Climate change and rapid urbanization have caused several vulnerabilities for the global food system, and alternative farming methods are required to solve this ongoing crisis. Zero acreage farming can be a sustainable farming a to geoponics, as it is developing worldwide, and in Stockholm, this provides an opportunity to produce food year-round. In addition to that, it makes the food system more resilient and increases food security. The thesis aimed to explore the possibilities of zero-acreage farming on household rooftops in Stockholm and achieve the demand for tomatoes with an aeroponics growing system. With the help of GIS software, 4269 flat and slant roofs with a total available area of 3815121 m2 are found to implement a greenhouse. The GIS study shows that the south sector had the better potential for more extensive operations considering buildings, more population, and broader roads where transportation will be made more accessible. The central sector had the least potential for zero acreage farming because those regions have heritage values and narrow streets, making the transportation and supply chain difficult. The result of the aeroponics growing system reveals that the Stockholm tomato demand can be achieved in a 12780 m2 area with 95% water saving and 90% less global warming potential (GWP)compared to geoponics or conventional farming. Further on, this thesis suggests aeroponics as a sustainable alternative way of growing crops to minimize the impact on the environment caused by geoponics over the centuries.

A large body of research implies that modern human behaviour threatens various life – sustaining resources. The excessive consumption patterns of resources by humans has been identified as one of the main causes of the environmental crisis. Automatic and unconscious decision-making behaviours have become deeply internalized among individuals, resulting in unsustainable and unnecessary consumption patterns. Emerging literature has begun to explore the concept of mindfulness in relation to sustainable consumption, and reports on a positive relation to lower ecological footprints, connectedness to nature and sustainable consumption patterns. This particular study builds upon existing empirical findings and addresses the relationship between mindfulness, impulsivity and consumption. An extensive literature review and primary data collection method based on a convenience sample, were used as methodological approaches for this study. Based on the data gathered through an online questionnaire, the study finds that mindfulness has a negative relation to impulsive buying behaviour, suggesting a decrease in impulsive consumption among individuals with a higher level of mindfulness. Contrary to existing research, this study found no significant relation between mindfulness and pro-environmental behaviour. However, there are several limitations to this study due to method bias, measurement issues as well as due to the format of the questionnaire approach, that need to be considered when discussing the findings. Overall, this research indicated that by tapping into mindfulness, individuals may become less vulnerable to automatic processing, helping to break routines and make consumers become more aware of negative effects of consumption choices. This paper recommends continued research and suggests possible future pathways.

As the notion of sustainability has gained prominence in the past decade, so have different disciplines that have addressed sustainability issues from an educational standpoint, for example Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development. Both fields have been called out for shortcomings such as omitting social considerations to sustainability issues and reproducing neoliberal framings that go hand in hand with oppressive power structures and systemic inequality. To better grasp how sustainability education is framed in relation to anti-oppressive pedagogy, this research conducted a Critical Discourse Analysis on selected materials that were publicly available on the websites of three international high schools with sustainability-oriented curricula—Green School, United World Colleges, and Amala Education. From the analysis of the selected documents, the three educational organizations’ discourses of sustainability align with the narrative of Education for Sustainable Development and lack critical considerations on the embeddedness of their sustainability education, and the larger sustainability challenge, in neoliberal framings and systems of oppression that reproduce inequality and marginalization and that constrain processes of transformation. While language that relates to the framings of anti-oppressive pedagogy was present, to different extents, in the texts of the three organizations, it was not framed in relation to sustainability, but as a separate layer of educational practice, lacking problematization on the role of sustainability education discourses in the making of anti-oppressive sustainability education, and on the critical significance of considering anti-oppressive pedagogy for the making of sustainability education.

