In Europe, the central governments are the ones to coordinate the international standards and strategies regarding GPP; Green Public Procurement. However in Spain a GPP program was introduced late and only applied to the Central Government Institutions, (AGEA) (BOE nr. 027, 2008). These means that smaller administrations, such as, Autonomous Regions, Municipalities and Town Councils were not included in the program. The absence of a national program which excludes those governments made them introduce their own criteria for GPP, and the difference in criteria varies from one government to the other.

Animals in zoos live in more barren environments than their conspecifics in nature. In nature, elephants spend more than 75 % of the day foraging and have been observed lying down two hours during night. Stereotypies are common in many different species in zoos. Stereotypic behaviors may constitute up to 50 % of the daily activity budget of zoo elephants. Modern zoos try to reduce stereotypic behaviors by means of environmental enrichment.

For a company to survive it has to make a profit. To make a profit transactions are necessary and to achieve this a company can choose to focus on creating loyal customers. Loyal customers can contribute to secured revenues, increased market shares and reduced marketing costs. Research within customer loyalty has mainly focused on different types of loyalty and the impact it has on customers behavior. However, there is a lack of research concerning which factors that create loyal customers.

Steel is an excellent material to build with, but consideration must be given to the fact that unprotected steel corrodes, rusts, therefore, as a rule, the steel must be protected in some way. This can be done by reducing the tendency of the steel to corrode by using stainless steel or by treating the steel with a protection method. The two most common methods of protection are corrosion protection paint and zinc coating. To determine the method, the corrosive category must first be evaluated and this is done in accordance to EN ISO 12944-2:1998.Stainless steel is available in many varieties but only some of them have properties that make them suitable for use as construction steels. There are many factors to be considered in the design of stainless steel to prevent corrosion from occurring.

As the number of inhabitants increases, the cities expand into the former rural landscape. The urbanization causes changes to the functioning of the peri-urban fringe. Land that previously was used for agricultural production is now used for alternative enterprises, as for example horse keeping and recreation. 75 % of all horses (approx. 200 000) are situated in the peri-urban fringe.

The aim of this study is to look at the environmental effect on toddlers? social interactions during free play in two older and two newer preschools. Furthermore, we would like to investigate four preschool teachers? thoughts about the indoor environment when it comes to toddlers? interaction during free play.Qualitative methods containing interviews of the preschool teachers and observations of the children during their free playtime have been used to help us reach our conclusions. In addition, our theoretical conclusions have been derived from both the sociocultural perspective and the environmental psychology perspective.Our results have shown that variations in the preschool environment are of importance in the outcome of toddlers? different social interactions.

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.

This paper is intended to provide a picture of which associations water can wake in the human mind from the perspectives of garden history as well as from that of environmental psychology. I hope to paint a fairly broad picture of our perception of water that can serve as a basis for discussion and as a starting point for different forms of design work in landscape architecture. The historical perspective emphasizes the importance of water as a condition for the emergence of gardens and in a wider perspective the importance of water in early cultures. Also, I describe a picture of how water has been used throughout the history of gardens from early Egypt to the baroque era. The garden history analyzed from an art historical perspective gives a picture of human associations to water, and the history behind these associations is presented. As a compliment to the art history approach, I have chosen to highlight our associations with water from the perspectives of environmental psychology and evolutionary science.

A Road project?s frame is built up of a decision- and consultation process, where the results of the preparatory studies are being discussed. The aim with a consultation process is that all theopinions and knowledge from the operators' will be taken into count in the basis of information, that is needed in order to the different involved operators' to take a decision.The aim of the essay was to investigate how the decision- and consultation process for a road project, the E4 section between Uppsala Läby, turned out. The aim is also to bring up how theprocess could have been done more correctly. The study was carried out through a qualitative method with an analysis of materials from the National Road Administration's archives, the associated Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and through interviews of the different operators.My theoretical basis has been a Stakeholder Analysis and its principles, and theory about different executions of social planning.The result showed that the decision- and consultation process has been bursting in democracy and consideration taking of the different operators' opinions, has been poor from the developer?s, in this case the National Road Administration's, side.

Research in solar energy is taking big steps in both solar heating and solar electricity. It´s not only the technologies alone, but also the combination of both solar electricity and solar heating which is what is called a solar hybrid. The idea of a solar hybrid is that a solar cells efficiency decrease with increased temperature and can with help from a solar collector be cooled and the heat can be utilized. This thesis report compares heat production and electricity production with respect of, in first hand, a solar hybrids geometry in the cooler. The theory chapter describes solar heating and how different solar cell technologies work and their environmental impact at the production and how compatible these technologies are for the solar hybrid.

In this thesis a method for evaluating investments in small scale hydro power is presented. An analysis of the future position that small scale hydro production will have on the Nordic electricity market is also carried out. This is done by an inventory of technology and economic and environmental aspects. The inventory is also a guide as to how the project should be implemented.Hydrolyzer is the name of the Excel tool developed to evaluate investments. The tool requests input data from the user and then evaluates the investment and generates a sensitivity analysis.

There are several ways in which people can relate to eating or not eating animals. This essay is focussing two main strategies: Making distances and drawing borders.Today, there are several reasons for not eating meat, including environmental reasons, individual and public health reasons, ethical reasons and more. Yet, people eat more meat than ever. According to the UN, this is a major problem. In 2006 the report Livestock?s long shadow pointed out that meat consumption was a bigger problem from an environmental point of view, than global transports, including air-traffic.

Active environmental activity?? a comparative study of the municipalities environmental activityThesis in Political Science D-Level at Karlstad University byJenny Ljung Spring 2008Tutor: Michelle MichelletiThe threat against our climate is one of our biggest challenges today. The awareness of the problem has grown rapidly for the last years in governments on international, national and regional level. The Swedish government is recognized as one of the leading countries in the climate and environmental work internationally. The Swedish municipalities play a big role in this successful work.

Transport is an important aspect to take account in efforts to achieve sustainable tourism development. If we do not change our behavior regarding travel, the consequences will be significant for the environment. This study examines the various transport operators on the two Swedish ski resorts if their websites and marketing are different from each other in the mode selection. The destinations are Åre and Hemavan Tärnaby. They studied modes are two Swedish airlines, two train companies, three bus companies and three taxi companies.These corporate websites are studied with a content analysis in which the results of the keywords that have been developed are scored according to different categories.

The aim of this essay was to study the European Union?s (EU) role as a democracy promoter and its impact on Croatia?s democratization process. Croatia is a candidate country for membership in the EU which creates a possibility for impact and democracy promotion. The aim is met by studying the following questions:  In what way has the EU promoted democracy in Croatia? How did Croatia respond? To what extent has the EU contributed to Croatia?s democratization process?  Croatia is treated as a case study of the EU?s democracy promotion and the method used was qualitative text-analysis.