Due to poorly functioning local and regional markets, the smallholders in San Francisco, Petén, were dependent on intermediaries that took advantage of the smallholder?s distance to markets. In an attempt to secure income and strengthen their bargaining position, 189 smallholders joined forces through the creation of a social smallholder network, held together by a community based enterprise. This enterprise was initiated in 2011 with the help of government incentive programmes and NGOs that within a few years will leave the enterprise to auto regime. This study treats the sustainability of a community forest based enterprise, Chachaklum, in northern Guatemala. The study identifies factors that enable smallholders to organize themselves in order to obtain business practices that support an improved standard of living.

The objective of this study is to examine the sustainability of recovering industrial wasteheat from several heat sources in a foundry constructed in a plant belonging to ITT Waterand Wastewater in Emmaboda, Sweden. A triple bottom line perspective will be appliedto achieve this objective. The triple bottom line approach takes into account ecologicaland social performance in addition to financial performance. The technology forrecovering the waste heat is a Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) which is aconstruction consisting of 140 vertical boreholes, 150 meters deep with an internal spaceof four meters.The calculated amount of energy for storage is approximately 3800 MWh annually. Ofthis amount 2500 MWh are expected to be utilized, while storage losses accounts for theremaining part.

This study will identify the environmental impact in terms of carbon dioxide for a boiler house on behalf of Kvänum energi. The boiler central consists of a main building, which in turn contains multiple components such as boilers, pipes, etc, the boiler central uses pellets fuel. It also includes a silo and an ash container. The total weight of the boiler is about 63 tons. Each boiler has an output of 600 kW; the central includes three boilers with room for a fourth if necessary.

The purpose of the thesis is to describe how environmental compensation is carried through when it comes to exploitation of Natura 2000. The thesis also relates to the three theories of planning synoptic, advocacy and transactive. Three cases of environmental compensation have been studied from three different countries where an exploitation of the Natura 2000 is done. Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands have all been working with environmental impact assessments as a demand to be able to carry through their projects. The projects concern the development of a railway track, an industry and a port which all have been approved by the EU-commission to carry on because of socioeconomic reasons.

The work with Agenda 21 resulted in a larger focus on local participation and deliberation. The Swedish implementation of Agenda 21 is a result of these local governments´ political agendas and policies.The purpose with this paper is to examine the relationship between the citizen and the local government. It focuses on three theories of citizenship and how the view of "the environmental aware citizen?; in the local government?s municipalities policies differ and from which theory of citizenship do they come from.The analysis is of a valuing and comparing nature. The municipalities´ web pages have been the main source to generate an understanding of their view on the normative environmental work.

I denna studie analyseras Göteborgs kommuns miljödiplomeringsmodell, dess tillämpning,problem och möjligheter. Syftet var att studera vad företag och revisorer accentuerar på, vilka problem och brister som förekommer samt hur miljöprestanda och miljökommunikation uppfattas i certifierade respektive diplomerade företag. Ett annat syfte var att studera vilka orsakerna är bakom att en del diplomerade företag hoppar av sitt diplom och andra avvaktar med att diplomera verksamheten..

This essay investigates the statements of Växjö municipality?s motives for some of its many environmental projects. The aim of the essay is to be theory-testing as to see how a municipality/city which promotes itself as being ?green? motivates its efforts in the environmental area. Växjö city promotes itself as ?The greenest city in Europe?, an award appointed to the city by BBC and other international media.

This bachelor thesis describes why investors should invest in environmentally certified buildings instead of non certified buildings. The report provides an overview of possible factors influencing an investor in the investment process of an environmentally certified building. The report explains why building companies find incentive to build green buildings and how a cash flow method can be adapted so it can be used in the valuation process of an environmentally certified building. Environmentally certified buildings are used as a strategy to reduce emissions that threaten the environment as well as a strategy to obtain market shares for the building companies. This report focuses on the economic advantages of an environmentally certified building.The construction- and real estate industry stands for approximately 40 percent of the energy consumption in the world.