The globally dominant form of business organisation, the Investor-Owned Firm or the Corporation, has been challenged in both academic settings and the wide world for falling short on ensuring environmental and social justice and sustainability. Alternative business models like co-operatives, with a rich though somewhat less known history and presence around the world, might prove a better fit for a thriving world and a sustainable future. This study investigates ways in which worker co-operatives can contribute to a more sustainable world, using the theoretical lens of Doughnut Economics (DE) to place enterprises, as a supporting pillar of our economies, at the intersection between meeting social needs and operating within planetary boundaries. A descriptive multiple case study of six worker co-operatives in the UK indicates that this model can contribute to sustainability primarily by embodying a core purpose of fulfilling the needs of workers and their communities, rather than aiming for financial gains. The research suggests worker co-operatives are enterprises with highly generative design traits, distributive of the wealth they generate, and to some degree regenerative by design. Where challenges occur, either internally or wider in their industry or the co-operative movement, the co-operatives appear willing and interested to work on improving themselves by learning from their peers, experimenting and welcoming change. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on sustainability in worker co-operatives, employing DE as a holistic framework which so far has been seldom used in business research.

Svenska pressgjuterier producerar cirka 65 000 ton aluminiumgjutgods årligen. Ungefär hälften av tillverkningen är riktad mot fordonsindustrin. Råvaran, gjutlegeringar i tackform, tillverkas på omsmältverk där en blandning av uttjänta aluminiumprodukter smälts ner och legeras till olika gjutlegeringar som efterfrågas av gjuteriindustrin. En nedgradering av aluminiumet sker då skrot med lågt innehåll av legeringsämnen blandas med höglegerat skrot. Pressgjutmetoden ger upphov till stora volymer returskrot som enligt gällande lagstiftning betraktas som avfall. Den senaste revideringen av avfallsdirektivet utmynnade bland annat i ett av huvudmålen som siktar mot att gå från avfall till resurs genom det så kallade avfallspaketet. Genom minskade avfallsmängder, ökad återanvändning och återvinning samt en förbättrad avfallshantering ska en övergång från linjär till cirkulär ekonomi nås. Pressgjuteribranschens bidrag till denna övergång skulle kunna möjliggöras genom att låta branschen skapa egna värdekedjor där returskrot med känt innehåll får köpas och säljas mellan pressgjuteriverksamheter. Denna hantering är inte tillåten idag då pressgjuteriers verksamhetstillstånd i regel är begränsade till en råvaruhantering som endast tillåter köpt gjutlegering och omsmältning av eget returskrot. Dagens ökande elbilstillverkning kommer sannolikt att minska behovet av höglegerat gjutaluminium då komponenter som motorblock och kylare inte behövs i elfordon. Genom att utöka tillstånden för pressgjuterier kring råvaruanvändning skulle värdekedjor skapas där återgångsskrot med känt legeringsinnehåll används som en råvara istället för att som idag betraktas som ett avfall

