Pollinator biodiversity and abundance is an ecosystem service vital for humans, provisioning a range of essential goods including food, fibre and medicines. Despite this, pollinators are under threat and are experiencing global declines. Habitat loss is a driving force behind such declines and, as such, the potential to provision more pollinator habitat is of interest. Currently, urban areas host abundant unused space in the forms of roofs and walls, which could be utilized to provision some pollinators with additional forage, and possibly nesting sites, without compromising human use of the land. While several studies exist regarding the habitat potential of living roofs, the impact of living walls on biodiversity is little studied. This paper sets out a theoretical approach on whether living walls could be used to host pollinator habitat by surveying living wall manufacturers regarding the physical properties of the living wall systems they use and their plant choice.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations suggest that out of all food that is produced, 1/3 ends up as food waste. In high income countries, such as Sweden, the food waste mainly originates from the last stages of the food chain, e.g. at food stores and households. Sweden is a member of the EU as well as the United Nations, and follows the common legislation for waste in the EU and has adopted the Sustainable Development Goals from the United Nations. In the Sustainable Development Goal number 12, food waste in terms of reduction is addressed, although Sweden does not have a clear goal that addresses how to reduce food waste. Food banks have globally been a strategy to redistribute surplus food from the retail sector to people in need, something that has not been common in the Nordic region of Europe (including Sweden) until the 1980’s. However, in Sweden, food banks have not been used as a way to prevent food waste but as a way to help people in need, perhaps because there is a well-established well-fare system in the country. Recently, initiatives that redistribute surplus food from the retail sector have been developed - working towards different consumer groups and solutions. This study aimed to map out the different surplus food redistributing initiatives in Sweden, categorise them and analyse some of the initiatives that represented different solutions and consumer groups. The chosen initiatives were ReFood, City Mission Uppsala (Matkassen and Mikaelsgården), City Mission Stockholm (Matmissionen), Food2change, Foodloopz and Allwin. The methods used for analysing the chosen initiatives were Environmental Life Cycle Assessment, Social Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing. To weigh the environmental-, social- and economic impacts against each other, a total sustainability ranking system was used to point out the most favourable option for a redistributing surplus food initiative, in terms of sustainability. The results showed that the environmental impacts (Green House Gases (kg CO2 equivalents/functional unit)) were the lowest for, in this order, ReFood, Mikaelsgården and Allwin, Foodloopz, Matmissionen and Matkassen, and Food2change. For the social impacts, the results showed that Allwin is the initiative that redistribute the largest amount of surplus food to the consumer group “exposed people”, followed by Matmissionen that redistribute the second largest amount of surplus food to “people with low income”. Allwin is also the initiative with the highest capacity and largest yearly environmental savings, as the company redistributes a much larger amount of food than the other initiatives. The results for the economic impacts showed that all but one initiative, Food2change, have monthly financial losses. The overall sustainability ranking showed that the initiative that is the most favourable is Matkassen followed by Matmissionen and Allwin, Food2change, Foodloopz, ReFood and Mikaelsgården.

This thesis applies the food security concept to assess the significance of seagrass-associated invertebrate gleaning for providing food security in Kaole, Tanzania. It assesses the availability, accessibility, utilisation and stability over time of this food source. To explore this, a multi-strategy research design was used. Structured interviews were held with 30 gleaning women in Kaole, using a self-developed questionnaire designed to address the four components of the food security framework. Two focus group discussions were thereafter held to explore how local ecosystem services, in particular seagrass meadows, and their food provisioning services have developed over time. The findings show that a great majority of the women who engage in seagrass- associated gleaning in Kaole rate this activity as important or very important for providing food to the household. The seagrass-associated gleaning activities were perceived as important, despite the fact that most women also glean in the mangrove area and that almost all women have alternative incomes. However, seen from a strict food security perspective, it is questionable how significant this activity currently is for food security. The study found that availability has decreased and it is not a food source that is stable throughout the year. The findings also suggest that the mangrove-associated Terebralia palustris may be easier to utilise, considering that you can store it in a sack, without being kept cold. If mangrove related gleaning hence seems to play an increasingly important role in local food security, and is a fishery that is available in all seasons, this area is less accessible to potential gleaners with small children, elderly and people with physical disabilities. The study also found that the decline in seagrass-associated gleaning activities have coincided with a number of human stressors and deteriorating seagrass meadows. Despite its’ declining signinficance for food security, most women rate the seagrass-associated gleaning as important and want to protect this food source. Action should therefore be taken to sustainably preserve this provisioning resource. Bearing in mind the fine balance between ecological and food security needs, such measures need to be interdisciplinary. It also needs to involve different community members, as well as other stakeholders. More research would be needed to determine the nutritional content and potential toxic contents in the most fished invertebrate species.

