A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

Vole populations in northern Scandinavia vary in cycles with peaks every third or fourth year as described by the National Environmental Monitoring Programme of small mammals (NEMP). Some vole species have declined in population numbers since the NEMP started in 1971, especially the grey-sided vole (Myodes rufocanus) which is nearly extinct in the forested region. Since small mammals are an important food source for several avian and mammalian predators, the decline in vole numbers is expected to have consequences for the whole food chain, especially if other vole species start to decline in numbers. This study tried to test the hypothesis that presence and abundance of M. rufocanus (a specialist species) and Myodes glareolus (a generalist species) can be predicted by patch size and connectivity of forest patches >60 years old with a minimum of 15% pine >100years old.

Risk assessment of effects on the environment and health outcome caused by the iron industryLina LöfqvistIn Sweden you can find lots of contaminated areas, which can create problems for both humans and nature. To reduce the long-term contamination grades, Naturvårdsverket have created a report with regard to the contaminated sites. This builds on the ?Method for Inventories of Contaminated Sites? which is abbreviated MIFO. The aim of MIFO is to achieve better environmental planning in Sweden.

The main environmental problem for aviation is the great amount of exhaust gases, mainly nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons - mostly "greenhouse gases" leading to climate changes. I decided to sort out what is being done to decrease these problems and what regulations there are concerning air pollution by the means of searching the internet and using publications from aviation authorities for current figures. I chose to scrutinize authorities on political, authority and company level, resulting in summarizing the work of UN and EU respectively, ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), JAA (Joint Aviation Authorities) and LFV (Swedish Civil Aviation Authority), and finally SAS, representing the airline companies. Conclusion that I have drawn are thatthere are regulations for air pollution, written down in ICAO's Annex 16, that are to be followed. Secondly, LFV are environmentally controlling their nineteen airports and since economy is an important reason for not giving priority to environmental issues in aviation emission charge and noise charge are added to the landing fees.

AbstractThis master thesis is a hermeneutic inspired case study of how the value base regarding the environmental and social responsibility in the Swedish coffee company Löfbergs Lila AB is affecting the company's business. A thesis inspired by hermeneutics means that it is based on two ideas, the one of interaction between entirety and partitions and the one of interpretation (Alvesson & Sköldberg 1994). This cause that the emphasis is on how the reality is interpreted and that it never can be seen as completely objective.The case study was conducted during the spring semester of 2010 at Karlstad's University and consists of both empirical and theoretical material collected during this time. The empirical material in this thesis includes, among other things, interviews with four representatives of Löfbergs Lila AB, written material from the company regarding its work related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), some information about the coffee industry as a whole and different certifications for "ethical? coffee that exists on the Swedish market.The basic idea with CSR as a business strategy is that it can be financially beneficial for companies to take a social and environmental responsibility outside of the company (Vogel 2005).

The aim of this study is to analyse and investigate a rather new field of LIS studies, i.e. link analysis which is a part of webometrics. Webometrics has been described as the quantitative study of web based phenomena drawing on bibliometric or informetric methods. Link analysis has its counterpart in citation analysis within the field of bibliometrics. The questions the study investigates are if webometrics can provide LIS with new knowledge and if there is a place for webometric studies in LIS research.

The aim of the study was to investigate whether the sedation method had an effect on the screening result for hip dysplasia (HD). Another aspect considered was if the dog?s weight had an impact on the results. This study was a follow up on the results from an earlier study of sedation routines in Swedish dogs. The breeds included in this study were the same as in the earlier one; German shepherd, Bernese mountain dog, Boxer, Newfoundland, Rottweiler, Saint Bernard, Golden and Labrador Retriever.

Environmental issues and ecology is something that is discussed by the Climate board of the UN and by our Swedish politicians. The first part of the thesis deals with the effects of emissions of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. There is a discussion about what counts as greenhouse gas. Interviews have been made with two growers of annual plants and one interview with a person who has worked hard to increase the use of perennials in his work place, Mjösund?s cemetery.

The construction industries are relatively conservative type of business that takes a longtime to adjust for new methods and embrace new ideas. It dose not matter if the newmethod seems to be an improved method as long as it is new and untried. Constructioncompanies are reluctant to change form a longtime working method to a relativelyunknown method.The purpose with our report is to perform an evaluation of BeWi construction method.Our goal are to present the generally opinion about BeWi from the contractors that hasbeen in contact/worked with the method. We also want to know from the contractor?spoint of view if BeWi and the method measure up to the standards that are presented byBeWi and if they believe that improvements need to be done.Our progress up to the final report has consisted of three parts[1]Field studies[2]Interviews[3]Literary studiesWe started out with field studies where we took notes and observed all the includedworking phases on the construction site when using the BeWi method.

