The Circular Economy was developed as a response to the prevailing linear model of material use. The goal of the concept is to eliminate waste and mitigate environmental impacts by transforming the economic system into one that pursues a circular flow of materials and resources, in contrast to the current make-use-waste paradigm. While the concept has gained some momentum in the past years, there is still no definition that is agreed upon by scholars and practitioners. While the goal of the Circular Economy is clear, the perspectives on how this can be achieved differ. This study focuses on the Circular Economy at the city level via a case study of Uppsala, Sweden. The aim of this study is to gather the perspectives of actors active in circularity and to determine whether they agree on how the Circular Economy can be achieved. While there are a large number of actors involved in Circular Economy in Uppsala, this study focuses on two actor groups: the municipality and businesses. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and the actors' responses were analysed in regard to the actor's underlying ideology, their role within Circular Economy and their perception on how a transition to a circular system should occur. The study's results reveal that the actors in Uppsala lack an overall consensus on how the Circular Economy should be achieved, even though they tend to agree on some aspects. Furthermore, the interviewed actors do not take into account the systemic perspective of the transition. In response to this finding, the waste hierarchy was updated with the aim to draw attention to this notion. Additionally, it is found that most of the interviewed actors mention co-operation among different organisations as being the key to achieving the Circular Economy, which could help to promote the Circular Economy in the future.

In a world that is changing rapidly due to the social and environmental consequences of the unsustainable economic growth, societal and economic transformations from unsustainable visions and practices are inevitable. While there is a need to develop alternative approaches to production and consumption, changing these systems is not feasible without changing the mainstream marketing ideas and its practices where the main incentive is “how to sell more”. The initial phase of the research process supports conceptual clarity and the evolution of marketing thought towards sustainability marketing. It identifies the presence of sustainability marketing in the existing marketing curriculum through qualitative content analysis using grounded theory and quasi-statistical approaches, that facilitates the search for sustainability in marketing curriculum based on UNESCO’s indicative learning objectives for promoting Education for Sustainable Development. The thesis draws on relevant literature in the marketing field, utilizing the content analysis of various syllabi and mandatory literature of Uppsala University’s marketing courses, as well as employing semi-structured interviews with five lecturers of Uppsala University’s Marketing faculty and eight marketing students from across Sweden. The institutional setup of the case of Uppsala University is found to be problematic when considering its commitments towards sustainable development and its Action Plan for Sustainable Development 2019–2021. The study established the strong influence of dominant social paradigm in the curriculum development of marketing courses, which was evident through the content analysis and portrayals of the respondents’ perspectives of the marketing faculty. Further, it was found that the societal understanding of marketing dictates what can be taught in marketing education, which consequently circumscribes what can be researched in marketing. In addition, the concept of sustainability marketing was found to be nonexistent in mandatory literature of the courses, and was poorly covered throughout the secondary literature. Similarly, most of the mandatory literature of the marketing courses of Uppsala University do not follow UNESCO’s (2017) indicative learning objectives for promoting ESD, and hence do not promote learning for sustainable development. The results of this thesis suggest that we still have a long way to go to bring Education for Sustainable Development into marketing education, as current mainstream marketing practices and its rationale with dominant social paradigm prevalence maintains, supports and exacerbates the global unsustainable consumption and production patterns.

The project of sustainable development, as reflected in the Agenda 2030 and the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals, plays a central role in the story of crisis and transformation today. Yet, this project has rarely been the object of ideology critique. This paper formulates an ideology critique as a form of immanent critique of the project of sustainable development with a basis in Herbert Marcuse’s one-dimensionality thesis. The analysis of the ideology of sustainable development is structured around the three-pillar conception of sustainability which is applied in the Agenda 2030. The transformative potential of the project of sustainable development is assessed on the background of the analysis. The transformative potential in each of the three pillars is found to be inhibited by the project of sustainable development and the paper identifies and explains the ideological mechanisms through which this inhibition takes place. The research suggests that the project of sustainable development cannot be seen as a transformative project.

