To purchase a house or an apartment is often one of the major personal financial commitments for a person. In 2005, 84% of the homeowners sold their homes using a estate agency. During 2006 several new opportunities appeared on the market, giving the homeowners more of a choice in what way to sell their homes. Media describes the alternatives in general ?as the agents on the Internet?.

This thesis examines the tendering process from the point of view of Swedish building contractors. The purpose with the study is to chart the decision process for the contractors during the tendering process. The study is designed as a survey study. This made it possible to reach a wide base of respondents, not letting such factors as geography being an issue. The survey itself was characterised by a very high response rate compared to other similar studies. The result from this study shows that former experience from similar projects, current workload and the clients economic condition are very important factors for both whether or not the contractor will bid for a project as well as the cost estimation and tendering price. Former experience from similar projects is also an important factor for the determination of the indirect costs.

This master thesis was performed as a mission from Holmen Skog with the purpose to investigate to which extent their own machine teams and engaged contractors were exposed to theft and vandalism, and most common preventive measures used. With the help of collected data the study should lead to proposals of preventive measures that can help the machine teams in their struggle to minimise theft and vandalism. Theft and vandalism are a big problem for Swedish forest contractors. In a scarce economic situation thefts and vandalism rapidly decrease the profit for the contractors. However, the last years have resulted in a positive awareness of thefts, and more and better preventive measures have been developed. With the initiative of this master thesis, Holmen Skog show that they are aware of the situation and that they wish to take control of the problem. A total amount of 108 questionnaires was sent out to Holmen?s own machine teams and engaged contractors.

Inköpsorganisationen har varit och är föremål för förändring. Vid sidan av denna förändring har Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) utvecklats. TCO sträcker sig bortom inköpspriset och innefattar enligt Degraeve et al. (2005a) alla kostnader relaterade till anskaffningen och kostnaderna användningen av en vara eller tjänst medför genom ett företags hela värdekedja. Utifrån en tillhandahållen förståelse för kostnaderna ett företag ådrar sig utifrån etablerade leverantörsrelationer kan TCO fördelaktigt användas vid valet av leverantörer och till att utvärdera prestandan av leverantörer.

Tappningsstrategin för Vänern ändrades i ett beslut från Länsstyrelsen i Västra Götalands län och Vattenfall AB, på uppdrag av regeringen år 2008. Detta gjordes för att minska risken för översvämningar i Vänern.  Åtgärden var föreslagen av Klimat- och sårbarhetsutredningen, som försökt utreda konsekvenser av klimatförändringar för Vänern i ett framtida förändrat klimat. I utredningen används en metod för att mäta kostnader. Metoden är en kostnads-nytto-analys (Cost-Benefit-Analysis; CBA) som användes för att utvärdera bland annat Vänern med omnejd. Enligt denna uppsats saknas det värdering för naturmiljö och sociala faktorer i denna utredning.

In hydropower plants it is necessary to always have local power supply. Therefore, the plants are equipped with batteries as stationary back up power. Vattenfall Vattenkraft is using lead acid batteries but has been investigating alternatives to replace them. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential of using Li-ion technology as back up power.The study showed that Li-ion batteries have many qualities. The Li-ion technology will decrease the space and maintenance demand.

The world economy of today is in an extensive financial crisis which has lead to the fact that people seek well placed investments and securing of capital, something that by many people can be found in forest investment. The price of forest estates has increased with 90 % during the last 5 years and marketing polls indicate a positive belief in the future among forest owners. The development of timber prices has not increased to the same extent as the forest property prices which implies that the property price not only reflect the yield value from the forest but also that the lumber value does not have such a meaningful role in the pricing of forest properties as proven earlier. This fact means that forest owners either invest their capital in forest in a speculative point of view or that the purchasers of forest properties invests in non monetary benefits that lacks a direct yield value. The purpose with this degree thesis is to increase the understanding of the pricing of forest properties with focus on the above mentioned fact.

During the past few years an increased attention has been paid to environmental issues in the construction and property sector in Sweden. In order to simplify the work with these issues a Swedish environmental certification system for buildings called Miljöbyggnad has been developed. This thesis aims to investigate the opinion of a selected number of selected property owners of Miljöbyggnad. From that basis recommendations and actions for the future work with the system will be presented.The investigation has been conducted through personal interviews with five property owners. The main issues that the interviews have been based on are their purpose, experiences, perceived complications and future prospects in terms of certification using Miljöbyggnad.The system intends to be cost-effective, simple and to offer a relevant environmental assessment of buildings and the result from the report indicates that this is largely fulfilled.

The southern part of Sweden, Skåne, is frequently exposed to storms causing great damage to Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst.) stands. A storm during the winter 1999/2000 raised the attention of the problem. A lot of forest owners got large areas of spruce stands wind thrown during this storm. Can naturally regenerated birch (Betula sp.) be an alternative on these wind-exposed sites? This was the main question I was facing when discussilig the problems with Esben Möller Madsen, Söderåsens forest district. The aim of this master thesis was to present an economic analysis of Norway spruce versus birch.

In 2009 The National Land Survey of Sweden, Lantmäteriet, commenced a project intended to provide a new digital elevation model (DEM) of Sweden. The method chosen for the project was airborne laser scanning (ALS). In addition to information about the land surface the project will also provide information about the forest, this as a by-product. This data can be used to estimate forest variables such as height and volume. The estimates are often more reliable than what is standard today. This study is based on interviews with employees and members of the forest owner association Södra in southern Sweden.

Social media is by many believed to be the core of a new type of Public Relations. This new PR is called PR 2.0. Most larger companies today are to be find using dif- ferent types of social media to interact with their publics. Each year companies invest more money in this type of digital public relations. Social media is a relatively new online phenomenon and still used at a very early stage.

The sludgebark and to a certain extent the bark were until a decade ago waste products without any economic value that were thrown away. A number of environmental laws and increcing energy prices have improved the prerequisites for increasing the use of these materials. At Seskarö sawmill they burn the sludgebark and a great deal of the bark in the sawmill furnace. The sludgebark has a number of disadvantages compared to bark during burning. The sludgebark is often wet which means the energy net from burning often gets low.

In this report focus is put on the combustion process at a cement plant. Combustion is the heart of the cement making process and absolutely crucial to have under full control and well optimized. The fuel is put into the process through a burner pipe and this burner pipe is modified to reach a more efficient combustion. The primary target is to enable burning of heterogeneous alternative fuels and increase the production level. Other positive effects from this type of optimization is lowered specific fuel consumption and lowered CO2 emissions. A redundant burner is chosen for the project and overall the project steps are the following: 1. Installing a Jet air nozzle ring in a way so it can move both axially and radially due to temperature changes. 2.

To increase the knowledge about the growth of hazel (Corylus avellana)and size distribution of the shoots, circumference and stem diameter wasmeasured in a total of 54 clones in two areas in Östergötland. Further, thewidth of growth rings was determined for separate years. The diameter ofthe stems was measured both out from the centre of the stem andperpendicular to the first measure. The stems showed only a weaktendency to have an oval shape (with the longest side outwards from thecentre). The growth model did not improve when the degree of sunlightof clones was taken into the account.

In the future the Swedish pension system will face major problems. With an increasing aging population combined with a decreasing share of working population the financing of the pension system is becoming a bigger problem than previously predicted. This means the individual himself will have a bigger responsibility to invest money for their future retirement. It has been shown that a large proportion of the people who invests for their future pension have neither the interest nor the time to actively invest their pension capital. To make it easier for those who invest for their retirement, some Swedish banks have created so-called generation funds.