In the last years people has become more aware of issues regarding corporate social responsibility. This has led to a more thorough control of big multinational companies, which are often held account of violating social, ethical and environmental values. The term most often used for this is corporate social responsibility (CSR). H&M is a Swedish multinational company and the concept of H&M is fashion to a low price. The material most often used in producing clothes is cotton.

Green manuring is a way of creating an organic fertilizer by growing a crop that is mowed down. Besides the fertilizing effect this method has been shown to have a positive influ-ence on soil organic matter as well as weed flora, and green manure is an important me-thod of weed control in organic farming in parts of Sweden. However, the release of nu-trients from the green manure varies and can therefore be difficult to control. Risks for losses of nutrients are also present. Although the area of organic farmland is increasing in Sweden, the use of green manure is decreasing.This report contains a literature study which compiles research on the functions of green manure in a cropping system and also how the crop can be used if harvested, for example to produce biogas.

Digital preservation is a relatively new subject to Swedish archives. Alhough computers have been used for a long time, preservation has been made on paper and stored on shelves. These days a lot of cities in Sweden have investigated how to best secure the digital information for the future through electronic archiving, e-archives. One option is to hand in the information as soon as possible, but to let the producer keep the information ownership yet some time. The idea is to let the producers of the information answer questions and hand out material, since they are more competent on their field.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera om förändringar i arbetet med rörelsekapital hade ett samband med lönsamheten i företag. Som mått på rörelsekapital används Cash Conversion Cycle och som mått på lönsamhet används ROA.Teoretiskt perspektiv: Den teoretiska referensramen består av teorier om Working Capital Management, Cash Conversion Cycle, Lean, Supply Chain Management och Supply Chain Finance.Metod: I denna uppsats används en kvantitativ metod där sekundärdata samlas in från årsredovisningar för 2005 och 2013. Denna data ligger till grund för fyra korrelationsanalyser. Den beroende variabeln i korrelationsanalyserna är ROA och defyra oberoende variablerna är Cash Conversion Cycle, dagar i lager, dagar som kundfordring och dagar som leverantörsskuld. Urvalet i denna studie består av svenska aktiebolag inom branschen tillverkning och industri med fler än 50 anställda.Empiri: Empirin består av fyra tabeller som presenterar de beräkningar som gjorts.Slutsats: Sambandet mellan förändring i Cash Conversion Cycle och förändring i ROA blev väldigt svagt positivt men inte signifikant.

The background of this work is the media discussion about the effect of cultivation on peatsoils on greenhouse gas emissions. It has been argued that row sown and intensivelycultivated crops such as carrots are more likely to emit carbon dioxide than for example grassleys. The association KRAV (an association promoting organic farming) shall, from this yearadapt their environmental policy to be more climate smart and have asked the question if thecultivation of some crops is more climate smart than others? Carbon dioxide emissions fromsoil are due to degradation of organic material and the rate is controlled by microbial activity.The microbial activity is determined by a variety of factors such as temperature, soil organicmatter quality and water content. I have measured the carbon dioxide emission from fourdifferent crops at two different farms.

Single vehicle accidents are one of the most common types of accidents that occur on the Swedish road network. Depending on the design of the road, the presence of a crash barrier and embankment on the roadside, the outcome of a roadside collision can lead to serious injuries and even deaths.The aim of this project is to investigate the possibility of improving road safety by designing the optimal roadside area based on the results of a life cycle cost analysis (LCC).The questions that have been answered during the duration of this project are:1) Describe the current technical solutions for roadside area design and the various barrier types used in Sweden.2) Complete an existing mathematical model that has been developed by Hawzheen Karim, for calculating life-cycle costs for various roadside areas.3) Calculate and compare the life cycle costs for the side area with a barrier and without a barrier.By performing an analysis of the documentation on the current guidelines and rules for shaping the roadside, was it possible to describe the current technical solutions for the formation the roadside as well as the current roadside barriers in use today. A mathematical model for calculating the life cycle costs of different barrier types had already been developed by Hawzheen Karim. This model was supplemented so that it could calculate life-cycle costs of the roadside region with and without a barrier. After the model was completed, an analysis was performed to obtain life-cycle costs of a roadside with and without a barrier.The result showed that there is a clear relationship between the slope inclination, fill height, and the rate at which the costs rise.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera om förändringar i arbetet med rörelsekapital hade ett samband med lönsamheten i företag. Som mått på rörelsekapital används Cash Conversion Cycle och som mått på lönsamhet används ROA.Teoretiskt perspektiv: Den teoretiska referensramen består av teorier om Working Capital Management, Cash Conversion Cycle, Lean, Supply Chain Management och Supply Chain Finance.Metod: I denna uppsats används en kvantitativ metod där sekundärdata samlas in från årsredovisningar för 2005 och 2013. Denna data ligger till grund för fyra korrelationsanalyser. Den beroende variabeln i korrelationsanalyserna är ROA och defyra oberoende variablerna är Cash Conversion Cycle, dagar i lager, dagar som kundfordring och dagar som leverantörsskuld. Urvalet i denna studie består av svenska aktiebolag inom branschen tillverkning och industri med fler än 50 anställda.Empiri: Empirin består av fyra tabeller som presenterar de beräkningar som gjorts.Slutsats: Sambandet mellan förändring i Cash Conversion Cycle och förändring i ROA blev väldigt svagt positivt men inte signifikant.

