Organic agriculture is financially promoted in Sweden by special environmental support and as consumers we are all encouraged to buy organic food. At the same time scholars at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences claim that organic farming does not provide any environmental benefits. The main criticism is that organic farming has lower yields than conventional, which means that more land is needed to produce the same amount of food as in conventional farming, leading to deforestation and loss of biodiversity. As for climate change, the critics claim that the significantly higher productivity in conventional crop production compared to organic, releases surplus land, which could be used for bio-fuel production and thereby replace the fossil fuels. The critics also claim that organic farming causes higher nutrient leaching than conventional.

Between 1965 and 1975 a major housing project was carried out in Sweden to resolve a major housing crisis, the so-called one million housing program (Swedish: miljonprogrammet). To raise the standards and create a more attractive housing in these areas is currently a very relevant topic in Sweden.Evidence-based design is the process of basing decisions of the built environment on credible research and studies to achieve the best possible outcome. This method is primarily used in the healthcare sector to improve quality of care and reduce costs by creating healthy environments.The possibility of refurbish apartment buildings from miljonprogrammet using evidence-based design has been studied by means of an extensive literature review and a closer examination of the residential area, Husby in Stockholm, which has been chosen to represent the miljonprogrammet in its entirety. Furthermore, the evidence-based research has been limited to seven fields; nature, noise, color, wayfinding, safe environment, daylight and thermal comfort which has been assessed to be applicable on housing. In order to obtain a comprehensive overview of the different fields, four different subjects were chosen to investigate further within each field; research and studies, laws and regulations, constructional aspect and Husby.

In the 1940s the Swedish town planning was inspired by the English city development with the concepts of neighbourhood and community planning. In order to promote democratic development and solidarity the ideal would be to create community centers with full service. Community centers are part of the building of the suburbs during the postwar period. The buildings in Sweden from 1940 - and -50s were built with the intentions to be good homes for all regardless of income, class and status. Collective solutions to individual problems were characteristic of the Swedish policy during this time.

Antalet arbetslösa ungdomar är stort i dagens samhälle. Det finns många åtgärder som bedrivs av landets kommuner som riktar sig till unga arbetslösa socialbidragstagare, men det finns för lite kunskap om dessas innehåll och resultat, samt om hur deltagandet i dessa åtgärder upplevs av ungdomarna själva.Syftet med denna studie är att få en ökad förståelse för vilka komponenter som deltagare iungdomsprojekt anser vara viktiga och varför. Vi vände oss till deltagare i projektet Green Team,som riktades mot långtidsarbetslösa ungdomar mellan 21 ? 25 år och som finansierades avstadsdelen Angered. Projektets syfte var att höja ungdomarnas sociala kompetens för att underlätta deras etablering på arbetsmarknaden.

The purpose of this Bachelor degree project is to design different types of services that can increase the amount of re-used timber within the building sector and by that means improve their environmental efforts. By examining how the sectors environmental work concerning recycling and re-using timber as a building material is getting on at present, conclusions have been drawn about what further could be done for improvement.The project has shown that there is a scarcity of information and statistics within the sector, but that there are efforts in progress to change this. Questionnaires have been sent to a number of companies working with demolition and utilizing re-usable materials in order to find out what kind of problems there are within the trade. Unfortunately the survey gave insufficient result due to the low reply frequency.It is obvious that active environmental work within the building sector is important and the knowledge acquired while working with the project has led to the design of three suggestions for services regarded as being of interest for improving the negative environmental impact caused by the sector:Suggestion 1 ? Sale of construction parts prior to the demolition of a buildingSuggestion 2 ? Re-utilization circulation when manufacturing buildingsSuggestion 3 ? Education in relation to the purchase of houses  The positive and negative qualities of the suggestions have been examined with SWOT-analysis and further adaptions and the results have been interpreted.

Miljöcertifieringar av byggnader blir allt vanligare i Sverige. En av dessa är certifieringssystemet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) som administreras av Sweden Green Building Council. En certifiering av ett projekt genom LEED grundar sig i ett poängsystem där antal poäng avgör vilken nivå certifieringen kommer att ske efter. Användningen av minst 50 procent FSC-certifierade träprodukter ger poäng enligt LEED. Dock är tillgången på FSC-certifierade träprodukter begränsad vilket försvårar arbetet med LEED-certifierade projekt.

An increased awareness about the global warming has created a demand for more information on how the climate is affected by different activities.This master thesis was initiated by Tricorona, a Swedish company that offers its customers analysis and calculation of their climate impact. Tricorona also supplies climate neutralisation with CERs, in accordance with the Kyoto protocol and controlled by the UN. This work demands updated emission factors for greenhouse gases. An emission factor gives information about the greenhouse gasintensity of a service or a product [kg CO2-eq./ functional unit].The purpose of this thesis is to examine how electricity, district heating, hotels, taxis, food and materials affect the climate and how emission factors for these areas can be calculated.This was done by reviewing and comparing different studies and by interviewing experts. The information was evaluated and recommendations on calculations and emission factors were made.The consumption of energy is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions for district heating, electricity, hotels, taxis and materials.

