Humanity?s increasing consumption has resulted in an increasing use of resources and thus an increasing environmental impact. Hence, the environment has become an important political issue. The increasing demands from stakeholders on companies to "green" their products and work internally with environmental issues makes it more and more important for enterprises to address these issues. Small enterprises constitute the majority of all enterprises and therefore they have a significant impact on environmental problems.

The purpose of this study is to examine how textile companies are using "green arguments" in their marketing strategy and how these arguments affect the competitiveness on the market for each of the six companies.The survey that was conducted is based on qualitative interviews with managers responsible for environmental issues in the field of marketing. The purpose of the survey was to examine how companies are using ?green arguments" in order to create competitive advantages. We have chosen to limit the study to the textile industry with the study being carried out in six different companies. The two main theories that make up most of the theoretical framework are Porters five forces and the marketing mix.The survey showed that companies today are using green arguments in their marketing strategy to gain competitive advantages, but only to a certain extent.

Every plan and program decided on by an authority or municipality, where the environmental impact can be considerable, must be environmentally assessed according to Environmental Code, the Planning and Building Act (PBA) and the Regulation on Environmental Impact Assessment.The purpose of this study is to examine the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for The Region Development Plan for the Stockholm Region, RUFS 2010. The plan was approved by at that time the Regional Planning Office (Regionplanekontoret), which procured the process by consultants. RUFS 2010 includes two merged plans ie. a regional Development Plan (RUP) and the Regional Spatial Plan for Stockholm. It was necessary to establish an environmental assessment of RUP, but not for the regional plan.

The demands of environmental effects in today?s companies have been increasing more andmore. To be able to withstand customers, cooperatives and government demands the ISO14001 certification should not be neglected.In January 2007 the general management of SAS decided to introduce an environmentalmanagement system for SAS Tech. The work which has been carried out is a part of thecertification process of ISO 14001 which will be completed by the end of year 2009.The aim is to create auditroutines for the company in order to be able audit ISO 14001standard internally which is a demand to get certified and to keep the certification in thefuture. A schedule has been done which audits different part of the standard at every auditduring one year.

Certification systems, that assess companies? work with social and environmental issues, have emerged in an increasing number of industries. Today, there are environmental certifications for the food industry, the forestry, the fisheries sector and several more. In apparel industry, certification for sustainable working conditions has been of major impact. The property sector is no exception from other industries.

This paper examines and compares several different sites in Sweden in addition to one in Mexico regarding whether the ecological requirements theses sites have had during planning and construction has affected the design in any way. Is it possible that, for different reasons, one thinks ?like nature? when one thinks of ecology and, if true, how does this reflect on the spatial and structural design? This paper tries to identify if some sort of general design expression is used in projects with requirements on ecological sustainability. In total, five projects have been compared in different areas such as choice of materials and their composition. These projects have an ecologically sustainable processing of water in common, although most also have ecological consideration in other areas as well.

In contemporary global environmental governance stakeholding, as a means for defining legitimate participants in democratic decision-making, has become of great importance. In this essay I deploy the concept of ?the stakeholder perspective? to denote arguments that all stakeholders ? defined as carriers of particular interests ? should be able to participate in political decision-making affecting their interests. The purpose of the essay is to analyze the stakeholder perspective's potential to change environmental politics. Departing from the philosophy of Heidegger, I develop a theoretical approach that separate the concept of the political from that of politics.

In Sweden, responsibility for the collection and recycling of packaging and newspapers lies with the producers. Therefore, the major producers created a jointcollection with 5800 recycling stations. The stations are the responsibility of a coordinating body, Förpacknings och Tidningsinsamlingen (FTI) which ensures Government regulations are adhered to by the producers.In 2006, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) carried out an evaluation of the collection of packaging and newspapers. EPA´s research showedthat 80 percent of households were satisfied with the collection but that there were also shortcomings, including problems with littering at the recycling stations.We have tried to approach the litter issue from different angles in order to suggestpossible measures to reduce the problem. An important aspect proved to be uncertainties regarding the concept of operators.As there are currently many parties involved in the collection process this lead to the issue of who is legally considered as the operator of the recycling stations.