The European Union has since the 1970s shifted their focus towards environmental policies and today they aim at the adequate implementation of environmental sustainability initiatives across all member states. The process of the implementation of sustainability reporting and corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the achievement of the SDGs require a multilevel governance paradigm-shift, provides a framework for all involved parties to act and perform accordingly. The Directive 2014/95/EU on non-financial and diversity reporting is an incentive to achieve higher environmental, social and economic sustainability and transparency amongst European corporations. However, deriving from the nature of a directive, it does not offer a clear guideline to follow nor actual legislative guidance. Even though directives are mandatory to be implemented in national legislation, the way and form of it may vary to a great extent due to the fact that it is sufficient for the EU if the directive is translated into the countries’ law. This, however, results in different levels of efficiency and performance in different countries.This research contributes to the understanding of the implementation of environmental EU directives with the goal of achieving sustainable development within the EU member states. Throughout a multilevel governance and deductive approach, the comparative case study highlights the differences and identifies leverage points for policy makers and future research to develop common best practices for such purposes.In order to answer the research question Why do countries perform in significantly different ways within the field of sustainability, given they are all following the same directives issued by the EU?, the comparison of the two selected countries, Hungary and Sweden was conducted through two sub-questions, which aimed at identifying the differences and similarities in their governance framework to reach the SDGs and legislation following the Directive 2014/94/EU. In conclusion, clear differences can be identified between the countries’ political commitment, integrational and holistic approach of sustainability into policy-making and; and the “extra mile” and commitment that Sweden manifested to improving the sustainability and transparency level of corporations in applying stricter measures in national legislation following the Directive 2014/95/EU and handling sustainability as a concept as a crucial, essential and integrated part of life.

The increased concern of protection of nature in recent days creates more opportunity and prospects in the natural fibre sector. Jute is a natural fibre. Jute plants mostly grow in the Ganges delta region comprises Bangladesh and India. Bangladesh produces the finest quality of jute in the world. It contributed robustly in the economy of Bangladesh earlier, therefore it was considered as the ‘golden fibre’ of Bangladesh. But with the increased use of synthetic fibre, jute industry lost its glory. Therefore, provoked by the problems of decreased use of jute and the current environmental concern, this research has been conducted. The paper aims to find out the environmental benefits of jute as a natural fibre. Along with that, the economic benefits from the jute industry and value-added diversified products are also examined. To narrow down this study, Bangladesh has been chosen to find out the economic prospects and social factors there, considering Bangladesh is the second largest producer of jute and its emerging economic condition. However, the main goal of this study is to consider the environmental, economic and social factors of jute as a whole and jute’s contribution to sustainable development. To carry out the study, research questions has been set up according to the aim of the study. Literature review has been chosen as a primary method. Interviews have been taken from important key personnel associated with jute sectors playing important role in the research. Qualitative method has been chosen for data analysis. From the literature review and interview outcomes, the results have been formulated. It is found in the study that jute has lots of contribution in the environment. It purifies air, preserves forest, produces natural fertilization, increases fertility of the soil, produces biogas or renewable energy, holds strong biological efficiency and so on. Those benefits are found both in the scientific literatures and also from interviews. Increased demand of natural fibres creates market opportunity of jute. Along with this, the new application with enhanced value make jute products more attractive and economically worthy. Especially in the geotextile, automobile, infra structure and packaging sectors, there is a bright future prospects of jute. The enhanced economic opportunity along with environmental benefits, the jute industry will extend that will create more employment opportunity. Already, in Bangladesh, almost twenty-five million people are associated directly and indirectly with jute industry. Therefore, there is a social influence of jute to the people associated with it. Farmer’s social sustainability depends on the successful jute cultivation. The local entrepreneurs are also getting social access by making themselves independent and confident. Thereby, the relations among these three parts of sustainability-environment, economy and society in relation to jute are attempted to find out through this study.

The issue of climate migration has long been struggling to make its way onto the international agenda. This study therefore set out to shed a light on eleven strategies for handling climate migration. The study builds on the work by Ransan-Cooper et al. (2015) where they allocate actors to four different frames depending on how the actor in question view the environmental migrant, either as; a victim; a security threat; an adaptive agent or; a political subject. This makes out an important comparative basis for the analysis done in this study. It also provides a background on problem definition and framing and the role it plays in policy making. This study then takes the step to also present solutions to the problem defined by presenting concrete strategies which can all be allocated to one of the four frames. The core ideas of the strategies and the solutions they provide are presented using a content analysis. In addition, the question of responsibility for climate migrants is discussed using three normative theories: contribution to the problem, ability to pay and beneficiary pays. The study concludes that there is a consensus among most actors that there is a need for global cooperation and shared responsibility for climate migration and climate migrants. It also concludes that the way a problem is defined or framed plays a highly important role.

