During the 90s most companies organized and adopted routines for their environmental work. This work included for example eco-efficiency improvements and the introduction of environmental managing systems. At the UN conference in Rio in 1992 the concept Sustainable development was defined, but it was not until about the year of 2000 that companies in Sweden shifted their work from environmental management to sustainable management. A consequence of this is that they now have to focus on environmental aspect in conjunction with social and economic aspects.The purpose of this study is to gain understanding of what a change of focus to sustainable development means for companies. Has the environmental work suffered in the competition with social/economical aspects under the new sustainable focus? How will the new way of working affect the balance between environmental and social aspects? Changes were studied in five companies by analysing their annual-, environmental- and sustainability reports and through interviews of sustainable managers.

Sustainable development has become the ideology of the twentieth first century. As an important concept and as a framework of political action, sustainable development can at this point be considered as the very symbol of a paradigm in the international debate over environmental issues and the threats of climate change. But what does the concept of sustainability actually suggest? This thesis uses discourse analysis in order to examine the Swedish learning for sustainable development as to three different discourses on the national arena: the government and the municipals of Piteå and Växjö respectively. When the study foremost concerns official policy documents that contain associations with the study area, the methodology used takes into consideration both language, signs, metaphors and so called story lines.

Sustainable development has become the ideology of the twentieth first century. As an important concept and as a framework of political action, sustainable development can at this point be considered as the very symbol of a paradigm in the international debate over environmental issues and the threats of climate change. But what does the concept of sustainability actually suggest? This thesis uses discourse analysis in order to examine the Swedish learning for sustainable development as to three different discourses on the national arena: the government and the municipals of Piteå and Växjö respectively. When the study foremost concerns official policy documents that contain associations with the study area, the methodology used takes into consideration both language, signs, metaphors and so called story lines.

This thesis is about sustainability within chemistry, the so-called, green chemistry. With this work  I seek to combine green chemistry with sustainable  development  and find methods for teaching green chemistry in a laboratory environement.  I have designed  and tested two labs with ingredients of green  chemistry and sustainable development in my study. I wanted to determine if my design model  leads to conception for the students. The students have through forms and interviews declared their perspective on the education and their conception. In a laboratory environment the pros of a laboratory way of work should be recognized.

The primary purpose of this degree project was to investigate teachers conceptions about education for sustainable development and their education within the area. Teachers from Sweden and California have taken part and one of the aims with this study was to look if any differences could be found depending on what country the teachers came from. Therefore, this study has used a qualitative approach where conception maps and interviews have been used to get a result. Furthermore, the result showed that none of the differences that was found can be linked to the participants home country. The study also showed that several of different teaching traditions and educations philosophies was represented.

The object for this study is a company developing and manufacturing vehicles for heavy transportation. The company distributes their products on a global market. Therefore the company is required to have efficient internal production development processes in order to successfully beat the competition. The purpose of this master thesis is to study how this particular company intends to implement their standardized theoretical product development process within their organization and how well it is done. We intend to identify and specify if the process has any unexploited capacity.

The purpose of this thesis is to study to what extent the UN millennium development goals have influenced Sweden?s development policy. The research method that I have used is a qualitative text analysis and I have studied the ideas in governmental texts and millennium development goals reports from 1995-2008.My hypothesis is that the basic ideas that has symbolized Sweden?s development policy has not changed much since the adoption of the millennium development goals in year 2000. This hypothesis is based on different ideas that the basic perspectives in international development policy are rather constant.My conclusion is that many of the areas that are affected by the millennium development goals already are prioritized areas within Swedish development policy, for example poverty reduction and gender equality.

Today we see a growing need and interest in working towards sustainable development. To be able to contribute to a sustainable development as individuals/business we need to emphasize the importance of education and contextualisation that learning occurs in a sense that is relevant to the learner.This is the background to this study, which in turn is the basis for an education that focuses on how to environmentally secure your purchases, an opportunity for us to set environmental standards purchasing products and services. The process for purchase is considered by many to be a key factor in businesses work towards sustainable development. Key people in this process and target audience for this education is environmental, purchasing and procurement managers.The purpose of this study is to design an education calledMiljösäkrade inköp from the target audiences? knowledge, interests and attitudes, together with literature.

The aim of the study was to analyse relations between the school and the surrounding world and how these relations affects the schools? work for sustainable development. This was mainly an interview study but teachers? self-valuations have also been used. Totally six teachers at two primary schools has been interwied.

In today?s competitive market, design is an important element for the companies. They must succeed with delivering an increased value and an experience for the consumer to be able to survive. The Swedish company?s have become better in the design area, the higher standards the consumer?s demands forces the company to invest more in design.

Project Safe Sleeping Position (SSP) contains all parts in a product development phase. The project comprises the whole cycle from idea to a complete product where all aspects are included. The scope is to develop an innovative solution for a common known problem and work with all parts within the man-machine-way. The result is an inflatable product which secures a child in the correct way for the seatbelt to work properly in the rearseat of a car. Ergonomics, technical extent, usability, design, construction, product solutions and market potential are some of all parts witch the project includes.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the perception of value and risk in CSR as well as analyzing how financial institutions influence responsible behavior in business in order to create sustainable economic growth.Methodology: The study has a qualitative research method used by an abductive process. Data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with respondents from three venture capital companies and three banks. The sample of respondents was done through a convenience sample with respect to access and expertise in the research area.Conclusion: The most important meanings of the research results have shown that CSR holds an intrinsic value concerning contributing value as its conceptual meaning in terms of sustainable development. CSR can also be regarded as a dimension of risk management to reduce the risk of negative externalities on corporate activities. Investors and financiers contribute to sustainable companies through active ownership and improvements in the CSR dimensions.

The construction and real estate industry represents a significant part of Sweden's total impact on the environment and mainly affects the following national environmental objectives: reduced climate impact, a good built environment and a non-toxic environment. By establishing internal rules, companies within the industry can reduce their environmental impact. SMT (AB Sandvik Materials Technology), a part of the industrial group Sandvik AB, has set a target that during 2014 develop a guiding document with special consider to the environmental impact during construction of office buildings, that they establish at the Swedish regional capital Sandviken, for both internal and external tenants. This study therefore aims to clarify which environmental aspects that the construction and real estate sector mainly are responsible for, and therefore should be part of a guiding document for a company for establishing office buildings, and to present arguments regarding the use of such a document. The study is based on literature studies and personal contact with other companies, in the form of e-mail conversations and a telephone interview.

Due to a growing interest in communication in today?s society the demand for equipment that is used in communication networks increases while the competition between companies that produce this equipment grows. To meet the increasing demand and at the same time having a competitive product development many companies use some effective product design, such as the modular product design. When a modular product design is used it?s good to compare different module configurations for a certain product and to simplify these comparisons some tool can be used.

Waste management is a major challenge for several countries around the world. Sweden and the Philippines have similar waste management legalization but different potentials to effectively achieve the goal of sustainable waste management. Education is the key to sustainable development and both countries promote the subject environment in the curriculum. Based on scientific articles, reports and personal meetings, a survey was conducted among 510 students from Gothenburg, Sweden and Iloilo City, Philippines. The survey aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitude and behavior regarding waste management and was analyzed to answer questions of possible reasons to differences and also, linkages to sustainable development.