The aim of this study was to investigate how mothers in families with strong patriarchal traditionssee their role as a mother and as a woman. The study is built upon two main questions: What arethe expectations of your family and your immediate environment on you as a mother and as awoman? And what does ?honour? mean for you as a mother and as a woman? In our paper wehad as a starting point a gender perspective that was further on applied in defining our researchquestion. We are also giving an account of the phenomenological perspective that we also had asa basis of our work. We interviewed six mothers living in families with strong patriarchaltraditions.

The latest thing in the area of environmental building today is energy-plus-house. The idea behind the energy-plus-house is to create a house that produces more energy than it consumes. To accomplish this, the house uses renewable energy, in this particular case solar energy. With the help from a proper construction and thoughtfully projected installations you can achieve a surplus of energy. The surplus energy can then be sold to the surrounding buildings and thereby conduce to a financial profit for the household.

The scope of this investigation is to decide how and to what extent the energy consumption of apassive house is affected by the users? knowledge and habits. To achieve this a literary study hasbeen made and as a complement the planning of a passive house was completed.The result of a primary study of the rules and regulations that effect passive houses in Swedenshows that the user?s influence on passive houses is a completely unregulated area. Even thoughthere is no regulation, a need for some general knowledge of the passive house concept has beenexpressed.To further investigate how the users? knowledge and habits affect the energy consumption and ifthere is a difference between different households? energy consumption , three main factors havebeen identified.

Today all buildings contain some form of home automation. It might be heating controlled by athermostat or motion detectors controlling outdoor lighting.This paper,The Intelligent House, deals with the planning of a house in Kiruna, in the north ofSweden and further immerses itself in home automation or intelligent control in single-familyhomes. The house has been entirely planned, from layout to structural design and plumbing.The purpose of the paper has been to investigate the possibilities in home automation in singlefamilyhomes and to choose a suitable home automation system for the house being planned.The system has been designed and the costs and energy savings have been calculated.The system chosen for the house is called KNX and is the largest system for home automation inSweden. It is used to control heating, ventilation, lighting and alarm systems in the house. Is hasbeen found that KNX is very expensive and that the amount of energy, possible to save in thehouse, using the system, is relatively small.

The competition amongst companies is getting tougher and the economic markets are getting even bigger with new products and businesses. One way for companies to differentiate themselves from the competitors is through packaging design. If the merchandise is to send a reliable and solid message to consumers, the attributes of the packaging must be consistent and uniform. If the different attributes are not coherent, the message loses credibility towards the consumer. Through the sent messages, the pack signals the products? expected quality and price.This paper includes two studies, in which the main objective is to discover and build understanding about Swedish consumers? perception of a product?s price depending on the pack?s design.

This qualitative study was conducted to investigate how subordination and superiority emerges in the interaction between heterosexual couples between 20 to 30 years old, without children. Eight semi-structured interviews with four couples have been conducted to provide insight into how subordination and superiority is made in the interaction between the cohabiting couples. All interviews were transcribed and then manually categorized along specific main themes and sub themes. The empirical data were then assayed by a hermeneutic interpretation.   Three previous studies have formed the basis for this study, Det kallas kärlek by Carin Holmberg, the anthology, Jämställdhetens pris and Familjer i tiden by Christine Roman and Helen Peterson. The theoretical framework consists symbolic interactionism, and especially the concept of asymmetrical role-taking and also doing gender.

This paper investigates, through an actor-network theory perspective, how the recreation area Lo?vsta-Kyrkhamn-Riddersvik northwest of Stockholm has developed from being a dumping site into becoming a nature reserve. This investigation also tries to describe and explain which values that have been promoted in the area by the local voluntary associations and companies. Lo?vsta-Kyrkhamn-Riddersvik has been inhabited for more than 3000 years, originally with farming as the most important business.

A study was made to evaluate how current measurementscould help to determine how particles from fish farms are dispersed. During sixweeks of the summer 2012, two different current measurements were conducted.One of them consisted of measurements each fifth minute at 5 m and 15 m atthree locations for 14-16 days each. The other consisted of profilemeasurements at each location at four times during the period of six weeks. Forthe current measurements two instruments (model RCM 9) were used. A two weekmeasurement can give enough data to make an evaluation of how the currents at alocation will transport litter from a fish farm.