Delineation of recharge areas for aquifers is performed in the groundwater mapping process at the Swedish geological survey, SGU. This work is time consuming and performed manually. It is therefore desirable to develop a more general and repeatable method for defining recharge areas for aquifers. The purpose of this study was to investigate two other possible methods to delineate recharge areas for aquifers. The first method was to examine the possibility of using the topography of the bedrock to define the recharge areas for aquifers. To enable this, a method for generating the topography of the bedrock was developed. The recharge area could then be defined by using the Arc Hydro Tools in ArcMap. The second method was to examine whether topographic water divides delimited from the ground surface topography could be used to delineate recharge areas for aquifers. For this purpose, topographic water divides from Svenskt Vatten ARkiv (SVAR) were used. The results show that it is possible to generate the topography of the bedrock by using information about the soil depth from the databases at SGU for small areas with a lot of data. In order to do the same over a larger area, for example the whole of Sweden, more data and perhaps other methods are needed. The topography of the bedrock gives a lot of new information in areas where the topography of the groundwater surface does not follow the topography of the ground surface, for example where deep soils with high hydraulic conductivity occur. In the outer part of the recharge areas thin layers of soil and outcrops often occur. This means that the topography of the bedrock is very similar to the topography of the ground surface and therefore does not give much new information. Recharge areas delineated from the bedrock topography are very large. This method is not complex enough to calculate the delineation of recharge areas using only the bedrock topography as an input. However, the bedrock topography can be used together with other information, especially the topography of the groundwater surface but also information about soil types and bedrock. The bedrock topography can also serve as background information in the work with delimiting recharge areas as it is done today. It is further shown that the topographic sub-catchments from SVAR are not suitable for defining recharge areas for aquifers. This is partly because the areas of the sub-catchments are entirely dependent on which point they are defined from and these points are chosen arbitrarily along the streams, and partly because the drainage direction of the sub-catchments is difficult to take into account when using this method. / Arbetet med att avgränsa grundvattenmagasin och deras tillrinningsområden sker idag inom grundvattenkarteringen på Sveriges geologiska undersökning, SGU. Detta arbete är tidskrävande och utförs manuellt. Det finns därför en önskan om att utveckla ett mer generellt och repeterbart arbetssätt för att avgränsa tillrinningsområden till grundvattenmagasin. Syftet med detta examensarbete var att undersöka två andra tänkbara metoder för framtagande av grundvattenmagasins tillrinningsområden. Den första metoden innebar att undersöka möjligheterna att avgränsa ett magasins tillrinningsområde utifrån berggrundens topografi. För att möjliggöra detta utvecklades en metod för framtagande av berggrundens topografi. Därefter har tillrinningsområden till grundvattenmagasin avgränsats med hjälp av programmet ArcMap och verktyget Arc Hydro Tools. Den andra metoden innebar att undersöka huruvida topografiska vattendelare avgränsade utifrån markytans topografi kan användas för att avgränsa tillrinningsområden till grundvattenmagasin. För detta ändamål har topografiska vattendelare från Svenskt Vatten ARkiv (SVAR) använts. Resultaten visar att det går att interpolera fram berggrundens topografi utifrån den jorddjupsinformation som finns lagrad i SGUs databaser inom små områden med täta jorddjupsdata. För att göra detsamma över ett större område, kanske till och med hela Sverige, krävs mer data och eventuellt också en annan typ av metod. Berggrundens överyta ger mest ny information i områden där grundvattenytan inte följer markytans topografi, som i mäktiga jordlager med hög hydraulisk konduktivitet. I tillrinningsområdens yttre gräns förekommer ofta hällar och tunna jordlager. Berggrundens topografi följer då markytans topografi till stor utsträckning och ger därmed inte mycket ny information. Tillrinningsområden avgränsade utifrån berggrundens topografi blir till ytan mycket stora. De förenklingar av verkligheten som metoden kräver bedöms vara för omfattande för att metoden ska kunna användas för avgränsning av tillrinningsområden med endast berggrundens topografi som underlag. Däremot kan berggrundens topografi användas i kombination med annan information, främst grundvattenytans topografi men även information om jordarter och bergarter. Berggrundens överyta kan också vara till hjälp i arbetet med att avgränsa tillrinningsområden såsom det utförs på SGU idag genom att fungera som bakgrundsinformation. Vidare visas att topografiska delavrinningsområden från SVAR inte lämpar sig för att avgränsa tillrinningsområden till grundvattenmagasinet. Detta dels på grund av att delavrinningsområdenas utbredning är helt beroende av från vilken punkt de avgränsats och dessa punkter väljs godtyckligt längs vattendragen, dels på grund av att områdenas dräneringsriktning är svår att ta hänsyn till i metoden.

The trace fossil, or ichnofossil record provides a different perspective on animal evolution compared to that of body fossil, as it is typically preserved in different facies and lacks the bias towards mineralised body parts. As trace fossils record behaviours, they often cannot be assigned to particular producers, except in rare cases where they are found in association with them. However, they play an important role in the study of evolution and biostratigraphy and are particularly useful in stratigraphic studies of otherwise unfossiliferous rocks.Rusophycus is a rare exception as it is a trace fossil that is typically assigned to a trilobite tracemaker. However, this does not exclude other arthropods from being considered as potential producers of Rusophycus. Indeed, the trace appears before the first trilobite body fossils and is found after their disappearance. The earlier occurrences of Rusophycus are also the earliest undoubted signs of arthropods and are from the Terreneuvian. Pre-trilobitic forms seem to be different from their younger counterpart in morphological aspect, but this has not been formally quantified.This study investigates these early Rusophycus to obtain a clearer picture of what the pre-trilobitic Rusophycus record is like and to search for temporal trends in their morphology. Pre-trilobitic occurrences are also compared with younger ones to quantify their differences and try to interpret their significance. Pre-trilobitic Rusophycus appear to have lower length:width ratios than the younger ones. Moreover, they are also, on average wider than the younger Rusophycus. This is significant as it could result from a change in producer and probably in appendages used for digging. It could as well reflect a reduction in the number of appendages used. However, these low ratios could also be the result of taphonomic variation and the preservation of only the deeper parts of the traces. A reflection on the potential producers of the pre-trilobitic Rusophycus is also provided based on what is known of the morphology of early arthropods. While no definitive conclusion can be made, the probability that at least some of the earlier Rusophycus were not made by trilobites appears to be clear.

