Public concern and the need of responsible way of doing business have brought forward the issue of sustainability at the forefront of discussion in the last decade. Even though, food retailers are playing an important role in the economy, they are exposed for criticism by media and consumers for any socially and environmentally irresponsible business practices because, the potential environmental and social impacts from their operations are significant. These impacts need to be recognized and properly addressed. The main objective of this study was to assess the sustainable business management of a cooperative food retail business in Sweden, known as Konsum Värmland (KV). The necessary data and information on history and status of KV, and its practical activities concerning the implementation of sustainable development programs as well as the motivation and challenges encountered by KV during the implementation were gathered via reviewing different documents, research papers and press releases; interviewing decision makers and other personnel in KV and other researchers from Swedish University of Agricultural University who have investigated KV.

The number of elderly in Sweden is increasing due to improved living conditions and better medical care. It is important that society adapts to the increase and begins to work preventively to reduce the costs of the increase. An important aspect is the elderly accommodation, the cost of health care in specific accommodation is almost twice as high as those for ordinary housing. Therefore, it is important that we availability adapt dwelling to allow older people to live in ordinary housing for as long as they wish, instead of moving to assisted living before they need it. If we can fulfil the elder?s needs with home care instead, society can save a lot of money.In this report, three different forms of housing has undergone accessibility increases and been inventoried and analysed.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze and understand the effects that a recession can have on a company?s marketing department. In times of a recession most companies have less means to promote their products to their target market and to build their brand. This means that cutting the marketing budget will show some effects on today?s way of marketing.

This degree project has been carried out in cooperation with Enertech AB in Ljungby and is pilot study to automating all current manual soldering. The soldering process accounts for a large part of the processing cost in the production of a heat pump. The process is also a quality risk and has a major impact on the lifetime of the final product.The Main task of this project has been to evaluate automation of the soldering process, to develop automation solutions and a principle layout, to draw the design changes required for the automation and to calculate the supposed solution.This pilot study has resulted in a suggested automation solution using laser as a heat source for soldering. Calculations of the solution show that a automating a laser soldering cell is very profitable..

The purpose of this essay is to identify the costs of illness in different organizations, and compare the calculated result with the actual result in their annual reports.We collected information thru interviews with the personnel manager in the selected organizations, and used the annual reports to add necessary information.When we applied our model, we found that the selected organizations, in some cases, have a cost of illnes which is up to seven times higher than shown in their annual reports. It?s, in general, the costs that aren?t related to the salary (additional costs), which are much higher than shown.The absence of a model that calculates the costs of illnes can result in wrongful decisions. If a model would be applied in an organization, it should increase the awearness of the actual costs of illnes, which can lead to better decisions througout the whole organization.This report is written in Swedish..

Road transports stand for a great part of Sweden?s total CO2-emissions. Transports are expected to increase over the coming years, and with those the emissions. A greater environmental awareness leads to increased demands for environmentally friendly transport. The aim of this thesis is to study the consequences of changing transportation modes from road to railway.

The Rya power plant in Borås produces district heating, district cooling and electricity. The plant is owned by Borås Energi och Miljö AB and is run by Dalkia Facility Management AB.In order to get the best heat exchange from the district hot water a pair of twin pumps and a turbine circuit pump are used as return pumps. Turbine circuit pumps are used to increase the pressure through the heat exchangers at the power plant. The pumps are in use when the flow is over 2 000 m3 h-1 and during the summer when re-cooling is used to improve the effectivens of the heat boilers.Since the pumps, that are parallel connected, rotating at a fixed rate per minute, the pressure is regulated with regulating valves. This report shows that during the 4,300 hours that the pumps where in use, energy corresponding to 590 MWh was wasted.

The aim of this report is to give a concise description of curtain walls, what it is and why they are used. It is also a description of six different but commonly used design technologies. By giving a detailed description of the different types and there special properties, the pros and cons will be clarified. The three most interesting alternatives were selected to be included in a test, to show the best alternative from a certain point of view.The parameters are:? Environment? Cost? Ergonomics? Isolation against noise and fire? DurabilityThese are important parameters in the planning and design phase.

Modern forestry requires a high degree of machine traffic for clear felling and scarification operations. The machines most frequently used are big and the traffic often results in tracks on the forest ground. There are many small streams running through a forest, in connection to logging operations, machines might cross these frequently. These crossings could result in the erosion of fine particulate inorganic matter, which ends up in the stream. The aim of this thesis was to give a general description of small forest streams of order-one in the county of Värmland and to determine the frequency of machine tracks in small streams.

The purpose of the study is to highlight the issue of student loans securitization, and assure the importance and benefits that could be realized by performing such a transaction. The methodology is a case study for The National Board of Student Aid. It is a qualitative study, mainly using interviews, literature and scientific articles. By using this information we construct a securitization transaction structure ?CSN 2006-1?, and conduct a cost/benefit analysis.

Many wood living insects are considered threatened by modern forestry due to the reduction in amount of dead wood. During the last decade various methods have been used to enhance the quantity of dead wood in managed forests. However little is known how and if these methods are aiding saproxylic insects. The threatened tenebrionid beetle, Upis ceramboides, is already extinct in southern Sweden. It develops in white rotted dead birch (Betula spp) and requires sun-exposed sites.

In order to suggest improvements for the logistics of STARKA, we felt that we had to analyze all the activities which were related to STARKA's logistic processes. Our primary analysis consisted of a rough but comprehensive description of different functions in the company, and the relationship between them. This was performed by following a typical order through the company to see which functions were affected by the order.Since we needed a more thorough view of the company, we decided to analyze the different products STARKA currently has on the market, focusing on economic data such as turn-over, profit, profit margin, deficiency cost and cost of warehousing. We also analyzed the company's choice of manufacturing processes, organization, warehousing processes, strengths and weaknesses.These analyses gave us a clear understanding of the company and its processes. STARKA is a small, function oriented company with a wide range of products.

The purpose of this Master Thesis is to analyze what suitable hardware platforms there are on the market in order to build a low price control and information system for mobile applications, called small display module. The thesis will be underlying material for making a decision for further development. The result of the thesis consists mainly of a Windows CE kernel and a schematic for a CPU card, on which it would be suitable to build the display module. Another major part of the report is the introduction of different techniques that could be of interest when designing a processor based system. The processor architecture that was chosen is the x86.

The purpose of this essay is to study and compare the air traffic with the train traffic between Gothenburg ? Stockholm. The study is based on three different perspectives: travelling time, travelling cost and the environmental effects. With those three factors included in the study, it will be more useful to determine if the unnecessary travel exist.This essay is based on quantitative information which has been gathered from the booking system of the train- and airline company?s websites.

The sun is an endless energy source and the heat it produces can be used to heatup our homes. This technology is relatively old and was introduced in the late70-s. There are two kinds of solar collectors that are most frequently used todayand these are plain solar collectors and vacuum solar collectors. The plain solarcollectors are the once that are used the most but the vacuum solar collectorshave increased more as a percentage the last couple of years.The biggest question asked regarding an investment in solar heating is if theplant is economically profitable. This question has no direct answer because itis dependent on a couple of prerequisites.