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.

In order to answer the question in the title, a cross-cultural analysis of two countries was done. Countries chosen were the Republic of Latvia and the Kingdom of Spain. The need for this research was suggested by increased cross-border business activities inside the European Union, and the lack of previous studies involving new Member States. The aim of the research was to see what environmental factors influence advertising adaptation in the European Union, as well as to evaluate the applicability of a standardisation approach. According to the theory, there are three external factors that influence the creation of a global advertising.

The gathered texts and letters from Ali Ibn Abi Talib, found in the book Nahjul Balagha,constitute one of the most important writings of Shiite Islam, next the hadits and the Quran.Imam Ali´s ethics and moral approach in Nahjul Balagha, is considered by imam Ali, to beseen as a guideline for both individual purposes as for any kind of governance. The esotericteachings, about truth and justice in Nahjul Balagha, should therefore probably have been of agreat concern to Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic revolution.This essay will from an deductive approach, on a relatively contemporary historic event, try toanalyze Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini´s interpreting on imam Ali´s texts and preaching inNahjul Balagha. The Islamic revolution, as the Islamic Republic of Iran, led by AyatollahKhomeini, was confirmed as both brutal and violent. My ambition in this essay, will there forconcern a possible interpreting on justice and political rule, from Ayatollah Khomeini and theIslamic Republic of Iran, on imam Ali´s teachings in Nahjul Balagha..

The Baltic Sea is threatened by eutrophication that largely is due to nutrient leaching from farmland within the catchment area. To solve this problem the surrounding countries cooperate within various configurations such as HELCOM and the EU-financed project Baltic Compass. Poor manure management in Russia has been discussed frequently the last couple of years. A literature review of different types of reports and legal acts is the core of this degree project which has been performed in connection to two ongoing research projects financed by EU (Baltic Compass) and SIDA. It is supplemented with interviews with Swedish agricultural consultants and travel reports from two occasions when I had the opportunity to discuss with Russians active within the agricultural sector. Different hypotheses were investigated and discussed. The environmental debate in Russia is quiet and there is a widespread approach that economic profit always trumps environmental concern ? a Soviet heritage that influence the Russian agriculture considerably. The Russian legal acts on stable manure management focus mainly on sanitary questions and only secondary on nutrient leaching.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how investments are justified in the Swedish data center industry, with a focus on cooling equipment. This is achieved through semi-structured interviews with 20 different interviewees. These interviewees represent different facets of the industry and facilitate an understanding of which factors, such as: investment costs, operating costs, reliability, environmental impact and the influence of external and internal actors, come into play and to which degree they impact the investment decision-making process. The results show that primarily low operating cost in the form of low energy consumption is the driving factor when it comes to the procurement of new equipment. A lower environmental impact is a positive side-effect of lower energy consumption.

Corporate Social Responsibility has been defined as the responsibility towards stakeholders and the society in whole and the expression was founded in the 1950´s. Reporting in corporate social responsibility has been termed corporate social disclosure and has been divided into three areas: environment, ethics and human resources. The aim of this study is to explain variations in corporate social disclosure and the different media used by corporations to communicate these disclosures. A survey was conducted, which included all Swedish corporations listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, and all public-owned corporations. The results show that corporate characteristics such as size, industry and profitability can explain some of the variation in social disclosures and also have an effect on the extent and variation of the media used.

The national spatial planning guidelines and the subsequent legal regulation in the Natural Resources Act and the Environmental Code has been a part of the Swedish planning system for almost 40 years. In the recent years, critics have claimed that the regulations are outdated and does not work the way it was intended. This paper examines closer why it is perceived that the regulations does not work, with a focus on how the national interests are managed in the municipal planning. Why is the national interests not applied in the municipal planning as intended? Is the error in the system or in the implementation of it? The aim of this essay is to study the gap between theory and practice by studying how the land management provisions in the Environmental Code is applied in five selected municipalities.

