All kinds of products have economic, social and environmental impact throughout their entire life cycle. Today’s growing need for electronic devices contributes to the increasing problem within these fields.  The aim of this study is to investigate and determine the impact of a chosen Teracom Group product from a sustainability perspective and to develop recommendations regarding how to proceed, in order to reduce the impact of products. This study is mainly focusing on the environmental aspect of the concept of sustainability. A life cycle assessment (LCA) of a set-top box (STB) is conducted based on chosen indicators by using the software SimaPro. The goal of the assessment is to identify the phases within the life cycle with largest environmental impact and contribute to Teracom Group’s further sustainable work. 18 impact categories are included to express emissions and use of natural resources. The result clearly shows that the production phase has the largest environmental impact within categories such as terrestrial acidification, human toxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, marine ecotoxicity, urban land occupation and metal resource depletion. The use phase affects the environment foremost within climate change, ozone depletion, terrestrial ecotoxicity, ionising radiation, agricultural land use, natural land transformation and water depletion. Transports and the waste scenario only have a small effect on certain categories. The experiences of this study are discussed, demonstrating the difficulty in making an LCA in the position of being at the company purchasing products, not at the company manufacturing them. The company has previously not focused enough on sustainability regarding products. An LCA performed by the supplier would be more reliable due to a better possibility of collecting accurate data. Communication and cooperation between the company and its suppliers are key solutions. Higher requirements during procurement should be put on the products, including demands on performed LCAs with clearly described references and methods, critically review by a third party.

In this dissertation, we analyze the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the Steam Sterilizer, popularly known as Autoclave. The LCA will help Getinge Sterilization AB to identify the stages of the life cycle of Autoclave model GSS-P 91413, which contributes more to the environmental footprint. We use the ISO 14040 LCA framework to conduct the Cradle to Grave boundary study of the Autoclave. The results have shown the use phase to be a dominant phase with almost 84% of carbon footprint. For Getinge to produce sustainable products and reach its long-term goal of becoming carbon neutral, they need to reduce its environmental footprint in every phase of the product life cycle. Thus, this report suggests the best way that the company can impact the changes to the users even though they have very little control over it. The results were obtained using the Sustainable Minds (SM 2013) software, which is ISO certified, henceforth the results are trustworthy. This Thesis has 8 parts: Introduction, Method, Theory, Results, Conclusion, Critical Review, References, and Appendices.

El desarrollo de procesos químicos eficientes, tanto desde un punto de vista económico como desde un punto de vista ambiental, es uno de los objetivos principales de la Ingeniería Química. Para conseguir este propósito, durante los últimos años, se están empleando herramientas avanzadas para el diseño, simulación, optimización y síntesis de procesos químicos, las cuales permiten obtener procesos más eficientes y con el menor impacto ambiental posible. Uno de los aspectos más importantes a tener en cuenta para diseñar procesos más eficientes es la disminución del consumo energético. El consumo energético del sector industrial a nivel global representa aproximadamente el 22.2 % del consumo energético total, y dentro de este sector, la industria química representa alrededor del 27 %. Por lo tanto, el consumo energético de la industria química a nivel global constituye aproximadamente el 6 % de toda la energía consumida en el mundo. Además, teniendo en cuenta que la mayor parte de la energía consumida es generada principalmente a partir de combustibles fósiles, cualquier mejora de los procesos químicos que reduzca el consumo energético supondrá una reducción del impacto ambiental. El trabajo recopilado en esta Tesis Doctoral se ha llevado a cabo dentro del grupo de investigación COnCEPT, perteneciente al Instituto Universitario de Ingeniería de los Procesos Químicos de la Universidad de Alicante, durante los años 2014 y 2017. El objetivo principal de la presente Tesis Doctoral se centra en el desarrollo de herramientas y modelos de simulación y optimización de procesos químicos con el fin de mejorar la eficiencia energética de éstos, lo que conlleva a la disminución del impacto ambiental de los procesos. Más concretamente, esta Tesis Doctoral se compone de dos estudios principales, que son los objetivos concretos que se pretenden conseguir: - Estudio y evaluación de los modelos surrogados para la mejora en la optimización basada en simuladores de procesos químicos. - Desarrollo de nuevos modelos para la optimización de procesos químicos y la integración de energía simultánea, para redes de intercambiadores de calor.

