The objective of this study was to uncover what aspects of urban plazas and parks that are most important for users? evaluations of places? aesthetics and microclimate (the characteristic climate for a limited space). This was done by investigating people?s general ideas of plazas and parks (the prototypical concepts) and compare these with place users? descriptions of four specific places. Interviews with two groups (31 and 24 persons respectively) were carried out in order to collect this information.

The environmental demands are increasing when it comes to product development. EcoDesign isabout minimizing the environmental impact of a product, considering the entire life cycle of it,without compromising other qualities like function or cost. In this master of science thesis amobile phone has been analysed with Ten Golden Rules in EcoDesign regarding production, useand End of Life. Also a functional and an environmental profile were made. The goal was tomake a new concept phone, based on the previous analysis, which communicates userfriendlinessand sustainable development.

Society has seen a tremendous increase in threats, violence and especially unprovoked violence perpetrated by youths. Violence and more seriously unprovoked violence has become a major problem for many service corporations as it gives them bad image and reputation. Corporate Social Responsibility CSR encourages many companies to engage in social activities as they realize that the company is part of the society and the environment. What affects society may sooner or later affect the corporate. For any business to prosper and create a long-term relationship with its customers, it needs a safe environment both for the customers and staff.Feedback from customers and staff is survival and these two (customer and staff) are the most vital assets any firm could have.

In today?s hectic society more and more people experience stress and our lifestyle gives us a very limited chance to recover. For some it sometimes goes that far that they get burnt-out, they have pushed themselves to the ultimate limit. There are different methods and treatments to recover but one very efficient treatment is to spend time in a rehabilitation garden. There the patients get treated by therapeutics that uses the garden as the main tool.The fact that gardens and parks have a positive effect on humans have been used by people for a long time but it?s not until recently that the research has taken speed.

The market for biofuels from the forests have had a positive development and the job initiators for this master´s thesis wanted to examine the profitability of a method for harvesting forest fuel, which was unfamiliar to them. The method was the ?long tree tops-method?, here called the LT-method. The LT-method is characterised by the fact that timber is harvested as the only roundwood assortment while the rest of the stem, which in other cases would become pulpwood, is harvested as forest fuel together with the logging residues. The method is based on the assumption that advantages in handling of the forest fuel assortment such as increased load weights for forest hauling and truck transportation, should compensate for the lower price for pulpwood when sold as forest fuel. The aim of the study was to compare the profitability of the LT-method with the GROT-method (harvest of timber, pulpwood and logging residues) and conventional logging without any harvest of forest fuel, and aslo to try to identify factors affecting the profitability of the different methods.

AimOur aim with this study was to examine how outdoor education is designed and experienced in three upper (senior) levels of compulsory school in Stockholm, and to compare it with the Norwegian equivalence.MethodOur method has been interviews with ten teachers, of whom six are Swedish teachers and four are Norwegian teachers. Two Swedish teachers are teaching in other subjects than Physical Education, four are teachers in Physical Education, two are teachers in Norway in Physical Education at and two are teachers in Norway at university level. Questionnaires were used to examine the Swedish pupils? attitudes towards outdoor education. 90 questionnaires were delivered, and 70 answered them.

This thesis is performed in cooperation with Prodelox AB and JTI (Swedish Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering). The purpose of the project is to generate and develop a WC-technique with a closet sewer that keeps a higher TS-substance than 1.5 %. The WC-technique is mainly directed towards permanent households in sparsely-populated areas and cabins. The goal is to generate concepts of toilets with an extremely low use of water in terms of flushing. The design should be appealing and touch more senses than only the visual.

Companies worldwide strive to reduce costs and capital tied up in stock. At the same time, the need for short delivery times requires efficient logistic flows. In order to meet customer demands an efficient warehouse activity is required.The purpose of this study is to develop a model for designing a warehouse system regarding to working environment and safety. The model is primarily designed and based on literature reviews of scientific articles and books, own knowledge and the authors previous work experience in the industry.The thesis has been done at Sandvik AB, the department Precision strip in Sandviken. Sandvik is a high-technology engineering group with advanced products and a world-leading positions within selected areas.

Sweden has a natural gas grid extending along the west coast, from Trelleborg to Stenungsund. There are also several smaller local networks where a planned natural gas pipeline from Skutskär to Hofors prompted the need for a comprehensive study. This study examines the linkages that exist in terms of technology and market of natural gas and biogas in Sweden. Sweden has set high targets for the future with ambition to become independent of coal and oil as energy sources. Since 1985, a part of the solution has been import of Danish natural gas.