Sanitation is critical for sustainable development. However, the current systems in place are vulnerable to future risks. One of the main risks expected to have severe effects on the earth systems and our societies is climate change. If not dealt with, it threats to hinder or even reverse the progress done in sanitation access so far. On the other hand, countries are lacking the financial capabilities to achieve the sustainable development goals related to sanitation, not to mention the additional costs needed to increase its resilience towards climate variability and extreme weather conditions. Nevertheless, sanitation is not only vulnerable to climate change, it is also a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions which drive climate change. It is therefore important to better understand the linkages between sanitation and climate change. The aim of this study is to evaluate the inclusion of sanitation in climate policy and finance. A secondary content analysis is used to identify interest in sanitation in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris agreement. Climate-related official development assistance flows and financial elements of approved project proposals by the Green Climate Fund board are analyzed to quantify climate finance flows supporting sanitation projects. The results indicate that sanitation is largely ignored in countries’ climate agendas constituting only 1% of all countries’ activities with very scarce mitigation activities for the sector. Furthermore, sanitation is marginalized in the international climate finance landscape. Very limited climate-related finance from official development assistance was found allocated to projects with the main focus on sanitation. As for the GCF approved project proposals, only 7 projects out of 99 had sanitation or wastewater-related components and only one project of the 7 received GCF funding. These results indicate a knowledge gap of sanitation’s potential contribution to emissions reduction and the risks from climate change towards sanitation systems. Furthermore, it points out the need for better coordination between development and climate finance in order to reduce the finance gap and help achieve the sustainable development goals and the Paris agreement simultaneously.

This study explores the option of stimulating cycling activity as part of the strife of the modern city towards adopting the principles of sustainable development in order to shape the everyday habits of its inhabitants. The case of the city of Glasgow was chosen as an appropriate example of the potential obstacles and benefits which the implementation of cycling policies is attributed with. The Scottish city’s cycling agenda was analysed and interpreted in light of a broader international context by offering similar instances. This paper is divided into two main parts. The first one focuses on reviewing and assessing the key aspects of Glasgow’s Strategic Plan for Cycling 2016 - 2025 and questions its applicability/capability on achieving the cycling rates (10% of all journeys) stipulated by the Scottish government. This is done via a literature review and supplementary interviews by local experts and suggests that there is a strong correlation between cycling levels and governmental/ local council policies while also indicating that historical, cultural or climate-related tendencies do not have such a strong influence. The paper identifies Glasgow’s cycling plan as inclusive and contributing to the evolution of urban planning towards sustainability. Additionally, it is established that the plan creates liaisons between the state, the private sector and civil society (in the form of NGOs and local community groups as well as individuals), which has led to lasting partnerships based on the collaborative planning and execution of projects. Lastly, the analysis implies that Glasgow’s plan for cycling distinguishes deftly between applying soft or/and hard measures according to the needs of the local residents, in particular, the local users. The second part of the paper investigates the successes and shortcomings of Glasgow’s Strategic Plan for Cycling 2016 - 2025 when it comes to the case of the South City Way Development Project by drawing links from the prior analysis and additional primary data sources. The thesis suggests that the main difficulties associated with the project would stem from the inconsistent cooperation with local community groups, the lack of opportunities for citizen participation and to a lesser degree the insufficient amount of supporting cycling infrastructure (cycle parking). Cycling-related policies have proven to be able to play a significant role in achieving sustainable urban development. Glasgow City Council’s cycling plan underlines the importance of combining governmental standards, environmental needs and communal necessities but at the same time fails to implement them in practice in order to achieve the fundamental shift in behaviour set as a target by the Scottish government. Sidelining the essential partnership and cooperation with local stakeholders as well as community involvement would likely bring about fractured public support, limited outreach and thus diminished results. Having pooled considerable financial and human resources into creating the 2016 -2025 Strategic Plan for Cycling, the paper suggests that Glasgow City Council has to follow its guidelines strictly in order to lead its community towards sustainability.

Global plastic pollution of the natural environment is extremely detrimental as it is causing deaths of animal species. More than 80 % of marine litter is made up by plastics and 70 % of those are made up by disposable items. For this reason, the European Parliament has agreed to abolish the top ten single-use plastic items found in the marine environment from the EU market from 2021. Therefore, the fossil-based disposables will need to be substituted by disposables made from renewable materials. It is thus important to investigate the environmental impact of these alternatives through their life cycle in order to support sustainable consumption and production. In this study, environmental impact of disposable plates made from two different renewable materials (paper and leaf) were analysed by means of life cycle assessment (LCA). The aim of the study was to examine the environmental performance of the two plates in the impact category global warming potential (GWP); and reveal the processes with the largest contributions to the overall GWP of each plate. The leaf plate was produced in India and the paper plate in the Nordics, however, both plates were used and disposed of in Uppsala, Sweden. The results showed that the leaf plate has a higher GWP due to its long-distance transport and electricity use derived from fossil fuels. Scenario analysis has proved that its GWP can be reduced when sea transport route is chosen instead of flying and production is increased. When it comes to the paper plate life cycle, the processing stage was identified to contribute the most to the total GWP. It could be further improved by applying a biodegradable layer for its coating. To keep the good performance in GWP the plate should be incinerated with energy recovery. The disposal of the plates has a substantial positive influence on their total carbon footprint as both plates substitute use of fossil fuels. However, the credits allocated for the different waste management options are specific to Uppsala and thus the results of this study should be applied only under similar conditions.