In a business environment where the stakeholder perspective is evolving and sustainable development is receiving increased attention, it is of importance for companies to adjust. The demand and pressure is exerted from several stakeholders who force companies to take action and live up to the expectations because if failing to do so, negative consequences will most likely be the case. The attention of this study is on ABB Power Products (ABB PP) and their environment and working environment risk management. The aim of this thesis is to identify and describe how perceived environmental risks are managed and what the incentives are to work proactively to minimize the risks. The incentives for a proactive risk management strategy are researched through both a strategic and operational perspective.

This essay deals with a picture-stone that was found in a pre Christian grave during the archaeological excavations of the Viking Age harbour and trading place at Fröjel parish, Gotland, in 1999. The stone is at least 100 years older then the male grave in which it was found. The picture-stone can be dated to  late 8th century or early 9th century, and the grave is probably from the late 10th century. One of the main questions in this essay is why the people of that time re-used an older picture-stone in a younger burial. I believe that the stone was reused as a grave-gift.

Decomposition of organic matter is a critical process in the ecosystem, which involves many essential biotic and physical parts. Decomposition is therefore an important process both above and below ground. The rate of decomposition is dependent of many environmental factors for example: pH, moisture and supply of oxygen. The decomposition can therefore be affected by large scaled environmental influences, such as acidification and climatic changes. The root litter in the forest is in different ways affected by acidification, liming and manuering.

Denna uppsats handlar om hur den särskilda tillåtlighetsregeln i 11 kap. 6 § miljöbalken tillämpas vid tillståndsprövning av vattenverksamheter. Av paragrafen följer att en vattenverksamhet endast får bedrivas om den samlade nyttan av verksamheten överväger de kostnader samt skador och olägenheter som verksamheten medför. Syftet med paragrafen är att hindra vattenverksamheter som inte är samhällsekonomiskt motiverade samt utgöra ett extra skydd för miljön utöver miljöbalkens generella miljökrav.Syftet med studien är undersöka hur denna paragraf tillämpas i praktiken ? både i rättspraxis och i ansökningsförfarandet.

According to the Water Framework Directive of the European Union, macrophytes should be used as indicators in the ecological and environmental monitoring of lakes. In the member state Sweden the Environmental Protection Agency has elaborated assessment criteria for determining lake status based on macrophytes. The main focus of this thesis is to evaluate the efficiency of the assessment criteria for macrophytes. In addition the concordance between the ecological status classes of the four quality factors included was analysed.The assessment criteria for macrophytes are based on the total phosphorus preference of the respective species. The focus is thus mainly on the nutrient level of the investigated lakes and the environmental problem monitored is eutrophication.

Before the autumn term 2011 the Swedish compulsory school adopted new syllabuses in relation to, inter alia, religion. Changes within the religion topic have historically been a heavily debated issue among decision-makers, interest groups and the church, where the role of the Christianity has been particularly controversial.The main purpose of this study is therefore to investigate how the Swedish compulsory school?s teaching of Christianity has changed over the years. I have in order to conduct this study applied a descriptive method as well as a content analysis. The Swedish compulsory school?s current and historical syllabuses in religion have served as basis for this study.The outcome of this study clearly shows that the Christianity has received less influence to the benefit of other topics.

This study is a degree project in environmental engineering at Mälardalens university. Its purpose has been to perform a risk assessment on whether or not any contaminations are present in the soil at two properties in Köping. The assessment was to be done accordingly to a method that has been set up by The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket). The method for investigation of contaminated sites is called MIFO. MIFO consists of two stages.

Title: Process description of round timber transports ? a case study at Tra?frakt Go?taland ABAuthors: Karl ? Johan Tern, Christian Johansson and Andreas IvarssonTutor: Anders JerrelingExaminer: Fredrik KarlssonBackground: Today the profitability of forest haulers is unsatisfactory. Negotiations on prices are more about the relative strength of the negotiation parties rather than a discussion about actual costs. Adding extensive changes in the forest haulers cost structure has led to insufficient knowledge of whether the negotiated prices really correspond to their costs.Methodology: We decided to carry out a case study at Tra?frakt Go?taland AB, a special interest organisation whose members represent the majority of forest haulers in Go?taland.Purpose: To describe the processes and underlying activities of round timber transports.