Carbon offsetting means to offset those greenhouse gases that are caused by our actions. The purpose of this paper is to examine how companies are working with carbon offsetting. The focus of the research is how travel agencies and companies that provides carbon offsetting. The writers also highlight the problems carbon offsetting is facing. The study was performed with qualitative methods through interviews with three companies working with carbon offsetting.

Through this thesis, we want to discuss how the marginalization of people, several precedent political, city planning- and engineering decisions resulted in a catastrophic outcome after hurricane Katrina in New Orleans 2005. We also put forward a case study of the Make It Right Foundation, to demonstrate how the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward are involved in the urban development of their community. We would like to draw attention to the power of citizens and how they can influence the urban development of a community after a trauma. This study also focuses on the mission of The Make It Right Foundation: which is to rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward with firm concepts on sustainable development where all dimensions are accounted: ecological, social, cultural and economic. The empirical data was collected by a field study in New Orleans 2010-03-22 and semistructured interviews were made during the same days..

The construction and use of buildings in the EU accounts for half of the EU?s extracted materials and energy consumptions, and a third of greenhouse gas emissions. In the past decade, the construction sector has responded to such concerns by focusing on post production energy efficiency. However, new findings indicate that upstream construction processes influence emissions significantly ? necessitating a shift in focus to include material choices and building processes.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Swedish insurance companies communicate corporal social responsibility (CSR). We used two methods for approaching the purpose. At first we approached a quantitative content analysis to investigate in which ways the companies communicated on their websites. In the second part of the study we used qualitative textual analysis to study two companies sustainable reports. The theoretical framework of the study is based on theories of CSR and how to communicate it.

För att ett företag ska kunna hålla sig flytande på marknaden idag krävs de att de har hundra procent koll på vad som sker i deras fabriker och att de strävar efter en mer hållbar tillverkningsprocess. Att försäkra konsumenterna om att fabrikerna inte använder sig av barnarbete eller dåliga arbetsförhållanden räcker inte längre utan det krävs en bredare kunskap inom miljö och hållbar utveckling för att den trogna kunden ska stanna. Syftet med denna rapport är att kontrollera det nyuppstartade företaget DENIM IS DEAD?s produktion och utvärdera om hur man kan förädla de olika processtegen samt skapa transparens gentemot kund.Metoden som arbetet utformades efter var genom en fallstudie som är baserad på en mestadels deduktiv metod men med inslag av induktiv metod. Där grunden lades genom en utförlig faktainsamling för att i rapportens senare del kunna analysera de hypoteser och problemformuleringar som ställts.Målet med rapporten var att ta fram en metod eller produkt som ska underlätta kommunikationen med DENIM IS DEAD?s kund.

Förutom ekonomiska aspekter är hänsyntagandet av miljömässiga och sociala aspekter står nu i fokus i många organisationers affärsverksamhet. Mer och mer företag inför strategier som använder olika metoder och verktyg för att åstadkomma hållbarhet. En serie av internationella miljöstandarder, den s.k. ISO 14000-familjen har utvecklats sedan 1996 för att stödja arbetet av komplexa miljöfrågor för olika typ och storlek av organisationer. Syftet med denna uppsats, under ramen av en fallstudie, är att beskriva och analysera hur aspekterna av miljömässigt hållbar utveckling är integrerade i Riksbyggens organisation samt hur de kan utvecklas med hjälp av miljöledningssystem-standarden ISO 14001.

A large part of the Namibian low income population lack access to grid distributed electricity. This mean they are effectively shut out from basic functions such as lighting, information technologies and hygienic food handling. Hence, finding ways of providing affordable off-grid electricity is an important, not to say critical, task.This master thesis is an innovation and concept development project that has been carried out in cooperation with organisations in Sweden and Namibia. The purpose of the project has been to (1) develop a concept for off-grid electricity supply in Namibia and (2) to gain a deeper knowledge within the area of innovation and product development for the Base of the Pyramid population, i.e. the poorest, but largest, socio-economic part of the global population.Essential in this project has been to acquire user understanding and to identify user needs to create a foundation for developing the concept.

