadvantage suffered by those who fall outside the scope of EU law is known as reverse discrimination.The 2011 case Zambrano confirmed the trend towards an increasingly generous EU law protection of family life in cases where the exercise of freedom of movement and enjoyment of EU citizenship rights is potentially restricted by a Member State measure. By contrast, in the subsequent McCarthy- case, it became clear that families in purely internal situations may only rely on national immigration and procedural law to obtain family reunification and protection of their fundamental rights.

This thesis examines the process of securitization of the environmental issue in the United States. By using the theories of sectoral security and securitization by Barry Buzan and Ole Waever, commonly known as the Copenhagen school we go beyond the traditional security frames and examine where the environmental issue in the United States stand today within the securitization spectrum. The securitizing spectrum includes three levels in which an issue can be place: non-politicised, politicised and securitized.The problem, which we wish to address, is if there is a movement of the environmental issue in the United States towards becoming a securitized issue. In the light of these circumstances we also wish to explore who is behind the movement and also find out where the issue stand today. We do believe that Al Gore is a securitizing actor and examine his role in the movement of the environmental issueWe have come to the conclusion that there is an ongoing process of securitization in which the environmental issue have moved from being politicised to becoming securitized..

Internet and media have led to companies' operations becoming more visible and transparent to the public during the 21st century. Several notable corporate scandals have led to society placing greater demands on businesses to assume more accountability for their actions. This study aims to examine and develop existing research regarding accountability, by adding dimensions of time and space. More specifically, the study examines the extent to which stakeholders hold corporations accountable after the revelation of an ethical corporate scandal, through a qualitative case study on a pending lawsuit against the Swedish corporation Boliden. Our theory is based on John Roberts' (1991) research presented in the article "The Possibilities of Accountability" and Martin Messner's (2009) research presented in the article "The Limits of Accountability".

Interference in an ecosystem means a disturbance. When harvesting, forest roads have to be build to cope with heavy duty vehicles. Crossing brooks can not always be avoided. In this case bridges or culverts have to be built. There are many different kinds of culverts and depending on what type you choose and how you place the culvert, the watercourse and the water organisms can be harmed in different ways.

Forestry has three main aspects to take into consideration today; economical, ecological and socio-cultural. In order to reach the broad policy goals for sustainable forest management, an increased variety of management approaches are requested. Today clear-cutting is the only method used in 96 % of the managed forests in Sweden. The Swedish National Board of Forestry has therefore initiated a project in order to investigate and develop Continuous Cover Forestry (CFF). This study is a part of this project.

The purpose of this study was to implement an energy analysis and environmental evaluation of the property Hemsta 12:16 in Gävle. Based on two different methods, Energy Balance calculation and Environmental Building, the result of the property's energy use, energy performance and environmental impacts are presented. Except that, measures to reduce final energy consumption are presented.      The proposed measures can reduce energy usage by 100 400 kWh / year, which represents a decrease of 18% of the present energy usage. This would represent a total savings of 63 000 SEK per year. In addition, the environmental performance is improved by adopting the suggested measures..

The first of May 2005 changes were made in the Annual Accounts Act. The 2006 Annual Report of companies with more than ten employees or assets over 24 million SEK must include environmental information in the directors' report if it affects the company's development, result or position. A survey made by KPMG 2007 investigating the environmental information of companies listed on Large Cap Segment of the OMX Stockholm exchange showed that only a third of the companies, included in the survey, complied with the new law requirements. I have examined how the environmental information in the directors' report is formulated and why the information is formulated in that fashion. I have examined seven companies listed on the Large Cap Segment of the OMX Stockholm exchange. Four companies from the materials sector and three banks from the financials sector were included in the survey.

A possible explanation for the inability of the governments of the world to implement necessary environmental policies is that they are worried of being punished by voters for implementing too forceful policies. But do voters actually punish governments that implement more stringent environmental policies? Few studies have explored this question directly. Parts of the literature on environmental policy and public opinion indicate that voters would predominantly reward governments that implement more stringent environmental policies, while other parts indicate that voters would predominantly punish them. It is also possible that voters punish governments that implement more stringent environmental policies in some contexts, but reward them in others.

The industrialization in Sweden has increased the large number of areas that have been contaminated with various types of pollution. One of those sites are the property Höjen 3:24 in Arboga where ?Arboga Mekaniska Verkstad? once been. The property wants to increase the use of the old former foundry building with the adjacent ?plate-workshop? and believe there are two options for the building: That the building either should be used as a warehouse/concert hall, or rebuilt into a cultural center. An environmental evaluation has shown that the levels of heavy metals are over the Swedish environmental protection agency guidelines of less sensitive land.

The aim of this report is to give a picture of how attitudes and behaviours of owners of environment cars look like and how they can be influenced. The alignment lies on environmental cars which run on biogas and ethanol which both are renewable fuels. The starting point is to sort out if it is environmental thinking that controls the choice and use of an environmental car. The feeling is that there are many other factors that can be more controlling, for example the price and the quality of the car. The result of the questionnaire survey which is the foundation of the report shows however that those who buy an environmental car do it mostly because of environmental reasons.

Title: The implementation of valuation of tangible and financial assets to fair value ? and its effects on the creditor protectionCourse: Bachelor theses in business accounting, 10 Swedish creditsAuthor: Sam EspelandAdvisor: Ogi ChunKey words: IAS 16, 39, 40, fair value, creditor protection, equityPurpose: The purpose with the essay is to examine how the implementation of the IAS standards that regard valuation to fair value, effects the equity and how the effects on equity affects the creditor protection.Methodology: The essay is using both a quantitative and a qualitative approach in which the quantitative part constitutes of data collection from annual reports and the qualitative part constitutes of interviews.Theoretical perspective: The theory gives a thorough understanding in how the IAS standards are designed, furthermore the procedure at liquidation and lack of capital is being treated, moreover some relevant terms and concepts are being treated.Empirical foundation: This chapter is divided into two parts, in one part the results from the quantitative approach is being presented in diagram form, and in the other part the interviews are being presented.Conclusions: The implementation will give a higher equity for most real estate companies, but likely also for example the mining industry. The creditor protection will likely be worsened among the industries that experience an increase in equity since their activities may proceed for a longer time before they have to be liquidated..

The aim of this master?s thesis in administrative law has been to study the property owners' legal rights when a third party impacts on the property. The essay is based on several case studies of landowners in central Sweden which has the purpose of forming a background to the legal studies of this field. The framework for current studies builds therefore on landowners' experiences of impairment and damages on their property and has been added to highlight a current problem that exists in central Sweden. The purpose of the study is therefore to see whether a protection in law is imposed on landowners with such problems as the land ownership study shows.

The paper is a discourse analysis of the liberal environmental discourse in Sweden today. It is based on articles in two of the main liberal Swedish newspapers, Dagens Nyheter and Sydsvenska Dagbladet, and a liberal periodical, Neo.The purpose of this study is to analyze how the environmental problems that have been produced by the industrialised society, especially global warming, are seen upon in the liberal discourse in Sweden today. The theoretical point of departure is a discourse analysis that as a method seeks to analyze the material to reveal what assumptions the discussion departs from, and what assumptions the discussions reject.The thesis concludes that the main trends in the discussions are to position the environment against the financial system and state that the capitalist system is the only system that can solve the environmental issues. The existing environmental problems are not denied, but constantly belittled and only considered to be a problem if it poses a direct threat to humans. The solution for these environmental problems is believed to be the strengthening of the financial system and the development of new technologies..