Chemical substances are spread diffusely and uncontrollably as a result of the increased consumption of goods. REVAQ is a certification system that works to reduce the flow of hazardous substances to Swedish treatment plants and to create a sustainable nutrient recycling. According to REVAQ, the yearly accumulating rate of metals should not exceed 0.2% in soil per year. Silver and bismuth are two metals that do not fulfill this requirement. The silver concentration in sludge decreased during the last decade, however the last few years, it has leveled off.

Rooted in Industrial Ecology (IE) theory, this report evaluates how urban agricultural concepts and techniques, can contribute to improved ecological sustainability within the inner city boundaries of Stockholm. An overarching literary study as well as an interview was carried out, resulting in a qualitative analysis followed by suggestions for practical implementations. A substantial convergence was found between the eco-restructuring objectives of IE and the principal motives for urban agriculture. Consequently, eco-restructuring objectives are found in varying degrees in the presented urban agricultural techniques. Industrial symbioses, permaculture and combinations of urban agricultural techniques are tools which are capable of corresponding adequately to the diversity of urban settings.

The Smart Grid technology has during the last decade been established as a way to create a greater flexibility on the electricity grid that will be needed as the development moves towards an increased share of renewable primary energy sources in the electricity production. One part of the Smart Grid technology is the ability to shift loads in time, to adapt to either price or emissions, known as Demand Response. This project, which was conducted at KTH in collaboration with the consulting corporation Capgemini, examines the economic, environmental and social aspects of the Demand Response technology. In the project, three household products are used in a model that derives the potential savings in costs and emissions of CO2e. The results show that the actual savings measured in SEK are small, but that the savings measured in percent can be as high as 20 percent. Reduction of CO2e emissions is slightly lower.

Environmental impact and management of energy is a highly topical issue in today's society. Climate impact must be reduced. The Government has set a target to reduce energy consumption in buildings by 20 % by 2020 and 50 % by 2050 compared to the energy use in 1995.With this in mind, we chose to examine how property owners can work on improving energy efficiency in existing apartment buildings. We also wanted to investigate profitability of different increasing energy efficiency measures and the calculation methods and the risk assessment performed by such investments. To tie in with government objectives, we also saw the possibilities of achieving these goals.20 companies were interviewed, of which 14 were property owners and 6 were consulting firms that works with energy efficiency.

The aim of my thesis was to do a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of an average thread tap that is manufactured by Dormer Tools AB, and to create a practical model that the company can use in order to study other thread taps from an environmental perspective.The method of LCA is used to investigate the environmental effects of a product during its life cycle. This is a gate-to-grave analysis with focus on steel and thread tap manufacturing, coating procedure, use, waste management and transports. Three common coating types were compared separately. Steel manufacturing answers for the highest energy and raw material consumption under the life cycle of the thread tap. Its emissions contribute to global warming, acidification and eutrophication above others.

The Smart Grid technology has during the last decade been established as a way to create a greater flexibility on the electricity grid that will be needed as the development moves towards an increased share of renewable primary energy sources in the electricity production. One part of the Smart Grid technology is the ability to shift loads in time, to adapt to either price or emissions, known as Demand Response. This project, which was conducted at KTH in collaboration with the consulting corporation Capgemini, examines the economic, environmental and social aspects of the Demand Response technology. In the project, three household products are used in a model that derives the potential savings in costs and emissions of CO2e. The results show that the actual savings measured in SEK are small, but that the savings measured in percent can be as high as 20 percent. Reduction of CO2e emissions is slightly lower.

This project was conducted on behalf of the organization SABO (Swedish Association of Public Housing Companies). The aim of this project was to investigate which relevant environmental aspects and indicators there are for housing companies to present in their sustainability report. The project consists of three main goals: to decide if there is a need for common guidelines when conducting a sustainability report, determine appropriate environmental indicators and to create a simple model of how the companies can present them. This was done by a literature study, analysis of 13 sustainability reports and interviews with seven housing companies. The result of the project suggests that there is a need for common guidelines to, among other things, make it easier to make a comparison with other companies.