Purpose: To compare the expectations of coming profession in social work with experienced social work. We wanted to compare the pictures between the students in school of social work studies with social workers. We also wanted to increase social workers as well as other readers? awareness of social work as a profession.Questions: What characterizes the school of social studies? How do students in school of social work view the coming role as a professional? How do students in school of social work view upon social workers as professionals? How do social workers view upon their own profession? How do social workers view upon the own role as a professional? How do social workers view upon the relation between the idea of the profession and the daily practice? How do the students in school of social work studies and social workers view upon professional social work?Method: Qualitative study with qualitative interviews.Conclusion: Social work is a low status profession. How to increase the status of social work is not easy.

The purpose of this thesis project is to develop a set of interactive digital solutions designed to enhance the interest and knowledge intake of visitors at Skånes Djurpark (Zoo of Scania) in Höör. The project was carried out in collaboration with Skånes Djurpark and representatives from its visitors. Our thesis is based on academic works in the fields of interaction design, exhibit design and contextual learning. Ethnographical field studies have been conducted at Skånes Djurpark with additional field studies at Tropikariet in Helsingborg, Copenhagen Zoo and Regionmuseet Kristianstad. Existing information signs in Skånes Djurpark are primarily image- and textbased, forcing visitors to divert their attention from the different species of Nordic animals that inhabit the zoological park.

Hållbar utveckling handlar om att ha en balans mellan ekonomisk, ekologisk och social hållbarhet. Kommuner ses som nyckelaktörer i arbetet för en mer hållbar utveckling och har på senaste tiden fått en allt större roll. Karlstad kommun har tre hållbarhetsstrategier, däribland miljö- och klimatstrategin som skall se till att kommunen skall kunna växa på ett socialt, ekonomiskt och miljömässigt hållbart sätt. I miljö- och klimatstrategin finns interna miljömål som är till för kommunens medarbetare. Studien söker att ta reda på medarbetarnas kunskap och förståelse för de interna miljömålen och hur de skall kunna bidra till att uppfylla dessa.

Millions of preselected progeny have been born since the development of The Beltsville Sperm Sexing Technology 1986. The method is based on flow cytometry and sorting is done on the basis of DNA difference of the X- and Y-chromosomes. Preselection of progeny provides an opportunity to obtain genetic gain and increased production as well as increased animal welfare and decreased environmental impact. However, the method is associated with low fertility, high costs and uncertainty whether the sorting process contributes to DNA damage and thereby results in genetically impaired progeny. Today, sex sorted sperm is only commercially available in the bovine industry, due to the fact that bull sperm is more suitable for selection than sperm from other species.

In recent years there have been many corporate scandals from environmental and social aspects. Corporate irresponsible behavior has led to major public discussions on responsibility and these pressures made that many companies wanting to show that they are working for a sustainable development by voluntarily reporting economic, environmental and social and social issues in the financial statement. They hope this will create credibility for the companies. In the current situation, there are a number of guidelines that companies can use to report sustainability. One of these is the GRI guidelines which is an international framework that covers many accounting areas and allows companies to compare their sustainability reports with other companies.The purpose of this study is to determine if all state-owned companies follows the government?s requirement that these companies must form a sustainability report under the GRI guidelines, and the sustainability report must be audited and certified by an outside party.

AbstractSahlin, Marcus (2011) Kommunens omvärld ? En kontextualisering av omvärldsbevakning och omvärldsanalys i en kommun[Surroundings of a municipality? A context of environmental awareness and environmental analysis in a Swedish municipality]Avancerad nivå, masteruppsats, examensarbete i Samhällsplanering 30 hp.Handledare: Urban NordinSpråk: SvenskaOmvärlden har blivit större i takt med att globaliseringen har gjort vår värld mindre. Kommuner kan ta hjälp av omvärldsbevakning och omvärldsanalys för att lättare skapa underlag för framtida planer och visioner. Syftet med uppsatsen är att, med hjälp av en fallstudie, beskriva hur en kommun i Stockholmsregionen arbetar med omvärldsbevakning och omvärldsanalys. Avsikten är även att förklara vad omvärldsbevakning och omvärldsanalys kan betyda för en kommun, samt undersöka om kommunen upplever att det finns en konkurrenssituation på kommunens ?marknad?.