The ever-increasing awareness of global warming has made the building industry startlooking for alternative building solutions in order to meet the changing demands. Thesechallenges have given rise to organization which aim to go further and construct moresustainable alternatives in the form of Ecovillages. This thesis is conducted in collaborationwith Bysjöstrans Ekoby and aims to investigate what type of organic alternatives exist andhow they perform in building elements.The study was carried out through a comparative LCA where a base case construction forboth roof and wall was established. Followed by comparing different organic materials toeach other and the base case materials in order to determine low-impact materials. The goalwas to replaces as many layers within the structure such as insulation, structure, roofcladding, façade, wind and vapor barrier.This was later followed by combing the materials together in order to identify whichalternative construction options would perform the best in regard to greenhouse gasemissions (CO2 eq kg) and primary energy use (MJ).The results of the study show that the performance or organic materials vary significantly.Whit a lot of materials being better but also worse than traditional materials. It showed thatfor internal wall and roof surface adding clay plater can reduce the GHG emission with 68%, timber frame with 98 %, façade with 43 %, roof cladding with 93 %, vapor barrier with76 % and insulation with 79 %. The best preforming construction option could reduce thebase case emission with 68 %.

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate how manufacturing organisations can decrease their environmental impact in the supply chain. To meet the purpose, two research questions were formulated:  1. How can a manufacturing organisation reduce its environmental impact caused by transportation?  2. How can a manufacturing organisation reduce its environmental impact caused by production?  Method – To provide the opportunity to reach a conclusion and to create a basic understanding of the research area, a literature review was conducted, which formed the basis of the theoretical framework. Through a case study at a manufacturing organisation, interviews and document analyses were used as sources for empirical data. In order to develop solutions and recommendations, collected data and theoretical framework were analysed and discussed.  Findings – The research findings indicate that there are several possible measures to implement to reduce an organisation's environmental impact in the supply chain. A decisive factor is creating a holistic and fundamental understanding of sustainability and enabling everyone involved to work according a common view and in the same direction. In addition, a requirement to pursue the same goal is that all stakeholders are involved where a prerequisite is a well-functioning internal communication.  Implications – The research did not contribute to any new theories, but through the research analysis, statements and theories from previous research were strengthened. The research suggests actions that can be used for organisations to reduce their environmental impact, but also to increase the understanding of why actions should be implemented. Society has an important responsibility for motivating and provide conditions for manufacturing organisations to reduce their footprint. This research is considered to lead to an improved environment in the form of lower emission levels where both organisations and the entire community take responsibility for the planet.  Limitations – The case study is designed as a single-case study which, from a validity perspective, is not considered as advantageous as a multiple case study because the results are difficult to generalize. In order to strengthen the study's reliability, several functional units and / or organisations could have been included in the study.

The Swedish national plan for reapproval of hydropower describes that hydropower plants (HPPs) are required to be reassessed to ensure that modern environmental conditions are set for the permits. Since dams and HPPs create barriers for migrating fish and consequently disfavor biological diversity, one consequence of the national plan is that fishways are being constructed. This, in combination with an old, unfinished approval procedure from the 1960’s, resulted in the construction of three up- and downstream fishways in Mora municipality, at the HPPs in Spjutmo, Blyberg and Väsa. To fulfill requirements in regard to the fishway’s incline and safety, but at the same time minimize the need of space, the fishways have new, innovative and not yet tested design features. One of these features is the “parking garage” layout of the upstream fishway. Despite these features, the fishways take up a large amount of space and thus require large amounts of blasting, excavation and materials such as concrete and steel parts. These are climate impact influence intensive procedures and materials, but the construction has so far not been evaluated from a climate impact perspective. This, in combination with a lack of studies on the climate impact of fishways, has resulted in this project.The aim of this project was to examine the climate impact caused by the fishways in Spjutmo and Blyberg, to identify what affects the total climate impact as well as providing measures that could reduce the climate impact for future similar fishways. To provide an extensive overview of the climate impact that the fishways cause during their entire lifetime, the method life cycle analysis (LCA) was used. The construction of the fishways at Väsa HPP starts later than for Spjutmo and Blyberg, and therefore Väsa is excluded from the scope due to the lack of required information.The fishways in Spjutmo and Blyberg have the same design features, but the material consumptions differ due to their differences in head. Spjutmo’s head is 21,4 meter and Blyberg’s is 11 meter. A larger head generally results in a longer fishway which in turn results in a more material consuming construction. This resulted in the total life cycle climate impact being twice as big for Spjutmo as for Blyberg, 2 807 tonne CO2-eq respectively 1 361 tonne CO2-eq. The resource extraction is the LCA- phase that contributes the most. Concrete and its reinforcement have the biggest share of that impact, followed by mechanical parts and other steel products, road construction process in Spjutmo and the excavation process in Blyberg. Based on this result, it can be concluded that the materials and components contribute more to the fishways’ total climate impact, rather than processes. Roughly 80 % of the total climate impact origins from the upstream fishway, while the rest either stems from the downstream fishway or others. Sensitivity analyses include the climate impact caused by the fishways using some water that otherwise could have been used to generate electricity from, and the result indicates that all examined alternative energy sources would result in larger climate impact compared to if the electricity was generated by hydropower.One of the result’s uncertainties is that the fishways were under construction while this project was performed. Therefore some assumptions was made to compensate for lack of data. For example, the future electricity consumption was scaled up based off the then used electricity data. However, even if some amounts of required materials and processes changed as time went by, the changes did not make a significant difference from the bigger perspective. Sensitivity analyses that examined the climate impact of a delay in the construction also showed that the processes that are most likely to continue turned out to have a relatively small climate impact. Thus, this issue might not be as problematic as initially thought.Although the result is presented in total values, the result is also provided per a functional unit (FU) level in accordance with traditional LCA methodology. This was to facilitate a comparison for future LCAs on other fishways. The FU in this project was decided to be “One meter head for a technical, stationary, up- and downstream fishway in connection to a medium or large run-of-river hydropower plant in a cold tempered climate zone”. For future studies, LCAs on different types of fishways using the proposed FU is recommended.