Copper (Cu) is a heavy metal that is essential for life but toxic at high concentrations. This toxic effect is used on boats to prevent biofouling on boat hulls by painting the hulls with antifouling paint that contain high levels of Cu. The Cu is slowly diffused out in the water and accumulated by animals higher up in the food chain. In order to test the effects of marinas on Cu bioaccumulation in invertebrates, I sampled molluscs at seven marinas and seven shore sites on the Swedish west coast. Two molluscs with different feeding behaviours, one grazer, the periwinkle (Littorina littorea) and one filter feeder, the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) were used as study organisms. Both species were sampled at each location within 50 m from each other. Body Cu concentration of both species was measured with a Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (FAAS). Cu concentration of periwinkle soft body tissue was generally higher than in mussel soft body tissue. In addition, periwinkle tissue Cu concentration reacted strongly positively to the presence of marinas, whereas mussel tissue Cu concentrations did not. This shows that contamination from marinas affects the grazing periwinkle but not the filter feeding blue mussel. Thus, for biomonitoring purposes, grazers may be more suited as indicator organisms.

Varved lake sediments were used to provide information on how a landscape is affected by disturbances of different scales, from global (i.e. climatic) to local (i.e. fires), as well as anthropogenic activities. Geochemical and pollen data, biogenic silica (bSi), lake-water total organic carbon (LWTOC) and chlorophyll a were used as proxies to infer past changes in lake-conditions. The goal was to evaluate the response to scale different disturbances and how it differs among sites. By comparing different lake records, it became possible to isolate the climatic signal from the effect of soil development and vegetation establishment, and differences emerging from different catchment characteristics. Climatic trends were reconstructed based on the pollen and geochemical data. The sediment records were then compared to identify the effect of each disturbance on individual lakes. One of the most prominent event observed was the immigration of spruce at about 3000 BP which considerably affected sedimentation trends. The presence of spruce within the catchment appears to promote the input of fine-grained material to the lakes. The timing and intensification of anthropogenic activities was established and it was possible to differentiate the effects of human disturbance from changes caused by natural processes such as climate or landscape vegetation cover changes. The results show that farming practices started earlier in more southern locations and that this timing is site-dependent. Two phases were identified, corresponding to the start of slash and burn farming and later to the expansion of agricultural practices, with a more profound transformation of the landscape.

This report is about the impact climate change has on the water and sewage systems in general, and the situation in the municipality of Karlstad in particular. Which vulnerabilities are linked to water and sewage systems with regard to climate change and extreme weather situations, what are the possibilities to adapt the system to this and what significance does climate adaptation of the water and sewage systems have in relation to sustainable development?To answer these questions I have studied literature on the subject and interviewed several people who work with these types of questions. The answers I have received state that there are a multitude of vulnerabilities linked to the water- and sewage systems, but that there are also many strong interests which strive to take measures and adapt to a changed climate. I have also come to the conclusion that the starting points and views of the possibilities to act differs between the people that I have interviewed, but that theses problems are built into the concept of democracy.

In 2015, the number of unaccompanied children that fled to Sweden and applied for asylum was 35 369, more than ever before. The great majority of them, 22 806, were young male refugees from Afghanistan, often with very small chances of returning back to their countries mainly due to war, oppression and poverty. For any society to become sustainable, integration of new citizens is essential. However, right-wing populist parties and nationalism is growing in Europe, including Sweden. The fundamental socioeconomic and cultural flourishing needed for individuals to get integrated is lacking and thus causing a segregated Sweden. The question is why. Hence, the purpose of this master thesis was to examine what barriers that exist for economic-, social- and cultural integration in Sweden based on the perceptions of young male refugees from Afghanistan. This was studied through ten qualitative semi-structured interviews with young male Afghan refugees between 19 and 25 years’ old in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, in April 2019. The results were analysed through a conceptual framework of economic-, social- and cultural integration. The results revealed that language was perceived to be the main barrier for both economic-, social- and cultural integration, which in turn impacted the other perceived barriers of attaining an employment, lack of governmental support, difficulties in interacting with Swedes and crash of cultures. Experienced discrimination was mentioned throughout all societal spheres. To overcome these barriers, interactions with Swedes was believed to be essential. Factors that showed to enable this were improved language skills, active societal participation and living with host families.