Workplace accidents in Sweden have in recent years increased. Companies are at the same time putting a greater emphasis on preventing accidents and inform about safety and risks. Therefore there is a need to know how to visualize this safety information. This study is based on a part of a project proposed by the industrial company AB Wahlquists Verkstäder, in which they want to visualize their safety information for new employees and existing staff, and also for temporary contractors and apprentices. The purpose of this study is to see what is required of the visualization of safety information and what guidelines that should be followed.

Hållbart semesterresande är en utmaning med flera dimensioner. På systemnivå finns det tekniska och organisatoriska utmaningar, och på individnivå handlar det ofta om psykologiska hinder för beteendeförändring. Men ytterligare en utmaning kan sägas finnas, och det på samhällsnivå. Det handlar då om hur olika sociokulturella strukturer och aktörer i samhället formar individers identitet, livsstil och normer. I denna uppsats har tonvikten lagts på den sistnämnda utmaningen, med media i fokus.Media i form av texter och bilder om resande kan vara till inspiration för många turister, och bidra till skapande av mer eller mindre miljövänliga livsstilar och konsumentbeteenden.

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.

This thesis examines the relationship between OECD-DAC and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) within an aid efficiency context. The ability for these two actors to cooperate is highly important and determines the outcome for a major part of the development aid in the new millennium. The development agenda for the new millennium emphasizes aid efficiency as a key to a more successful aid, and this requires increased cooperation between all actors. The analysis made is a discourse analysis. The discourse of aid efficiency is analyzed, both its preconditions and results.The analyze finds out that there is a gap between OECD-DAC and CSOs in terms of how to handle aid efficiency.

Half of Sweden?s 140 000-150 000 sows are culled and replaced by 75 000 gilts annually. Culling of old sows is necessary and allows new breeding material to enter the herd. However, many of the culled sows are young, and have not yet become profitable at the time for culling. Therefore, it is an important question for the pig industry, how to raise gilts to sows with a high and sustainable production level.

Climate changing is a growing problem for many countries and communities over the world. The cities has a huge work to deal with in their reforcements of their cities to be resilient ones. This thesis makes an effort to investigate and illuminate some of the problem the cities has to solve related to flooding, hazards, erosions, rising sea levels and crotches. This thesis will help to find solutions that international and national efforts has produced and handed out to each other. A lot of communities are charing their excellent tools that works for them.

Naturskyddsföreningen gav författarna uppgiften att undersöka förekommande viskosprocesser och alternativa regenereringsprocesser, detta för att identifiera hur hållbara de är ur ett miljöperspektiv och vilka processer som går att applicera på bambu. Detta för att se möjligheten att märka bambuviskos med Bra Miljöval och för att klargöra frekvent uppkommande frågor angående bambuviskos. Syftet är att se på de olika processernas kemiska innehåll samt vilka utsläpp de orsakar till luft och vatten. Ett delmål med rapporten är att den ska kunna användas som material vid vidareutveckling av kriterierna för Bra Miljöval Textil. Resultat som erhållits vid jämförelser av studerad litteratur är att de betydande faktorerna för miljöpåverkan från massaframställningen samt viskos- och lyocellprocessen beror av: använda kemikalier i processen, energianvändningen och vilken typ av energi, möjligheten till rening av utsläpp till luft och vatten samt återvinning av energi och kemikalier.

My purpose with this study was partly to examine how some Swedish science teachers teach and their knowledge of the science curriculum, and how this affects their teaching. I also aimed to compare the Swedish and Irish science curriculum. The method I undertook to achieve this study was to carry out six interviews with science teachers in Sweden. I also completed a text analyse of both the Swedish & Irish science curriculum. The results of the interviews showed that the teachers think the curriculum is important but they do not always keep to it.