Antalet arbetslösa ungdomar är stort i dagens samhälle. Det finns många åtgärder som bedrivs av landets kommuner som riktar sig till unga arbetslösa socialbidragstagare, men det finns för lite kunskap om dessas innehåll och resultat, samt om hur deltagandet i dessa åtgärder upplevs av ungdomarna själva.Syftet med denna studie är att få en ökad förståelse för vilka komponenter som deltagare iungdomsprojekt anser vara viktiga och varför. Vi vände oss till deltagare i projektet Green Team,som riktades mot långtidsarbetslösa ungdomar mellan 21 ? 25 år och som finansierades avstadsdelen Angered. Projektets syfte var att höja ungdomarnas sociala kompetens för att underlätta deras etablering på arbetsmarknaden.

Sports facilities are a highly unexplored field, and as of the autumn 2008 no research is being conducted about sports fields at Swedish architecture universities. Very few people recognize the sports field as an area for the architecture profession, and to gain more information about sports fields I have discussed the subject with people with connections to architecture and/or sport. The sports field represents a type of sports facility, a permanent football and/or bandy field surrounded by running tracks with appropriate measurements. Like the city?s physical environment, the sports field is a public place, where outdoor activities take place.

The purpose of this essay is to study the coming into being of two newly built public libraries in Sweden, Malmö public library and Linköping public library. In both cases, the architect was appointed through a competition. We have examined the degree of importance that one has put on the buildings functionality and aesthetics, respectively. Furthermore we have studied how the cooperation between library staff and the architects has worked, and finally we have studied to which degree the parties involved think that the interests of the users has been taken into concern. The first main chapter of the report is an overview of the literature found on the subject where we present theories on library architecture used in Sweden as well as abroad.

Klimatfrågan är idag mer aktuell än någonsin tidigare. Detta beror på den akuta situation som vi levande på jorden faktiskt befinner oss i. Det har nästan alltid funnits hot mot vårt klimat, men det är först idag som vi tydligt börjar se följderna av vårt tidigare handlande och det jag syftar på är den förstärkta växthuseffekten och dess konsekvenser. Syftet med studien är att utifrån en lärandesituation i form av ett rollspel beskriva elevers handlingsberedskap och känslor kring växthuseffekten. Frågeställningarna är följande.

In this report a study has been done regarding different heating systems on which are the mostcomprehensive with solar heating systems. The report has also been focusing if solar power can beused as a primary heating source for supplying more than 50 % of the buildings total heatingproduction. The University of Dalarna constructed a demo-house for this purpose and according tocalculations the total solar usage is more than 50 %. This house has been made for referenceregarding the design of the heating system of property 5:37.Further studies have been made to compare different heating systems that are compatible with asolar system, where the compared systems purpose is to be independent of direct using electricity. Asystem of this design is regarded as sustainable according to environmental as economic issues.

Great care and knowledge are required to assess the values of public parks. Many aspects have to be considered to make the assessments reliable and credible. Care and respect for the site and its users are necessary parts of such an assessment. Stockholm City Museum releases in 2011 a document which describes a new system for assessing the cultural historical value of parks and green areas in Stockholm, a city with a great development pressure. In order to evaluate the public realm basic knowledge about the sites? history is needed. Three different parks in Stockholm have been investigated.

AbstractThe Municipality Council decided in 2010 to develop a comprehensive energy efficiency strategy with financial and methodological support from Energimyndigheten (The Swedish Energy Agency). The strategy should include 3 major parts: an inventory of the 2009 energy use defining the current situation, the 2014 and 2020 goals for energy use, and an action plan for goal achievements. According to Energimyndigheten, the strategy must include all municipal administration premises, vehicles, and all majority-owned companies (as Laholmshem, the municipal housing company).The report describes the inventory work in order to obtain the 2009 energy use and the sources of information used. The inventory values are used as the base year values for the 2014 and 2020 goals. The inventory showed that information about the vehicles is dispersed in the municipal administration and no clear structure exists with respect to mileage and fuels used.

I takt med att klimathoten mot vår planet ökar raskt, ökar också människors egna engagemang för att lösa problematiken. I städerna finns det initiativ med målsättningen att skapa en bättre framtid för jorden än den som idag spås. Problem med överbelastade dagvattensystem och långa mattransporter i städerna är två klimathot som bl.a. kan avhjälpas med lokalt omhändertagande av dagvatten respektive stadsodling. Därför kommer följande rapport att avhandla hur det på bästa sätt kan utformas en odlingsvägg inomhus som tar hand om nederbördsvatten från byggnadens tak i projektet Haningeterrassen.För att lösa uppgiften har litteraturstudie, studiebesök och intervjuer varit underlag för arbetet som även har innehållit en fallstudie.