The Swedish stock-market gives investors an opportunity to benefit from the global growth while financing companies invests and contributes to a socio-economic development. Parallel to the ownership of the funds also follows a responsibility as companies in the funds affect society and the environment. The growth of savings in funds, combined with an increased focus on sustainability has developed SRI (socially responsible investment). Therefore it is interesting to examine whether responsibility is an exception, which only concerns SRI-funds or a general principle, which includes the whole Swedish stock-market.The results of the survey makes it clear that all the Swedish major banks actively works to integrate sustainability within the respective bank's business to achieve a more sustainable financial system. Thus concludes the investigation that responsible investments are a general principle on the Swedish mutual stock-market.How responsibility is integrated in fund management differ between the banks.

The purpose with this essay is to study the public support givers view of the concept innovation and to study how the public support givers discuss and act around the division of public support to entrepreneurs innovations. The purpose is further to describe if the division of public support favour or not favour environmental innovations and to examine if the public support givers consider the industry for environmental innovations is profitable for the society?s economy.We have done several case studies where we have interviewed eight public support. Support givers in this essay are defined as public authorities and other organisations on local, national and/or international level that gives public support to innovations. The public support givers that take part of the essay is VINNOVA, ALMI Stockholm, Innovationsbron, Energimyndigheten, SU Holding AB, KTH Holding, Västra Götalandsregionen and MISTRA.Our theoretical starting point is Silverman and Baums theory ?Picking Winners or Building Them?.

How the renovation of the vast Swedish existing building stock with renovation needs will be performed is considered as decisive in order to achieve the target set by the Swedish government of reducing the energy use by 20 percent by 2020. Consequently, the challenge of the building sector consists in reducing the energy use in the existing building stock but at the same time ensuring that the indoor environmental quality is improved and the cultural values are maintained.So far, there have been a few renovation projects which strongly have reduced the energy use and at the same time have taken into account the environmental aspects and the cultural values. The main reasons are that there have been few incentives and a lack of routines in order to steer efficiently a ?sustainable renovation?.The participants in a Nordic project on sustainable renovation thought that it would be a strong advantage to link the concept of sustainable renovation to the Miljöbyggnad certification system. Indeed it is trusted by the Swedish building and construction sectors and can provide sustainability targets in order to steer renovation processes.The objective of the master thesis is to show how the Miljöbyggnad certification system could be integrated in practice in the renovation process of Riksbyggen, an organization which administers housing associations (Bostadsrättsföreningar) and build houses.

This study explores Environmental Storytelling techniques and whether these can beused in combination with each other to lead a player through a game scene in aspecific pattern, affect the player?s narrative and exploratory view and explorewhether Self-paced Exploration can be combined with these techniques.It is a qualitative study conducted by six gaming sessions with accompanyinginterviews in which six people get to play one of three versions of the same gamescene. The only differences between the scenes are the different guidance techniquesused. The informants' movement patterns are identified and interviews recorded byaudio, as well as screen recording. The results shows that Environmental Storytellingtechniques can very well be used to control the player's exploration patterns, bothnarratively and navigation purposes and Self-paced Exploration can be utilized to agreater efficiency in combination with these..

Global warming is generally recognized as one of the major environmental challenges we have to face in the near future. The students in school today are the ones that will have to deal with the consequences of it tomorrow. That is why education about it is so important. Previous research shows that students believe that environmental issues in general are important problems to be solved. I this study I tested students in grade twelve, in four different schools in order to find out what their level of knowledge about global warming is, how worried they are about it and if there are any correlation between their knowledge and their level of worry.

To distribute goods to customers in urban areas is necessary to support the economic and social development in the cities, but has consequences that affect both residents of cities as well as the environment. The environmental effects of these types of transport involves not only the emissions of various pollutants, but also an increased noise level inside the cities. Many companies and organizations are working hard to change the distribution pattern to streamline transport in the urban area, while environmental impact is reduced. This is in line with what is called the City Logistics. The purpose of this thesis is to create a method for describing and measuring a given transport solution in order to compare it with an altered transport solution to achieve a more sustainable development.

This essay investigates the statements of Växjö municipality?s motives for some of its many environmental projects. The aim of the essay is to be theory-testing as to see how a municipality/city which promotes itself as being ?green? motivates its efforts in the environmental area. Växjö city promotes itself as ?The greenest city in Europe?, an award appointed to the city by BBC and other international media.