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.

To act responsible in relation to environmental, economic and social issues is a trend that is spreading among businesses and their investors. In order to assess business risks, ethical interested investors are calling for open, honest, clear CSR information that can be followed up in corporate sustainability reports. The ability to communicate about risks and to meet investors requests already in the business analytic process can save resources and increase the company?s profitability.The idea that companies should take responsibility for their impact on society from economic, environmental and social perspective is called Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR. In addition to CSR, there is another three-letter abbreviation in this context, PRI ? Principles for Responsible Investment ? which are principles, signed by ethically interested investors.

The task of making a correct application for B- activities is the foundry time consuming task. Information and facts concerning your entire business activity shall be attached into a description of environmental consequences, which will be the basis for the decision making whether the activities shall be granted a permission to practise environmentally hazardous actions or not. When the Environmental Act were established 1999, the permission process became more extensor. With this study I want to give an insight about how these applications are made. The methods I have used to collect information are a study literature where the Environmental Act has been the focus, and qualitative interviews with two County Administrative Board. I used the Environmental Act to understand why permission is needed and the interviews to give me insight in how the work is done. My conclusion is that it is very unusual that an application is granted without complements.

Scandinavian Biogas is involved in the planning of a combined ethanol and biogas factory in Karlskoga, Sweden. Besides biogas and ethanol large amounts of digester residues will be produced, about 450 000 liquid tonnes residue (~7,3 % Dry Substance( DS)). The objective of this thesis was to investigate possible uses of the residue from the biogas production process ScandgasEthanol developed by Scandinavian Biogas, and to derive a methodological approach how to evaluate and compare handling systems. Three systems where proposed and compared in this thesis; spreading of the untreated residue as fertilizer (system 1), dewatering to a higher DS content to reduce transportation before spreading as fertilizer (system 2) and production of a solid fuel by dewatering and drying the residue (system 3). The general conditions for the proposed systems were investigated in terms of practical viability, economical aspects, environmental impact and energy inputs/outputs.

Toxic metals contaminate soil worldwide and thus serve as sever environmental threat. Therefore the purposes of this study were to investigate in which soil fractions that different heavy metals (Fe, As, Cu, Zn and Pb) could be found in contaminated soils and if it is possible to use sieving as a method for decontamination. Soil samples were collected from three different locations, the Nasa silver mine, the Blaiken-mine and Svalget environmental station. The samples were oven dried and later on sieved into six different fractions 8mm, 4 mm, 0.5 mm, 0.250mm, 0.063 mm and <0.063 mm. The fractions 4 mm, 0.5 mm and <0.063 mm from each location were analyzed in an x-ray fluorescence detector.

The first aim of this thesis is to descriptively identify and chart the activities of the strategic intelligence and environmental scanning that take place at the regional collaboration network Regionförbundet Örebro. This identification is essential in reaching the comprehensive and primary aim of the thesis: to discuss, through normative discourse, what the options of improvement are and in which ways systematic operations can be integrating parts in the organization. In order to offer guidance of development from the perspectives of environmental scanning, the question at issue has emanated from activities concerning the present methods of working at Regionförbundet Örebro.During the creation of this thesis, several interviews have been made with people who are regarded to be key roles within the regional collaboration network. An analysis has been made, based on governing documents and answers from the interviews, where possible improvements of the business have been identified. The inferences become parts of a greater potential of amelioration since they are presented as active solutions and proposals that can be directly adaptable to the organization.Our proposals of improvements/ameliorations are constituted by a number of concrete/explicit points such as: a wider public information supply and an introduction of several annual routines and methods..

A growing number of companies realise that to achieve their environmental goals and satisfy stakeholder expectations, they need to look beyond their own facilities and to involve their suppliers in environmental initiatives. A life cycle approach means that the production system should be optimised as whole, across national boarders and individual organisations taking part all the way from extraction to disposal. This study is a Life Cycle Inventory of resources used when producing a piece of cotton garment and the method is based on the standardisation series of ISO 14040-43. The area of study, Tamil Nadu the most southern state of India, accounts for more than 90% of India?s knitwear exports to Western Europe.

Water is an important food and an important natural resource. In order to protect these are the Environmental Code and the EU directive given to water protection and related water protection regulations will be established for all water sources until 2010. Those who will prepare a water protection and related water protection regulations is the municipality or person responsible for water supply. The person then decides and declares the area as water protection and related water protection regulations are municipal or provincial government. The idea of creating a water protection is to protect the water supply and the body of water against pollution caused by point sources, diffuse sources and accidents combined.