The awareness regarding environmental issues is increasing and as a result a large number of products are eco-labeled. This enables the consumers to make enlightened environmental decisions when purchasing products. Eco-labeling is no longer for products only, but also for services like hotels. It?s difficult to determine what it actually means to eco-label a hotel and what kind of benefits it includes.

In a business environment where the stakeholder perspective is evolving and sustainable development is receiving increased attention, it is of importance for companies to adjust. The demand and pressure is exerted from several stakeholders who force companies to take action and live up to the expectations because if failing to do so, negative consequences will most likely be the case. The attention of this study is on ABB Power Products (ABB PP) and their environment and working environment risk management. The aim of this thesis is to identify and describe how perceived environmental risks are managed and what the incentives are to work proactively to minimize the risks. The incentives for a proactive risk management strategy are researched through both a strategic and operational perspective.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how Swedish retail companies work with CSR internationally.The study also sought to explore the opportunities and challenges that exist, and the stakeholders that motivate companies CSR commitment.The theoretical framework is composed of international CSR guidelines of the OECD and the UN, Carroll's CSR pyramid and three-stage model and Freeman's stakeholder theory. Furthermore a qualitative research approach was applied where four in-depth interviews were conducted with representatives from Axfood, Löfbergs Lila, Oriflame and CSR Sweden.Finally, the study demonstrated the conclusion that the companies CSR strategies are structured in a similar way regardless of the market. CSR attract and retain workers, create a good reputation for brands and results in working conditions, living standards and environmental improvements. Difficulties, however, are the complexity of being able to control each partner and manage differences in language, laws and culture between countries. Finally there are a number of stakeholders that motivate companies to work with CSR, of which shareholders are considered the most important..

Over the past twenty years, the cooperation within the European Union (EU) has strengthened and expanded with both more number of Member States and stronger influence on international politics. The unique character of the Union and its ability to enforce peace and humanitarian intervention has attracted attention in political science. This prominent position of the Union is perceived by many scholars who often hold this derived from the Union's influence in international relations. Various terms have been used to define the powers of the Union. The British researcher Ian Manners states that the unique identity of the Union in the international arena is formed by its normative power.  An important policy area within the Union is the environmental cooperation.

Background: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a term that has become increasingly prominent in the corporate world. As the awareness of responsibly produced products is growing among both companies and consumers, it has become increasingly important for companies to get involved in sustainability issues. There may be several reasons why companies choose to integrate CSR in their business, where one reason may be related to company size. In the business category of micro, there is currently no widespread research, which makes this company size interesting to study. The choice of industry was made because coffee is one of the world's most important merchandise, and the coffee industry has come a long way with integrating CSR in comparision to many other industries.Purpose and research question: The purpose of this study is to create a deeper understanding of why coffee roasters in the business category of micro enterprises choose to incorporate CSR in their businesses.

The Swedish industrial society has left several areas with contaminated soil and water which today is of danger for the environment and human health. One of these areas with contaminated soil and water is the region where the former Glava glassworks operated during 1859 to 1939. The main object in this study has been to study the responsibility for the contaminations according to the Environmental Code. The method used is a qualitative content analysis of relevant literature to answer the following questions:What types of contaminations can be found in the area of Glava glasswork and what health issues can these cause?What kind of activity has been conducted in the area that have caused the contaminations in soil and water?According to law, what are the responsibilities for the contaminations in soil and water at Glava glassworks?The contamination in the region has been confirmed to originate from the glasswork due to the environmental engineering survey made in the area in 2009.

If one looks at physical planning in Sweden today one can see that while talking about densification of existing development, reduced emissions and careful use of important land, urban sprawl is a fact with development of sheer residential districts in the urban edges and shopping malls in each and every municipality. As sustainable development is an essential goal for physical planning to strive towards, it is worth questioning if the direction of today?s planning will lead to the goal. A sustainable development can be seen as an obvious to goal aim at. In reality the aim means a hard and complex work.