Med ett klimat som blir allt varmare kan behovet av nedkylning i fastigheter öka. Bergkyla är ett exempel på en nedkylningsmetod som kan vara ett effektivt sätt att kyla ner fastigheter på som redan använder sig av bergvärme. Då kan samma borrhål användas till båda ändamål; värme under kallare perioder och kyla under varmare. Bergkyla hämtar kyla från berggrunden genom att en köldbärarvätska cirkulerar i slangar nedsänkta i borrhålet. Köldbärarvätskan är varm när den förs ner i borrhålet där den kyls ned och förs därefter tillbaka till anläggningen. Detta utbyte av värmeenergi mellan köldbärarvätskan och berget gör inte bara att köldbärarvätskan sjunker i temperatur, berget runt borrhålet ökar även i temperatur. Om berget runt borrhålet ökar i temperatur kommer även det djupliggande, relikta grundvatten som finns i berggrunden att öka i temperatur. Detta skulle kunna skapa en vertikaltransport av det kloridhaltiga relikta grundvattnet upp till det ytliga grundvattnet, som då kontamineras. Målet med detta projekt var att undersöka huruvida en ökad användning av bergkyla skulle kunna skapa en vertikaltransport av det relikta grundvattnet upp till det ytliga och i sådana fall om detta skulle vara av betydelse för dricksvattenproduktionen i Uppsala. Området som studerades i detta projekt är Sunnersta, där antalet borrhål för bergvärme är många och potentiellt är ett område där många även väljer att installera bergkyla i sina redan befintliga borrhål. Projektet baserades på en litteraturstudie samt fördjupade beräkningar på vertikaltransporten av det relikta grundvattnet. Temperaturökningarna som beräkningarna baserades på var för enskilda borrhål 0,02 grader Celsius, där området runt borrhålet som var påverkat hade en radie på 20 m. För 47 borrhål användes istället temperaturökningen 1,2 grader Celsius, där storleken på det berörda området inte var specificerat. Extremfall för temperaturen i grundvattnet studerades för att se hur flödeshastigheten förändrades och genom det se hur tiden för transporten av det relikta vattnet påverkades. När den förstnämnda temperaturökningen användes så erhölls resultatet att det skulle ta 1750 år. Koncentrationen klorid detta medför i det ytliga grundvattnet blev då 253 mg/l om omblandningen av de båda vattenmassorna skulle ske under ett dygn, samt 75,5 mg/l om omblandningen skulle ske under ett år. Detta jämfördes med 100 mg/l som var riktvärdet för klorid i grundvatten från SGU. Analyserna av resultaten visade att en vertikaltransport kommer ske vid en temperaturökning orsakad av bergkylautvinning. Risken att det relikta grundvattnet skulle kontaminera det ytliga grundvattnet bedömdes dock låg eftersom det skulle krävas antingen väldigt många år för transporten eller osannolikt stora temperaturökningar. Med de antaganden som gjordes fanns stora osäkerheter kring beräkningarna och det främsta utvecklingsområdet bedömdes vara att mer forskning krävs för att kunna dra säkrare slutsatser kring riskerna med bergkyla. / STUNS Energy Stories