Problem: Har arbetet för hållbar utveckling inletts och i vilken grad främjas den i kommunikationen mellan lärare och student på Handelshögskolan vid Umeå Universitet?Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att övergripande avbilda hur implementeringen av hållbar utveckling i undervisningen på Handelshögskolan vid Umeå Universitet. För att avbilda studieobjektets verklighet så väl som möjligt kommer vi undersöka ett antal delsyften; om vad som kommunicerats, hur det kommunicerats och hur relevant kommunikationen uppfattas i undervisningen. Detta kommer undersökas genom att titta på lärares uppfattning för att jämföras med hur studenterna uppfattar implementeringen av vår problem formulering.Teori: Teorikapitlet har sin grund från vetenskapliga arbeten och är baserad på tre teorier. En teori handlar om hur man strukturerar arbete för hållbar utveckling i en universitets kontext.

Nature?s Best is a quality-label for Swedish Eco-tourism. It is one of very few active ecotourism labels and the only one that claims quality as its main focus. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate the certification scheme Nature?s Best with regards to the values the certification creates for the companies that certify their products.

Background: The way in which corporate managers interpret, reason and evaluate uncertainties and constant changes, and how they take advantage of their experiences and wisdom can make a big difference for the long term survival of their companies. The requirements for efficiency and flexibility have increased in many ways, especially concerning the workforce needed and its degree of competency. In Sweden, employee recruiting industry has grown concurrently with the changes in the Swedish economy. Purpose: The purpose is to better understand the recruiting industry by performing a theoretical evaluation from a cognitive perspective. Delimitation: We intended to study the cognitive characteristics of the Swedish recruitment industry.

Miljöcertifieringssystemet för byggnader, LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) lanserades 1998 i USA av USGBC (United States Green Building Council). USGBC är en icke vinstdrivande organisation, vars mål är att bidra till utökat hållbart byggande. Skanskas första byggnad som certifierades enligt LEED färdigställdes 2001 i den amerikanska delstaten North Carolina. I slutet av februari 2009 offentliggjordes det att Skanska skall införa systemet i sin Nordiska organisation. Undersökningen som genomförts handlar om ett av LEED New Constructions sex delområden, Materials & Resources. Materialhanteringen för ett byggprojekt som Skanska uppfört har analyserats för att avgöra huruvida det skulle kunna erhålla poäng vid en certifiering enligt LEED.

The purpose of this report was to compare Lilluns egg production with other Swedish egg producers based on the flow of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) in the egg production systems. The main focus in the report was the utilization rate of the forage and the excess of nutrients per kg egg. Additionally, the purpose was to identify the environmental impact from Lilluns egg production and compare the results with other egg producers. The inflow of nutrients associated with forage and poultry was compared with the nutrients that were exported from the production. All of the egg producers in this study had an excess of nutrients.

Jag har under detta arbete undersökt hur företaget MAD ELF ART kan arbeta med miljö och sociala aspekter i produktionen. Min uppgift har varit att lokalisera en materialleverantör och producent som kan arbeta med detta på bästa sätt.Under arbetets gång har jag kontaktat flera materialleverantörer och producenter och undersökt hur de jobbar med dessa aspekter. Samtidigt har jag även fördjupat mig i hur man kan ta hänsyn till miljö och sociala aspekter i produktionen, för att undersöka hur vi bäst kan arbeta med det.Vad jag kommit fram till är att materialvalet är det viktigaste och det som skiljer en produkt från att vara en miljöbov och en fara för människor till miljövänlig. Därför har jag i bilagan presenterat en leverantör och producent av materialet 100% silke som är ekologiskt färgad och handvävd. Silke lämnar inget energi-fotavtryck och går att återvinna.

In 1999 the Swedish Parliament decided about 15 environmental goals aimed to be achieved in time for the next generation. For example physical social planning must be based on programs and strategies how cultural-historical values has been attended, so called programs of cultural heritage. By law the Swedish municipalities are responsible for reaching these goals by creating program of cultural heritage. But only a few of the municipalities have these programs, meaning that many municipalities need to create programs of cultural heritage in the next five years.The aim of this report is to present a model of analysis on programs of cultural heritage in municipalities for preservation and development of cultural environments. By testing the model on the municipalities of Osby and Tomelilla methods on how to create a new program of cultural heritage or how to complete existing documents are formulated.One of the conclusions is that one document, program of cultural heritage, functions as landscape analysis, model of cultural valuation and strategy of developing cultural values.