Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to adjusting corporate goals so that they are not only based on maximizing corporate profits, but include ethical standards on socially desirable behavior (Boatright, 2008). Even though many companies have integrated CSR into their business operations, there are still many issues that are difficult to tackle. Especially Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in the global business environment face many challenging situations due to the fact that they often have linkages to countries where the local government is either unwilling or unable to take care of its responsibilities. MNCs often find themselves with increased responsibilities when they start solving some of the issues that earlier have been the sole responsibility of states. A specific case situation discussed in this paper is related to ?conflict minerals?.

Since Muhammad Yunus, founder of the microloansorganization Grameen Bank, was awardedthe Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, the microloansorganization has received much attention. Thewoman has come to play a central role in the microloansorganizations. Her access to capital isis considered to improve her socioeconomic status. The overall aim of the paper is to examinehow access to microcredit considered leading to empowerment of women. To get an idea ofwhat a microloansorganization is the Grameen Bank is used as an example.

The release of green house gases and the environmental impacts humans have on the environment are huge and might cause irreversible changes to our earth. Meat is considered to have large impacts on the environment, especially beef meat and therefore there have lately been considerable discussions on the sustainable level of meat consumption and production. The main goal with this thesis is to study sustainable meat production and meat consumption in the county of Dalarna in Sweden. Indicators for sustainable meat production and meat consumption were developed and applied on three cases. Interviews were carried out with a municipality in the region that represents the consumer and three beef farmers that represents the producers.

The Healthcheck is an evaluation of the 2003 years reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). When the Healthcheck of CAP is decided, most likely in the beginning of 2009, there will be a discussion about how CAP will appear in the next budget period 2013. One main question in the Healthcheck is how the farm support will be designed. A suggestion that has arised is if todays addition amount for dairy- and beef production should be transferred to the fundamental farm support. In this exam theses calculations has been done in created typical farms in every Swedish support region for cereals-, dairy- and beef production.

This study evaluates the retention of nitrogen and phosphorus in four newly constructed wetlands in the municipality of Falkenberg, Sweden. The four wetlands have been selected because they have been specifically constructed with the aim to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus in farming areas. The process of selecting the specific wetlands has been done in collaboration with the county administration in Halland. Through field studies in collaboration with the landowners where the wetlands are sited, the areas that provide the wetlands with water were determined. The size of these drainage areas were determined in a GIS computer program. The type of land use within the drainage areas was also determined.

I januari 2009 trädde en gemenskapsrättlig förordning i kraft som reglerar tillämplig lag vid utomobligatoriskt skadestånd, den s.k. Rom II-förordningen. Inom ramen för denna uppsats analyseras hur Rom II påverkar lagvalet vid sjörättliga tvister och särskilt vid fartygskollisioner.Enligt huvudregeln i artikel 4 (1) Rom II stadgas att lagen i den stat där den direkta skadan uppkommer skall tillämpas på tvisten. Bestämmelsen innehåller två undantag, dels artikel 4 (2) som stadgar lagen i det land där skadelidande och skadevållare har sin vistelseort, dels artikel 4 (3) med ett allmänt undantag för det fall det finns en uppenbart närmare anknytning till ett annat land.Enligt tidigare sjörättspraxis hade flaggans lag en central betydelse vid lagvalet. I och med att artikel 4 (2) pekar ut lagen i det land där skadelidande och skadevållare har sin vistelseort, vilket rörande juridiska personer förtydligas i artikel 23, blir platsen för den centrala förvaltningen avgörande.

Idag kämpar företag för att överleva på den hårt konkurrerande marknaden och den ökade globaliseringen har gjort att många företag väljer att söka lyckan i ett annat land. Flera företag väljer idag att lägga hela eller delar av sin verksamhet i andra länder. I och med en etablering i ett främmande land kommer företaget att möta en helt ny och främmande kultur och nya affärsbeteenden. Kulturskillnader kan vara ett centralt problem som kan ställa till med svårigheter för företaget och de anställda. Syftet med denna undersökning var att få en ökad förståelse för hur svenska medarbetare i en svensk organisation i Thailand upplever eventuella kulturskillnader mellan Sverige och Thailand.