Our common future involves many important challenges. People and nature need to improve the relationship in order to reach an ecologically sustainable development. In a society where consumption of products steadily increases, the consumer awareness about social and environmental issues connected to the products becomes an importent factor. More and more companies choose to work more actively with these issues and more and more products get labelled by some of the eco labelling organisations. From the cradle to the gate means that a study has been done on a part of a products life cycle.

Changes in the environment are affecting the world market, and pressures from several stakeholders? are forcing different enterprises to adjust to the current situation. Farmers? difficult working conditions and environmental impacts of the conventional cotton production in India have been highlighted. The small-scale production that is characterising India?s cotton farmers implies an insufficient competition power.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera om förändringar i arbetet med rörelsekapital hade ett samband med lönsamheten i företag. Som mått på rörelsekapital används Cash Conversion Cycle och som mått på lönsamhet används ROA.Teoretiskt perspektiv: Den teoretiska referensramen består av teorier om Working Capital Management, Cash Conversion Cycle, Lean, Supply Chain Management och Supply Chain Finance.Metod: I denna uppsats används en kvantitativ metod där sekundärdata samlas in från årsredovisningar för 2005 och 2013. Denna data ligger till grund för fyra korrelationsanalyser. Den beroende variabeln i korrelationsanalyserna är ROA och defyra oberoende variablerna är Cash Conversion Cycle, dagar i lager, dagar som kundfordring och dagar som leverantörsskuld. Urvalet i denna studie består av svenska aktiebolag inom branschen tillverkning och industri med fler än 50 anställda.Empiri: Empirin består av fyra tabeller som presenterar de beräkningar som gjorts.Slutsats: Sambandet mellan förändring i Cash Conversion Cycle och förändring i ROA blev väldigt svagt positivt men inte signifikant.

This study aims to scrutinize the four major banks in Sweden on how their profit havedeveloped over a time span of 15 years, whether stricter regulations have had anyimpact on financial key ratios and if there is any correlation between the banksprofitability and their risk taking. The period covered is the years 2000-2014. Thefigures are annually and the four major banks are; Handelsbanken, Nordea,Skandiviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) and Swedbank.The findings are that financial key ratios that include net income are pro-cycle whereSwedbank has the biggest volatility over the period and that the three other banks areless, but clear pro-cycle. There are also indications that stricter rules have madeimpact on the volatility of the profitability even though the period covered is notenough to ensure this claim. Nordea has had the lowest and most stable capital ratiothroughout the period and the other three banks lowered their debt-to-equity ratiosignificantly after the financial crisis in 2008.

This work of examination describes an environmentally oriented product development aimed to develop new packaging with improved environmental and sale aspects of the products from Primus Sweden AB. The report covers the design process from the first collection of facts to the final results with a description of all methods involved in the work. The focus has been on a clear environmental awareness and the report contains a deepening of the concept life cycle assessment (LCA) for product development. In the process, the consumers? opinions of the brand Primus and environmental profiling formed the basis for the packaging to communicate the right values such as quality, technology, environmental awareness and adventurer?s first choice.The deepening of the life cycle analysis shows that composting and other alternative treatment of the biological cycle is not possible to implement in a satisfactory way in the design process.The work results in two final concepts.

The aim of this study was to examine if the predictions of the herbage quality in the software Grazemore Decision Support System (DSS) gives a reliable ground for milk production in the north of Scandinavia. Pasture samples from one research farm (Umeå) and one organic farm (Nordingrå) was analysed on crude protein and organic matter digestibility. The results were statistically compared to the predicted values. Measured and predicted herbage mass was compared and a control if the predictions of milk production improved if the predicted input were replaced by the values from the analysis, was made. The concentration of crude protein was underestimated by the model on both farms and the relationship between actual and predicted values was poor. Mean Prediction Error (MPE) was 24% and 31% respectively.

The report aims to describe the austenitic stainless steel Sanicro 25 from a thermomechanical point of view. The thermal and mechanical properties of the material make it suitable for use in coal ? and thermal power plants. By the use of Sanicro 25 it would be possible to bring the efficiency of these plants up while bringing the carbon emissions down.A material model is created from material testing and validated through simulation in the finite element software Abaqus. The model that has been derived describes the material behavior during loading and stress relaxation for the first cycle in a thermomechanical fatigue test well.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the fatigue life of two components in different hydraulic quick couplings. The crack which initiates the fatigue failure usually occurs in the bottom of one of the threads. Thus, the threads in the coupling are carefully investigated. A few different approaches for determining the fatigue life are studied for each component. CAD (Computer Aided Design) models for both components are created and analyzed with FEM (Finite Element Method).