Världen krymper i och med ökad globalisering, ska vi kunna leva tillsammans på ett hållbart sätt måste vi alla ta vårt ansvar, stora som små, företag som privatpersoner. Detta medför starka argument för att ta fram lättanvända metoder för hållbarhetsgranskning. Sustainable Sweden Southeast AB (SSSE) är ett nätverksföretag som samlar och marknadsför sina delägares miljöteknikkompetens under ett gemensamt varumärke. SSSE har ett hållbarhetsråd som hjälper till att granska nya potentiella delägare, dock saknas i dag en fungerande metod för detta. På uppdrag av SSSE:s VD har en ny metod för granskning arbetats fram, en checklista med hållbarhetskriterier, vilket också är detta examensarbetes syfte.

Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka hur planerare i svenska städer kan arbeta för att minska invånarnas bilresande. I studien har Umeå kommuns arbete med hållbara resor analyserats genom att studera olika plandokument som tagits fram för att vägleda den samtida och framtida planeringen.Tidigare studier visar att det finns ett antal gemensamma nämnare för städer som visar på goda resultat för invånarnas val av hållbara resandet.  Planerarna har haft olika angreppssätt på prioriteringen av trafikstrukturen i dessa städer. Det gemensamma för städerna med goda resultat är att de har planerat långsiktigt, med ett hållbart resande i fokus.Av Umeå kommuns planeringsdokument framgår att visionen för tätorten har många delar gemensamt med dessa städer, varav målen för hur bilberoendet i staden ska byggas bort är det tydligaste. Efter att ha studerat Umeå tätorts nuvarande markanvändning, uppsatta planeringsmål och politiska beslut framgår det dock att översiktliga planeringsdokument och faktiska resultat ligger relativt långt ifrån varandra.

Communication of sustainable development has become an increasingly important part of organisation?s corporate branding. Consumers demand more transparency from businesses and want to know more about how they work with these issues. An important part of how internal communication can be used to reach organisational success involves organisation?s employees.

Cultivable land is a limited resource and agriculture contributes to some of the most serious environmental problems facing the planet like, global warming, eutrophication and loss of biodiversity. The specialized, industrial agriculture with monoculture and extensive input of external energy, commercial fertilizer, and chemical pesticides are all essentially unsustainable. An adaptation to other methods of production is necessary to preserve the environment for future generations. The aim of this study is to describe the factors that distinguish sustainable from unsustainable agriculture. The results will be used to examine if and how the European Union (EU) works in order to create a more sustainable agricultural industry and to analyze the preconditions for such development.

Outdoor advertising is not very often discussed within city planning even though the commercial messages occupy much of public space. The advertising signs affects not only the physical environment but also social life. In this report I would like to acknowledge and question the presence of advertising in our everyday environment. Outdoor advertising is not a new phenomena, technical progress however, results constantly in new expansions in the environment. Today advertising occurs in all sorts of shapes in the cities, both as free standing signs and as signs attached to facades, incorporated in city furniture such as bus shelters and on vehicles moving along the city streets. Grouping advertising into two categories; local and national, reveals that the different categories have different impact on public space.

The Natura 2000 Network is one of the European Unions many tools concerning nature conservation, and is without comparison the premier contribution when it comes to halting the loss of biodiversity. This essay is a case study on how the regional work with the Natura 2000-network has been carried out in four different counties. These counties are Södermanland, Västernorrland, Jämtland and Örebro. They have been compared based on the theoretical concept of sustainable development. This essay describes how the officials in the County Administrations view the regional implementation of Natura 2000 when it comes to the selection of Natura 2000-sites with forest habitats and the creation of an additional protective measure.

Horse keeping is gaining an increasing interest in Sweden. During 2004 to 2010 the number of horses increased with 10 - 20 %, and was estimated to be 362 700 in 2010. Julmyra Horse Center (JHC), situated in Heby municipality, is a gated community for people sharing a large interest for horses and a vision of a sustainable horse management has been formulated. This study evaluates how the horse keeping of today at JHC, and how an expansion of the horse keeping may affect the risk of enhanced phosphorus load to the nearby lake system Vansjön ? Nordsjön.

