With a growing risk of food insecurity in the face of extreme population growth, the world is in need of hands-on solutions that could combine a significant increase in food production while decreasing the effects of agriculture on the environment. Such a solution could be provided through cultivating staple crops in Indoor Vertical Farming facilities, however, due to its high expenses, these developments have stagnated, lacking financial support. As this financial support could be provided by Impact Investors, this thesis explores the relevance of non-financial factors and how they relate to the financial returns as well as how much it influences an Impact Investors decision to invest. The primary data was collected through a quantitative survey, including a fictional scenario based upon the cultivation of wheat in an Indoor Vertical Farming. The results were analyzed and interpreted through the lens of the Willingness to Pay concept and the Rational Choice Theory.The results showed that in the case of this study, the respondents were most willing to pay for the factors water, yield, and emissions. However, regardless of the positive impact of these factors, they lacked the influence to get them to commit to the presented scenario as they still prioritized financial returns as the base of decision. Lastly, another prominent driver behind the investors likelihood to invest was found to be age, where younger investors were much more likely to invest than the older respondents. / Med en ökande risk för livsmedelsosäkerhet parallellt med extrem befolkningstillväxt behöver världen praktiska lösningar som kan kombinera en betydande ökning av livsmedelsproduktionen utan ökad belastning på miljön från intensifierat jordbruk. En sådan lösning kan tillhandahållas genom odling av stapelgrödor i vertikala jordbruksanläggningar inomhus, men på grund av dess höga kostnader blir denna utveckling stagnerad på grund av saknat ekonomiskt stöd. I och med att en möjlig väg att säkra ekonomiska stöd kan tillhandahållas av Impact Investors undersöker denna avhandling relevansen av icke-finansiella faktorer och hur de relaterar till den finansiella avkastningen samt hur mycket det påverkar ett Impact Investors beslut att investera. De primära uppgifterna samlades in genom en kvantitativ enkätundersökning, baserat på ett fiktivt scenario om odling av vete i ett vertikalt jordbruk inomhus. Resultaten analyserades och tolkades genom perspektiven 'Willingness to Pay' och 'Rational Choice Theory'. Resultaten visade att respondenterna i den här studien var mest villiga att betala för faktorerna vatten, avkastning och utsläpp. Oavsett de positiva effekterna av dessa faktorer saknade de dock tillräckligt inflytande för att få investerarna att helt engagera sig i det presenterade scenariot eftersom de fortfarande prioriterade ekonomisk avkastning som främsta beslutsunderlag. Slutligen visade sig att en annan framstående drivkraft bakom investerarnas sannolikhet att investera var ålder, där yngre investerare var mycket mer benägna att investera än de äldre respondenterna.

With the increase in food consumption, new ideas, and technologies began to be developed. Inaddition, the developments generated by Industry 4.0 technologies have started to be applied tothe entire manufacturing sector and the indoor farming industry, which is currently trending.Many studies and articles have been prepared on this subject, and the main goal of each study isto produce quality products and to ensure continuity in production to cover the nonendingincrease in demand. This paper discusses how simulation technology, which is one of the industry 4.0 technologies,can be used in the production system development of the indoor farming industry. According tomany researchers, the biggest obstacle for the vertical farming industry is start-up cost, andsimulation technologies can be the solution for this since it allows future production systems tobe analyzed without any investment. To have a clear vision of how these technologies can beadapted in the indoor farming industry, this paper will find the answers to these questions, RQ1:How can simulation facilitate production system development and Industry 4.0 projects withinthe indoor farming industry? RQ2: What are the benefits and challenges when using simulationas a tool for production system development within the indoor farming industry? To reach thegoal of this paper, the case study method was used, and an indoor farming company was selectedto get more realistic data about the vertical farming system. BlueRedGold AB is a start-upcompany in the indoor farming industry, and it has a huge growth potential since they aim totransform its current production lines to be fully automated. Many articles and studies were usedto approach the solution of the research questions from a more technical and academic point ofview, and the analysis of these articles was carried out with the structured literature review method. After conducting this research, answers have been obtained for the research questions. Theauthors' solution to the layout issue, one of the case company's main challenges as indicated inthis study, was developed after extensive simulation model testing. As highlighted in this paper,it has been stated by many researchers, there are several simulation approaches to follow.However, the authors have developed a simulation modeling approach to be followed in theindoor vertical farming industry to overcome the complexity of these systems as well as thesimulation program complexity. In addition, several challenges and benefits have beenhighlighted in this paper such as the lack of ready models of the equipment used in indoorfarming which requires a knowledge of a programing language to overcome. Finally, despitechallenges, simulation technology can provide an applicable solution for production systemproblems of vertical farming companies/organizations to obtain continuous improvementphilosophy which is the main principle of Lean thinking. The generated simulation model in thisthesis project was successfully implemented, demonstrating how this technology might be aneffective solution for complex production systems as in the indoor farming sector.