AbstractThe real estate sector is today responsible for 40 per cent of the total amount of energy consumption within the members of the EU. All over the world there are collaborations within research and projects to find ways of reducing the amount of energy consumed by the real estate sector. In Sweden, a directive from the European Union has posed demands on authorities as well as on the private sector to reduce the amount of energy consumed by new building constructions. Together with the directive from the EU there are also new requirements and demands from Boverket for the real estate sector.  These requirements mostly concern the energy consumption of kilowatt-hour per square metre and that the consumed energy also should be renewable.  The aim of this study is to explain what kind of value municipalities experience in using certifications and environmental investments for new and existing buildings. Within the chapter theory, essential areas are described such as; environmental certification systems, economical viability, proceeds connected to building green, difficulties with building green, the performance of green buildings when affected by the behaviour of tenants and customer value.  The following chapter describes the methodology with which we have conducted this study.

Osteoartrit är en vanligt förkommande degenerativ ledsjukdom hos våra hundar som orsakar smärta, stelhet och minskad rörlighet hos drabbade individer. Ledbrosket bryts ned och detta följs av en inflammatorisk process som ytterligare driver på utvecklingen. De bakomliggande orsakerna varierar men kan t ex vara felställning av ben som ger onormalt slitage eller övervikt som ökar den mekaniska påfrestningen på brosket vilket initierar nedbrytningsprocessen. De genetiska förutsättningarna har stor betydelse för sjukdomsutvecklingen. Sjukdomen är kronisk och progressiv.

An increasing number of peole are resisting the attraction of living around nature and opting instead to spend their lives in cities. Parks and green areas play an important part in our well-being and we become fascinated with the diversity of nature, in which we find a peacefulness that is unique. Amongst other things, being surrounded by nature can reduce high blood presure, lower the production of stress hormones and stimulate the mind and our ability to concentrate. It is therefore vitally important to entice city residents to parks and green areas to improve their physical and mental well-being. Previous research has shown that humans are seeking for certain characteristics in the parks and green areas which they are visiting.

This paper covers a study of the Swedish charging market for electric vehicles from both the perspective of stakeholders and car owners. By interviewing representatives of four key stakeholders on the market; commercial parkings, malls, service stations and working places, data regarding their business models of today is examined. At present electricity is provided for free, but all stakeholder point out that this business model is not sustainable in the long run. The result of the interviews shows that electricity won?t be offered for free in the future ? the question is which factors affect how long it will take for the different stakeholders to find a suitable business model.

The ability to tackle NP-hard problems has been greatly extended by the introduction of Metaheuristics (see Blum & Roli (2003)) for a summary of most Metaheuristics, general problem-independent optimisation algorithms extending the hill-climbing local search approach to escape local minima. One of these algorithms is Iterated Local Search (ILS) (Lourenco et al., 2002; Stützle, 1999a, p. 25ff), a recent easy to implement but powerful algorithm with results comparable or superior to other state-of-the-art methods for many combinatorial optimisation problems, among them the Traveling Salesman (TSP) and Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP). ILS iteratively samples local minima by modifying the current local minimum and restartinga local search porcedure on this modified solution. This thesis will show how ILS can be implemented for MSA.

Danmarksplass is situated just outside the centre of the city of Bergen on the Norwegian west coast. It was built in the 1930´s as a result of an architecture competition won by the prominent Norwegian architect Ole Landmark. Danmarksplass was originally meant to function as a local square, but its location next to Fjösangerveien, a road that caters for most of the through traffic in the Bergen valley today and is part of one of the main European roads, E39, would prove it difficult for that idea to prevail. Along with the ever increasing car traffic, Danmarksplass has more and more become a very busy traffic junction. Nowadays the car is the sole ruler of Danmarksplass.

Sapa Heat Transfer is a company that produces aluminum heat-exchanger strips for the automotive industry. Sapa Heat Transfer wish to chart their emissions of carbon dioxide in order to meet future demands on carbon dioxide reporting. They also would like to examine the meaning of the term ?green electricity? which is marketed as carbon dioxide free, and the sort of electricity that they purchase. This report includes both direct (liquefied petroleum gas and diesel) and indirect (water, process-water, long distance heating, waste) emissions from their company.