This study was about disability organisations opinion concerning ICF: s importance in their work to receive the same recognition and human rights for their members as citizens. The aim has been to elucidate disability organisations awareness about and use/non use of ICF and to increase the understanding of ICF: s importance for recognition and redistribution. Three different methods have been used: literature study, questionnaire survey, both on counties' (27) - and national (26) level and interviews (5) on national level. There is also a distinct difference between the disability organisations that represents people with visible impairments, who don?t think that ICF is so useful and they that represent people with invisible impairments, who thinks that ICF is a useful tool.

Sverige befann sig i en tid där andra världskriget fortfarande var i färskt minne. Geografiskt ligger landet centralt placerad mellan två supermakter, och det råder en spänd stämning i det internationella säkerhetspolitiska läget. Det svenska luftrummet har en stor strategisk betydelse i en internationell kontext. Med förtroendeskapande löften om alliansfrihet och ett avskräckande initiativ i form en av världens starkaste flygvapen försöker Sverige hålla sig utanför eventuella väpnade konflikter. Alliansfrihet syftande till neutralitet i krig är den officiella säkerhetspolitiska ställning Sverige har haft i nästan 200 år, och inte minst under två världskrig.

The purpose of this Master Thesis has been to investigate the possibilities for a new type of noise reduction solution that could decrease the negative effects resulting from larger traffic roads. The idea has been to construct a noise barrier with a roof ? like a tunnel placed on a road. The choice of material has been focused on transparent materials in order to lower visual intrusion and barrier effects. This project idea is called the Noise tunnel.After having investigated the current offer of noise solutions, it has been concluded that these solutions rarely provide a sufficient level of noise reduction ? at least not when government regulations of acceptable noise levels are applied.

How do the administrators of nature reserves experience the communication with the land owners concerned? The article is a qualitative study within the environmental communication subject. The study has been performed through qualitative interviews with administrators of nature reserves. Being in action the administrators must know how to communicate with people. The result of the study shows the administrators lack a language to describe their experience of the communication with the landowners. .

The aim of the following paper has been to test the democratic peace theory through applying it on the conflict between Russia and Georgia in 2008.  This to either falsify the theory or come to the conclusion that the states? democracy was not satisfactory in regards to the definition of liberal democracy. The questions asked are: Was Russia and Georgia democratic states? Is democracy a protection from war? And which aspects of the liberal democratic theory, if any, were not satisfactory in either of the countries? The results show that the democratic peace theory is valid in this case and that neither one of the states were democratic.

The City of Gothenburg has an urgent need to upgrade its public transport. The capacity of its light rail transit (LRT) has reached maximum capacity within the inner city limits years ago. The construction of an underground metro will be very expensive and time consuming due to the soft clay beneath the city. The apparent need of developing another type of mass rapid transit (MRT) is urgent. An elevated metro have turned out to be a success in Greater Vancouver, but is it possible for the system to operate well in Gothenburg with its narrow streets and current land use; will its route coexist with the current LRT or will the noise disturb people too much?.

As a small and land scarce country, effective waste management is ofoutmost importance in Singapore. In this study the production of biogasthrough anaerobic digestion from the organic fraction of municipal solidwaste (OFMSW) was compared to incineration of the waste. At the momentalmost all of the OFMSW in Singapore is incinerated. Three differentscenarios were compared to the reference scenario (incineration): one with alarge scale biogas plant that can treat half of all OFMSW in Singapore, onewith a medium scale biogas plant about 15 times smaller than the large oneand one with a small scale biogas plant that can treat waste from e.g. ashopping center or a food center.By using life cycle assessment (LCA) the different scenarios were comparedin terms of global warming potential (GWP), acidification, eutrophication,energy use and land use.

Eutrophication of lakes and streams are nowadays a well known environmental problem and implies an enrichment of the nutrients phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N). Phosphorus is considered to be the most important component for the growth of aquatic plants and leads in too large quantities to an intensification of growth. Phosphate (PO4) is the fraction of phosphorus that can easiest be taken up by plants and thus have the greatest impact on eutrophication. Increased plant growth in lakes and unfavorable conditions for aquatic animals are two examples of negative consequences. A significant portion of the increased nutrient supply to nearby water can be derived to phosphate leaching from agricultural areas, where private sewers and agriculture is two main sources.