AbstractThis degree project is about having meetings in The Swedish Social Insurance Agency, which is awide organisation. This work will concentrate on one of the projects going on within theorganisation which is travel-free meetings, where they are building a video meeting system thatallows the employees in the organisation to be able to meet with each other through the use ofvideoconferencing instead of physical meetings.In this work we will show how Kaikaku (radical system changes) along with Kaizen (continuouschange) can support an organisation to become more efficient and reduce wastage. We have donethis work in an organisation that is present in over one hundred locations in Sweden.The Social Insurance Agency has over 13 000 employees at over one hundred locations inSweden.The organisation has to be close to their customers and provide the best service aspossible. To be able to work in a uniform way, the employees get together and have meetings.Some meetings are just progress meetings and takes perhaps no more than two hours to complete.However, if seven employees from seven different locations need to have meetings, in the worstcase, they all have to meet in a common place.This is expensive for the organisation in travel costs, time and absence from work, but thetravelling also contributes to environmental pollution if the employees are travelling by a fuelpoweredvehicle.A whole day could go lost for having a meeting in about two hours if all sevenemployees went from their own cities to e.g. Stockholm for the meeting.Muda (wastage) of travel created several different types of Muda, namely:? Wastage with anticipation when the employees had to wait for e.g.

Background and problem: In the last few years the threat against the environment and especially the emissions of carbon dioxide has become increasingly debated. The government have set up a goal to lower the emissions of carbon dioxide with 40 percent until 2020 compared to the level in 1990. The emissions in the transportation sector have, in contrast to the total emissions, increased since 1990 and will continue to increase unless powerful control measures are implemented. The lorry centres have to use strategies to answer to these external threats which lead us to the two questions of this thesis: - What methods do the lorry centres use actively and which do they consider as the most important methods for fuel saving? - Are there any differences which methods small, medium and large centres considers as important? Purpose: The main purpose of this thesis is to examine which methods lorry centres use actively and which they consider as important for fuel saving.

Over the past one hundred years, there has been an increasing globalization and industrialization of the food systems. As a result, the distance between the production and the consumption of food has increased, both in time and space and in the minds of people. There is also an increasing concern for the environmental effects of industrial farming and the long distance transportation of food. Sustainable agriculture and efforts to build more sustainable food systems has emerged in opposition to the global food market. The definitions of sustainability usually include environmental, social and economical aspects. To build more localized food systems is seen as one way towards increased sustainability.

Our aim is to create a greater understanding for how Växjö Municipality is working with their vision, strategy and brand, and also how it is perceived by the business sector. This understanding will help us to highlight success factors and pitfalls that exist in the creation, implementation, and maintenance of a municipality?s identity, image and profile to convince the business sector to follow.Methodology: We have been using an abductive and qualitative research-method in which semi-structured interviews have been the basis of our empirical material. We had interviews with three employees, a communication manager and the mayor at Växjö Municipality as well as four organizations and two companies with sustainable focus. We did this to get different perspectives and thereby get a greater understanding.Analysis & conclusion: We have been able to identify both success factors and pitfalls in Växjö Municipality's strategic sustainability work.

The purpose of this study is to shed light on and describe Kramfors travel centers function and relationship to the surrounding urban environment, and how this core is experienced by residents and visitors. To do this, the use of the travel center, its relationship to Kramfors city center and the perception of it, as well as possible improvement areas has been studied.This has been examined using a quantitative method by designing a questionnaire and the usage of a research strategy through the implementation of a small-scale survey. Within this a cluster sampling was applied.The result shows that Kramfors travel centers is primarily used for traveling and is used most frequently by the visitors within the study. It is also shown that residents 'primary reason for traveling from the travel center is friends and family, followed by shopping, and that the visitors' primary motive for traveling is friends and family as well, followed by work. The mode of transportation between the travel center and destinations are mainly walking, while the mode of transport between homes and the travel center proves to be the car.

Background: Today, It?s not uncommon that international companies and organizations have a higher turnover than the GDP of developing countries. Consequently, this may suggest that the choices companies make in the context of their business has a great potential to influence the world from an economic, but also from a social and environmental standpoint. From this the notion emerged that companies have a responsibility, referred to as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). A clear definition of the CSR concept is difficult to find, more than 37 different definitions has been identified.