The Arctic archipelago of Svalbard has experienced among the greatest increases in temperature on Earth in the last few decades. The changing climatic conditions have a large impact on the glacier mass balance. This study makes use of a highresolution model dataset with data on climatic and glacier conditions on Svalbard from 1957 to 2018. The model dataset is used to analyse the spatiotemporal variability in glacier mass balance across Svalbard and linking those changes to long-term trends in meteorological conditions. The study is focused on the spatial gradients in trends between two regions in Svalbard, the coldest part of the archipelago, Nordaustlandet and the milder southern part of the main island Spitsbergen. The north eastern (NE) region is found to have a greater increase in annual air temperature over the simulation period with 5.5 °C compared to 3.5 °C for the south western (SW) region. The increase in annual summer temperatures is much smaller with a total increase of 1 °C for the NW and 1.5 °C for the SW. Both regions show a small, but significant, increase of precipitation. Relative humidity and cloud cover in the NE are increasing slightly over the time period, probably due to retreating sea ice cover. Glacier melt and runoff are increasing in both regions, which is contributing to significant negative trends in the mass balance. The increase in melt and run off is stronger in the SW than in the NE. There’s a strong correlation between summer air temperature and glacier mass balance, melt and runoff. Refreezing in the NE is decreasing much faster than in the SW. Refreezing is strongly correlated with annual air temperatures in the NE and not in the SW, probably due to lower temperatures in the NE region.

I detta projekt har farthinders påverkan på luftkvaliteten på Vaksalagatan i Uppsala studerats. Bakgrunden till detta projekt var att oro bland de boende på Vaksalagatan uppstod då farthinder infördes på gatan under 2017 och att det ligger i Uppsalas kommuns intresse att ständigt arbeta med att förbättra luftkvaliteten i kommunen. Höga halter av luftföroreningar är ett allvarligt folkhälsoproblem och orsakar många för tidiga dödsfall. Partiklar med en aerodynamisk diameter mindre än 10 m (PM10) och kvävedioxider (NO2) är de luftföroreningar som idag påverkar människors hälsa främst och det är därför just dessa två valts att studera i detta projekt. Båda dessa luftföroreningar har vägtrafiken som en av de främsta utsläppskällorna. Halter av PM10 domineras av partiklar som frigörs vid slitage av vägbana, däck och bromsar bland annat. Vid förbränning av bränslen frigörs kväveoxider (NOx) som sedan oxideras till NO2 i luft. För att utvärdera hur luftkvaliteten på Vaksalagatan påverkades av farthinder användes simuleringsverktyget SIMAIR. SIMAIR är ett webbaserat modellsystem utvecklat av Sveriges meteorologiska och hydrologiska institut (SMHI) främst för att beräkna luftkvaliteten runt om i Sveriges tätorter och för att kontrollera halterna i jämförelse med miljökvalitetsnormer, utvärderingströsklar och miljökvalitetsmålet Frisk luft. Då resuspensionsmodellen som är implementerad i SIMAIR saknar hastighetsberoende för partiklar infördes en korrektion av detta. Resultatet från detta projekt resulterade i att både emissionerna och halterna PM10 minskade vid införandet av farthinder. För NOx samt NO2 ökade emissioner och halterna då simuleringar med farthinder genomfördes i jämförelse med referenskörningen som inte innefattade några farthinder. För att fastställa hur luftkvaliteten påverkades av farthinder längs hela Vaksalagatan beräknades procentuella förändringar av respektive luftförorening. Den procentuella förändringen visar dock att halten PM10 minskar med 12 % samt att NO2 ökar med 17 %. Resultat från en tidigare studie visar att PM10 har en större negativ effekt på folkhälsan i jämförelse med NO2 och därmed är den samlade bedömningen att luftkvaliteten, sett till människors hälsa, förbättras något på Vaksalagatan.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of the groundwater around the Aitik copper mine- one of Europe’s largest copper mine located 15 km outside of Gällivare, Sweden - as well the placement of the groundwater pipes around the area. The study also included a survey of what kind of terms, regarding groundwater that may become relevant in the future for an activity of Aitik’s size and type. Monitoring data was analysed between the years 2014 – 2018 for the parameters; pH, SO4, Cd, Co, Cu, Zn, Ni and U. The correlation between the parameters where tested and the monitoring data where compared to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency criteria for groundwater as well to the groundwater chemistry from a reference area nearby, Liikavaara Östra. The result of the study shows that low pH raises the mobility of the metals Cd, Co, Cu, Zn and Ni. The result also indicates that SO4, Ni and Co are higher than the reference area but that the groundwater overall shows small signs of being affected by sulphide weathering. Therefore, metals can’t be excluded from originating from high background contents. The geographic analyse shows that the groundwater pipes are well placed in compared with the water flow direction and that two of the pipes can be excluded from sampling. Future terms regarding groundwater will likely regard protective measures and quantity restrictions. Still monitoring groundwater quality is very important to control environmental impact of the activity and to prevent deterioration of quality in the future.