All new households were to be constructed with "near zero energy house standards" (NZE-house) by the year of 2020. The ambition to construct energy-efficient buildings had to increase rapidly in the spring of 2013.The purpose of this report was to increase the interest for building contractors to construct apartment buildings with passive house standards. By locating and evaluating experiences from an existing passive house a case study including interviews, field visits and document analysis was made. Research of literature regarding other passive houses in Sweden also helped to answer the following questions:- What positive and negative experiences have the study of the passive house meant to the involved stakeholders and residents?- What improvements can be made based on identified experiences?- How can an apartment building be designed as a passive house based on possible improvements?By collecting good and bad experiences, as well as improvements and potential design proposals, a diagram was created designed as a tool for developers when constructing apartment buildings with passive house standards.

In this thesis a rural network in Norrbotten, Sweden, has been to designed and planned with the purpose of improving distribution reliability by exchanging existing overhead lines with underground cables. General network design considerations are discussed as well as the ones for the specific low voltage grid. During the design phase the maximum power of domestic consumers has been estimated using Velander?s method. Currents, voltage drop and impedance of the network have been calculated and fuse operation and selectivity has been considered.

Palm oil has been used in processed food commodities since the 19th century. An increasing demand for regulating and ensuring a more sustainable palm oil production has resulted in various initiatives. However, these initiatives have received critique due to lack of compliance and insufficient revisions of palm oil plantations. The initiatives for creating an ethical, social and environmentally sustainable production are not sufficient for the Swedish industrial users of palm oil. As a result, stakeholders such as Swedish food processing companies, commit to ethical sourcing codes of conduct that go beyond the international palm oil initiatives.

What amount of knowledge of guitar playing can be expected after completing upper compulsory school? A qualitative research involving three different music teachers provides their view of knowledge. Their expectations have been compared to a quantitative research involving 58 upper secondary students from the social sciences programme. The idea is to compare their pedagogic intentions to the pedagogic realities of music teachings.The study shows a clear advantage for students who has attended some form of external music tuition as well as for those students who have someone in their families who play an instrumentIf the knowledge primarily is due to extracurricular activities perhaps there is time for a reformation of the music subject so that all may enjoy the education, not merely those who already possesses a curtain amount of knowledge...The experience must not be allowed to submit to the vast forests of chords, by doing so one misses the purpose entirely.

To save energy it?s popular to build houses with low energy loss. In these houses the walls are keeping a lower temperature in the external side which leads to a higher relative humidity. In addition more material, such as wood studs, are used which means that there is more moisture to dry. More moisture in combination with higher relative humidity may pose a higher risk of microbial growth.

Entrepreneurship is said to be the missing link between knowledge and growth in the Swedish economy. New ventures run a high risk of failing and this holds true especially for technology ventures. Since company leaders have proven to exert an influence on organisations' survival possibilities, the selection of an appropriate CEO is important. The purpose of this study is to describe the importance of the CEO for ventures as well as to explain how knowledge and experience affect the opinion of who should be CEO. Using a qualitative case study research design including three life science companies, we show that there are three main factors crucial when selecting a CEO.

The aim of this study is to study how sustainability policies are implemented and perceived in the operations of a Swedish fashion company. The fashion industry is affected by strict controls when it comes to transparency and reporting of sustainability efforts. This contributes to a strong focus on sustainability. The theoretical framework revolved around institutional theory where the phenomenas of decoupling and recoupling were central. A qualitative case study was conducted where interviews were the primary source of data.

This report is a thesis work for a B.Sc. in Forestry exam at the School for Forest Engineers, SLU. The work was an assignment from Södra Skogsägarna and the aim of the work was to investigate the economical and biological output after mechanical planting with Eco-Planter compared with traditional manual planting. Eco-Planter is a tool for mechanized planting, fixed at the end of the boom on a conventional harvester. The study confirms that manual planting is less expensive under normal conditions. However, the differences between mechanized and manual planting are not that big and with technical development and/or increased labor costs together with an improved work organization the system with Eco-Planter could be competitive. The biological output, e.g. planting result and survival rate, seems to be quite good.

This Master Thesis investigates changes in Thailand's foreign policy towards its neighbouring country Burma. It argues that Thai foreign policy towards Burma has experienced major changes during four periods between 1945 and the present. The thesis investigates these foreign policy changes during the four periods. What changes occurred? What were the reasons for the changes? What reasons dominated during what periods? The four periods of Thai foreign policy changes towards Burma and the common history of the two countries since their respective foundations does not suggest a stable peaceful relationship or a bitter hostile relationship leading to war.

Through previous studies during my education, I have experienced that chemical deicing road salt is a known problem, mainly in southern Sweden. Road salt causes damage to the environment and also damage to vehicles and structures such as bridges, etc. Road salt causes vehicles and steel constructions to rust, leading to increased costs for repairs of damage to structures. Road salt also causes damage to the plants and the economy to suffer, when plant material and soil needs to be replaced. In order to get closer to a solution, I put up three questions.

AbstractTitle: Environmental demand solutions - a study within real-estate business.Problem statement:Today, the society stands before a permanent accelerated environmental threat. Companiesbecome increasingly over the environmental problems and more companies look over theiractivity and how it influences the environment. Historical the environmental issue has been forgotten and it is first during the end of 1990 the environmental issue intensive has been noticed. Earlier the environmental work?s high costs was the cause, but now the companies realized the weight and the importance of imposing focus on environment commitments and sees it, as an investment.

Quality was earlier only an issue for the company?s quality departments but today is the entire organization involved in quality- and improvements work. With the customers in focus, both external and internal, quality and improvement work should be integrated in the daily activities. The management shall state goals and visions together with a policy. Through participation the correct requirements for a successful work are created.With SPC, statistics process control, there is an opportunity to perceive variations in the process and with the correct tools make it stable.

This study concerns digital stories told by five young Romani students and one teacher from Roma Culture Class in Stockholm, Sweden. The theoretical framework draws from theories concerning identity, culture,Romanipe, the Romani value system and social semiotics. The material for the study is the digital stories that were analyzed qualitatively. The results show that the young Roma in the study demonstrate pride in their Romani background and culture, but also signs of changes and development in their culture. Some of the participants do not show external signs of Romani traditions, for example in the ways of dressing.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the handling of difficulties encountered by Swedish managers in Swedish subsidiaries in South Korea. By identifying the most common and possibly most manageable difficulties specific to the market we categorized them into three different groups; external difficulties, internal difficulties and difficulties related to the leadership. Depending on where in the environment and in relation to which stakeholder the difficulties originate the managing process comes to be supported through sometimes contradictory theories. Our study implies that the proper handling is crucial to satisfy local expectations which are critical for survival of Swedish companies. It also implies that the leadership skills acquired by the Swedish managers combined with the level of acceptance for foreign managers among the Korean coworkers affect how influential the manager?s ambitions are.

This master thesis sets out to compare the different public transport modes in Stockholm city.Both energy consumption and air pollution are compared. The chosen transport methods are car,bus and metro.Traditionally the rail industry has had environmental arguments as a strong competitiveadvantage when it comes to passenger transportation. However, in recent years the automotiveindustry has been getting more positive media attention regarding environmental issues, forexample Roger Kemp?s statement that the car is the most environmental friendly passengertransportation mode in the UK. This study will show the environmental advantages of railwaytraffic in cities.The energy sources of the world are not endless and the use of the different sources affects theenvironment in different ways.