The process of getting to ESD is as important as the implementation of ESD itself. The study argues that the extent to which essential ESD characteristics are indeed present in the process of establishing an ESD program yields implications to the chances of a program becoming successful. To illustrate this argument, the present case study examines the ESD masterplan drafting process by the Hamburg Learns Sustainability (HLN) initiative in Germany. It aims to gain insights into the essential elements that determine the success or failure of a city-wide ESD initiative. To find out these essential elements, the present study, through literature review on social learning theory, developed the CSR-I conceptual framework: Community Belonging, System Integration, Reflection and Infrastructure to assess the HLN case. Data were gathered through interviews with key informants and review of documentation. The results show that the social learning dimensions of participation, integration, diversity and facilitation have the strongest presence. These essential elements make a city-wide ESD initiative a success.

The clothing industry can be linked to problematic issues of social equity and environmental sustainability worldwide. This is manifested in the every-day consumer behavior of industrialized societies, which heavily relies on geographically distant labor and resources. Therefore, this thesis looked at the interconnection of social equity and environmental sustainability from a nexus perspective. Nexus approaches are increasingly defining the pathway to sustainable development, yet they typically represent resource-efficient and technological solutions. This form of problematizing water sustainability can keep long-term societal justice problems ‘beneath the surface’, meaning that they are less considered. The WPR approach was used as an analysis tool to understand underlying implications of water sustainability problematizations in the clothing industry. An embedded single case study on the Sweden Textile Water Initiative (STWI) was conducted, which included and integrated literature review, brand document analysis and semi-structured interviews. The initiative’s goal is to help clothing brands to address water sustainability issues along the supply chain. The results show that water sustainability stands in connection to four overarching themes; environmental issues, economic issues, technological issues and socio-political issues. There is a consensus in the literature and amongst the industry representatives that the problems connected to water sustainability in the clothing industry mainly occur on factory level in producing countries. Additionally, the results show that brands have difficulties to act on their responsibility as strong influencers of the supply chain if there is not a business case. Overall this thesis concludes that the classical nexus approach is not a sufficient solution to water sustainability issues if resources make up the center of analysis and social implications are only considered secondary effects.

The voluntary carbon market, the area of focus for this thesis, developed alongside the compliance carbon market when individuals and organisations elected to compensate for their CO2 emissions. The steep growth in demand for voluntary carbon offset credits stemmed from the 2015 Paris Agreement. Climate issues were firmly on the agenda and carbon offsetting was viewed as a way for countries to meet their carbon reduction targets in efforts towards mitigating climate change. Since then, there has been a shift to natural climate solutions, namely forestry and land use carbon projects.  The ideal host location for such projects oftentimes have an existing, usually poor, population.  Project developers claim to help such populations by providing community benefits such as job creation and improved agricultural practices.  However, there is a gap in the research which focuses on the future of these communities after the projects, and how sustainable the benefits are.  This thesis examines the community benefits of two REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) projects: Alto Mayo Conservation Initiative, Peru and Yaeda Valley REDD Project, Tanzania.  Interviews with project developers are cross-referenced with project documents and other available sources to analyse the sustainability of the livelihood impacts.  The results show that the positive impacts of voluntary carbon projects on a local community can be sustained post-project. Overall, the well-being of community members can improve, as can decision-making skills and capacity levels.  Project participants can become more adaptable to shocks as their livelihoods have diversified and they have stronger links with international markets.  This link with international markets, however, can also become a barrier to livelihood benefits. As local people become reliant on market demand and project funds, they move away from subsistence farming and when demand drops, they may find it hard to prosper.  Additionally, there is a risk that following the departure of the project and its developers, more malevolent and powerful parties may move into the area.  To overcome these barriers, livelihood diversification opportunities need to be strengthened and land tenure issues clarified.