Arvika Fastighets AB is a municipal subsidiary tasked with managing all green areas in the municipality, with a strong focus on the City Park and plant beds in the city centre. These areas generate large amounts of green waste, which is currently transported to the municipality's composting area at Lycke. Currently, the material is piled up and turned once a year without using the resulting soil for flowerbeds, lawns, and shrub/tree plantings. The purpose of the study is to determine if Arvika can compost the green waste in a more efficient manner and produce weed-free soil ready to be mixed into various substrates for different purposes. Interviews with the Swedish Church and several municipalities in Sweden have been conducted to learn from their experiences and knowledge of how they make their composting work.

Currently, the whole globe is faced with serious problems which negatively affect people around the world: increased pollution, excessive waste, and weather pattern changes. ?Left? and ?right? wing political parties alike have embraced ?green? politics and for many of these parties, environmental issues have become a top priority that is very much reflected in their manifestos. This study examines the environmental goals of two of Sweden?s largest political parties and how these ambitions are reflected at a local level.

A high degree of urbanization with growing cities has raised a need of transforming closed landfill sites for giving them new uses. This study aims to investigate how old landfills can be re-used, what has lead to the new uses, and for what and whom the transformed site will be an asset. The method used is a case study of four different landfills in Stockholm county, Sweden. The case study is analyzed in the light of former studies regarding re-use of degraded urban areas, so called brownfields, and in particular studies and reports of landfill re-use. The result indicates that old landfill sites is identified as an area with possible values if transformed properly, in the case study area especially as green structure and recreation areas.

This study includes a life cycle assessment, LCA, on an ecological produced cotton shirt for the company Reflective Circle, which designs ethical and ecological clothes.Initially were cotton farming and textile production studied to gather basic knowledge about the processes. Since this shirt is being ecological produced in the whole production chain, we studied what an ecological production means, but also how a conventional production works. When this was done we could start to discuss the differences and similarities between the production of the shirt and general conventional production.When the LCA was first initiated, the main focus was on the green house gas emissions from the manure at the cultivation. Thereafter the process steps such as picking, ginning, carding, spinning, weaving and sewing were being studied. The picking is done by hand, but the rest of the processes are handed by machines which consumes energy.

Many companies are presently investing in different types of environmental strategies, and it is varying to what level they channel their resources to environmental efforts. It is also diverging to what extent organizations effort to profile themselves as environmentally conscious. This can be due to difficulties in reaching out to customers and to finding the most efficient method of green marketing communication. The aim of this study is to analyse how an insurance company more actively can communicate environmental matters foremost in their contact with customers. One can in different mediums daily follow debates and discussions concerning the environment. Many insurance companies have also identified their role in performing green work.

Denna studie har resulterat i ett nytt koncept med tillhörande design för hur individualiserad informationspresentation till förare i bilar skulle kunna se ut. Designen har framkommit genom litteraturstudier, State of the Art studier om informationssystem i dagens nya bilar, domänexpertintervjuer och användarstudier i form av Goal Directed Design. Slutligen utvärderades designen. Litteraturstudierna gav en god grund för vilken informationspresentation som finns i bilar idag. State of the Art studierna resulterade i en sammanfattning av nya informationssystem som fanns i tre nya bilar från tre olika bilmärken.

This thesis has been carried out at the Department of Urban and Rural Development at SLU Ultuna during the spring semester 2009. The topic of the paper is how energy consumption can be influenced through design and if the conditions for good design decreases when solutions based on energy efficiency are used. The report is divided into one literature study and one part where energy efficient solutions are used in a design. The thesis work has its origin in a project called "Energihus i Uppsala." The planned building will be a center for energy research in Uppsala. The project aims to demonstrate to the public what is currently happening in research related to energy.

This thesis describes the development of a tank insert for diesel cars, from idea to a prototype. The idea is to design an insert which makes it impossible to refuel petrol in a diesel car. The insert shall be installed in the existing tank opening on diesel cars. The tank insert is designed for the Swedish company SverigeGrepen AB located in Vänge, just outside Uppsala. Their main product is a pitchfork that is ergonomically designed and durable.A pre-study were performed in which information relating to fuel caps, tank openings, petrol- and diesel nozzles were collected.