According to the EC fuel regulations 2 % bio fuel has to be blended in all fuel by the year 2005, and 5.75 % by the year 2010, which means ethanol for gasoline driven vehicles, so there will be a substantial demand for ethanol. Brazil already has an established industry for producing ethanol and is the leading producer and exporter of fuel ethanol. My purpose with this paper is to investigate why Brazil decided to develop ethanol production on a large-scale operation and to find out today?s situation. Focus will mainly be on ethanol production with sugarcane as a feedstock.

Since some years Linköping has invested in biogas production, mainly from offal's, residuals from food industry and manure. The municipality goes for biogas in the local traffic and in all transportation. It is also possible for private car owners to run their cars on biogas. The purpose of this essay is to perform a cost-benefit analysis and examine if the project has been beneficial from a social point of view. The effects have been identified, measured and monetarily valued. The essay is limited to include the year of 2006 only.

Facebook has over 665 million users worldwide and has created a new venue for companies to interact with their stakeholders. However, since it is a new phenomenon it brings some uncertainty and confusion as how to manage the communication on Facebook, and it is only recently that research and literature has become available on this topic.The purpose of this study is to investigate how three chosen companies within the travel industry communicate on Facebook. We also compare the results to the existing literature to see how they can improve from a theoretical point of view. We thereby hope to shed a light on, and add knowledge to, a research area where we have identified weaknesses. In order to fulfill our purpose, we used a quantitative content analysis as well as qualitative interviews.The major findings in our study on Facebook communication include a lack of strategy and target audience awareness, as well as a self-centered communication.

This paper deals with the question of why companies choose to go on trade fairs and exhibition examines how the media works. The essay's main focus is on stand contractors and why those hired to produce other company stands. The study is based on three interviews, a visit to a trade fair and a questionnaire survey. Together with the relevant literature is given a clear picture of how companies are thinking in their choice of attending the fairs, but also why stand contractors are involved in the process. We concluded that some companies do not know why they participate in fairs and many feel compelled to contribute to not be forgotten in the market.

According to the Water Framework Directive of the European Union, macrophytes should be used as indicators in the ecological and environmental monitoring of lakes. In the member state Sweden the Environmental Protection Agency has elaborated assessment criteria for determining lake status based on macrophytes. The main focus of this thesis is to evaluate the efficiency of the assessment criteria for macrophytes. In addition the concordance between the ecological status classes of the four quality factors included was analysed.The assessment criteria for macrophytes are based on the total phosphorus preference of the respective species. The focus is thus mainly on the nutrient level of the investigated lakes and the environmental problem monitored is eutrophication.

This study focuses on the booking agencies in Sweden and their point of view on the reality with a focal point from the mass media perspective, which says that they have become rather wealthy because of the changes within the music business. The mass media describes the booking agencies situation as golden because of the economical and technological changes that more or less have paralysed the record industry. The study is performed with a qualitative approach and is based on interviews with relevant individuals from eight different Swedish booking agencies. These individuals have been chosen to match as many different segments in the booking agency business as possible. On account of the qualitative approach it is difficult to generalize the conclusion of the study.

Within agriculture it is important to optimize the use of nitrogen, not only from an economic point of view but also to minimize damage to the environment. This can sometimes be difficult, especially within organic farming. Organic farmers are using increasing amounts of waste products from the food industry to cover their nitrogen needs. These different organic fertilizers release nitrogen at different rates and under specific soil conditions. Because of this, it would be beneficial to have a standardized method to measure the amount and rate of nitrogen mineralization from organic fertilizers. This project contributes to this knowledge by investigating whether relatively simple and repeatable laboratory methods can be used to estimate the nitrogen fertilizer value of organic fertilizers.

Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) has for many years been used in products to reduce their flammability, mainly in electronic products, textiles and construction materials. In 2003, Sweden imported 300 tons of brominated flame retardants. Leakage of these compounds has polluted natural environments. Fishes has shown increased contents of these substances, especially fat fish, since brominated flame retardants tends to accumulate in fatty tissues. They are also regarded as persistent and that gives them the ability to travel long distances. What also is really scary is that increased levels of brominated flame retardants have been detected in human breast milk. The knowledge of the brominated flame retardants is limited and not so much research has been done in this field. There are many reasons though, to keep the research going. Partly their structural resemblance to well-known toxics as PCB, but also their ability to accumulate in biological systems and enrich in food chains. In which way they affect humans we really don?t know yet.

Over the last decade, the private insurance market has undergone a stable growth in turnover and growing demand for insurance products in all Member States of the European Union. Therefore, the creation of a single market in insurance will enable consumers to have access to wider choice of insurance products, and insurance companies to gain access to markets in various Member States and compete effectively. The EU legal framework for the insurance industry embraces the Treaty freedoms of services, establishment and capital, the EC Directives and the ECJ case-law. The present thesis identifies numerous factors that hinder the Community insurance market integration and offers possible remedies. The summary of the market obstacles is all-inclusive and reflects the responses to the questionnaires and the Commission surveys.

This bachelor thesis concerns a region in central Turkey ? Cappadocia - and its need of a sustainable tourism development. A town called Ürgüp is located in the centre of this region, which mainly consist of a rich geographic, cultural and historic access.Our focus in this essay will be concerning Ürgüp and the importance of a sustainable tourism development. Our intensions are to examine what Ürgüp has to offer as a tourist locality and how Ürgüp can maximise its visitors through a sustainable development. We also examine how the locality can be developed in a tourist perspective.

Den textila industrin, en egen värld, är nu under rampljuset som en av de största miljöpåverkande industrierna. Precis som i fallet med många andra industrier så måste textilbranschen intensivt arbeta med att minska sin negativa påverkan på miljön. Slutmålet måste vara att helt balansera uttagen och insättningarna så att man skapar en bransch som blir klimat- och miljöneutral. I denna rapport har en livscykelanalys gjorts på en underställströja från Helly Hansen tillverkad av 99 % polypropylene. Inom denna livscykelanalys har vi noggrant studerat och undersökt fakta för att hitta de processer som har den största påverkan på miljön.

There is an increased pressure for firms to provide the financial market with additional information. Such disclosure is attached with different kinds of costs. In spite of these costs, and in spite of increased mandatory disclosures, firms choose to voluntary disclosure financial information to analysts and others. This indicates that firms also benefit from providing additional information. The subjects of this study is 431 annual reports from firms listed at the Stockholm Stock Exchange for 2002 and 2005 and the objective is to survey factors that can explain variations in firms? voluntary disclosure.

In today?s society there is an increasing demand for renewable energy sources such as sun and wind power. These sources are intermittent, and energy storage is therefore needed to ensure a constant power supply. This report compares pumped hydro energy storage (PHES), compressed air energy storage (CAES), flywheels, batteries, super magnetic energy storage (SMES) and hydrogen energy storage.The opportunities for further development are limited for PHES and CAES in comparison with the other technologies. Lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen energy storage are considered to have the most potential in the future.

The concept of building work environment co- ordinator is a relatively new concept that has its origin in the amendment to the Working Environment Act which came into force on 1 January 2009. The terms; building work environment co-ordinator appointed for planning and design and building work environment co-ordinator for the execution of building or civil engineering work ushered in the industry. Once these disciplines complement one another, you can achieve a smooth handover to ensure a good and healthy working environment.In this thesis, we study a company in Uppsala and their operations and handover by interviewing the relevant staff in question. The result shows that there are currently no present guidelines for how and when the handover should take place, it is up to each individual to provide themselves with the relevant information.If the handover of the work environment would occur to the extent it should it would lead to minimized proportions of unforeseen risks and events that may occur during the production phase, which ultimately leads to a better and healthier working environment..

This report deals with issues related to construction waste. Building material that has not been built into the project is defined as construction waste. Cost of construction waste amounts to 4-12 % of the total cost of the project. Moreover, cost of construction waste is 1-3 % of the production cost. The aim of this study is to increase knowledge about the main causes of waste within the construction industry.