The meeting industry is a growing industry around the world, and the technological development in recent decades is one of the contributing factors to the increased travel opportunities and meeting industry's expansion. It can be assumed that the technology could replace some of the personal meetings, but humans have always had a need to meet in physical locations in work related purposes, therefore there is no evidence that personal meetings will disappear. Technological development should be seen as complementary rather than a substitute to the existing professional meetings. Public and private sectors within countries has drawn attention to meeting industry's potential, as favored destinations in terms of economic administration, image creation, expansion and acquisition of further market share in the global market. Meeting industry is complex precisely because there are so many different actors and stakeholders that integrate.

The concept of sustainable development has been pervasive in recent years and many organizations choose to implement sustainability and adapt their activities accordingly. The purpose of this study have been to explore how a collaboration on the use of waste materials may look to analyze what influences cooperation. A case study has been carried out examining a Swedish state regional project aimed at creating partnerships between actors and utilizing textile waste with the help of design. The study was conducted using qualitative methods and the collection of data has been done through interviews and by examining documents. The results show that there are seven key factors that affect cooperation: expectations, commitment, internal communication, a strong non-profit actor, individual treatment, personal networks and the diversity of actors.

Wermland was affected by the Spanish flu like the Swedish national average, about a half percentage of Wermlands population would lose their lives to the flu during the autumn 1918. The flu has for many fallen into oblivion. This oblivion is so wide spread that it´s possible to talk about a "collective forgetfulness". The society have selected to remember 1918 for "when the guns went quiet on the western front" and not for the millions who died from the treacherous Spanish flu. The world had already suffered enough from the four years of war that had been fought, thus the victims of the flu would be honored but would soon fade in to oblivion.  When you investigate deeper you get the picture that the national average don´t do Wermland and its cities or rural areas any justice when a large variations seems to occur within regional areas.

The focus on this essay is derived from an international and national dialogue for sustainable development. The recommendation from international level has been to find solutions for governments to implement strategies for sustainable development between local and regional level. This initiative is to improve and stimulate the dialogue between the local inhabitants, officials, entrepreneurs and stakeholders in the communities together with the authorities on the regional level. The purpose is to share knowledge and find ways to learn about the natural systems and how to co-operate in the work of preserving the natural resources and developing different processes for a sustainable development. Many scientists? today stress the importance that ecosystem resilience is promoted by biodiversity conservation and that we need to find solutions for local ecosystem management practices.This essay aims to find theoretical approaches and perspectives that can be used in a wider framework to study co-operative processes between the local (agent) and regional (structure) level.

Tourism in the Arctic and Antarctic is increasing rapidly. In both Polar Regions, the cruise tourism is predominant. Several of the tour operators arrange trips under the banner of ecotourism, meaning that the trips should be ecologically sustainable. To ensure ecotourism standards there are different types of certifications; for cruise travels in the Arctic there is AECO (the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators) certification, and for travels to the Antarctic IAATO (the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators). Promoters of ecotourism argue that these trips are important because they create support for conservation work among tourists making them ?polar ambassadors?.

It is a difficult task to define the little word ?modernity?. One may argue quite a lot about what modernity is as well as when modernity breaks trough. The burgess class was the group who initiated modernity in most cases. Since these people mainly dwelled in the cities it was in the cities were modernity started.

Rapid urbanization causes competition over land use between green area preservation and urban development in cities and greatly affects ecosystems as well as human well-being. This conflict is significant all around the world as many cities are now replacing existing green areas with new developments. The area around Dag Hammarskjöld's väg in Uppsala is currently experiencing the same conflict, as the need that the city has for new housing represents a threat for the many valuable green areas that are in the site. The purpose of this project was to understand how the need of urban development and the preservation of green areas could be balanced. This understanding would thereafter be used to make a design proposal for the area around Dag Hammarskjöld's väg.

To Swedes in general and, to hunters in particular, there is a great interest for moose (Alces alces), witch is Sweden?s largest deer species. In the province of Öland (Sweden?s second largest island) the local people show a great interest for the moose existence, both for consumptive (hunting) and non-consumptive use (tourism). This became apparent in 2002 when the moose hunters on Öland voluntary agreed to temporarily postpone the moose hunt on the island.