Although the microcrustacean Daphnia is becoming an organism of choice for proteomic studies, protein expression across its life cycle have not been fully characterized. Proteomes of adult females, juveniles, asexually produced embryos, and the ephippia-resting stages containing sexually produced diapausing freezing- and desiccation-resistant embryos are analyzed. Overall, proteins with known molecular functions are more likely to be detected than proteins with no detectable orthology. Similarly, proteins with stronger gene model support in two independent genome assemblies can be detected, than those without such support. This suggests that the proteomics pipeline can be applied to verify hypothesized proteins, even given questionable reference gene models. In particular, upregulation of vitellogenins and downregulation of actins and myosins in embryos of both types, relative to juveniles and adults, and overrepresentation of cell-cycle related proteins in the developing embryos, relative to diapausing embryos and adults, are observed. Upregulation of small heat-shock proteins and peroxidases, as well as overrepresentation of stress-response proteins in the ephippium relative to the asexually produced non-diapausing embryos, is found. The ephippium also shows upregulation of three trehalose-synthesis proteins and downregulation of a trehalose hydrolase, consistent with the role of trehalose in protection against freezing and desiccation.

Development and implementation of effective marketing strategies during various stages of product life cycle in the pharmaceutical industry are critical to an organization's successful performance in the marketplace in the 21st century. Guided by the general systems theory developed by Bertalanffy and the evolutionary systems theory developed by Laszlo and Laszlo, the purpose of this single case study was to explore best practices among marketing managers within pharmaceutical companies related to marketing strategies during various stages of product life cycle. Data were gathered via semistructured interviews with 3 purposefully selected managers who have successfully developed marketing strategies in a central Ohio pharmaceutical company in business for more than 10 years. A review of secondary data included company documents, such as annual reports, news releases, and websites, in addition to government databases. Member checking was conducted to ensure accuracy of the interpreted data and trustworthiness of the research findings. Yin's 5-step process and thematic analysis were used to analyze the data. Four themes emerged from data analysis: marketing function, product life cycle phases, factors influencing the decision-making process, and strategic activities in executing business strategies. Findings may have implications for positive social change such as assisting organizational leaders to understand the challenges and business practices in implementing marketing strategies to successfully deliver products that improve patients' health.

The yearly production of shoes has, the last decades, increased by a significantly amount. The increased production have put pressure on the environment, and therefore it is important to decrease the environmental impact from the shoe industry. Icebug is a shoe company, that want to run their business with environmental sustainability and thereby they need to possess knowledge of their shoe production, and its environmental impacts. A method to estimate the environmental impact from products is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. An LCA therefore have been performed for the shoe model Ivalo2 M Bugrip, one of the most sold models from Icebug. The result from the LCA show that the materials with the highest environmental impact was suede and rubber. The suede was the material with the highest environmental impact per weight unit. Therefore Icebug should decrease or replace the suede, with a material that has similar properties. The rubber was the most represented material within the shoe, and even if the environmental impact, per weight unit, was higher than most of the materials, Icebug should remain the rubber, because of its durability properties. The nylon plastic had high environmental impact, compared to the other plastics, whereby Icebug should decrease or replace the nylon. The environmental impact from the electricity was high. Therefore Icebug should try to decrease the energy consumption, and invest in renewable energy at the assembly factory. To decrease the resource depletion, recycled plastics and recycled rubber could be the best option. / <p>2018-12-11</p>

Using the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, this research examines how organizations integrate organizational resources with Web technology to implement Web functionalities to support the four stages of the Customer Service Life Cycle (CSLC). This research examines how combinations of Web functionalities impact the relative importance of the stages of the CSLC in determining customer satisfaction. The relative important of the stages of the CSLC varied depending on the product being considered for purchase (textbook, personal computer, and pair of jeans) and the gender of the online customer. Results of six regressions using policy capturing indicate that, overall, customers consider Web functionality support for the pre-purchase stages of the CSLC to be most important, with the requirements stage or acquisition stage consistently being first in importance. Post-purchase support showed increased importance with the purchase of a personal computer and textbook, and with male shoppers. Significant differences were limited with the retirement stage being significantly different from all the other stages in five post hoc tests, and from just the acquisition stage in the jeans test. By considering the products sold online and gender of the targeted online customer, organizations can invest their resources to build Web functionalities that incorporate values, culture, and processes to increase customer satisfaction with the Web site and influence firm performance.

The building sector is a vital part in the progress towards environmental sustainability, because of its high potential to decrease the environmental impact. However, the building industry remains one of the most critical industries for the adoption of environmental sustainability principles, because of several unique characteristics in terms of e.g. long-lived products and many stakeholders involved. Environmental assessment tools have an important role to play in implementing environmental sustainability in the building sector, as they provide a clear declaration of what are considered the key environmental considerations and also provide a way of communicating these issues. The Environmental Load Profile (ELP) is a Swedish Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based tool for the built environment, originally developed as an instrument for evaluation of the environmental performance of Hammarby Sjöstad (HS), a new city district in Stockholm, Sweden. The ELP is facing implementation, aiming to be established as an instrument of common acceptance. Experiences and results from the ELP has revealed that it can be applied to give a comprehensive picture of the environmental performance of a city district, but also that the tool has a number of weaknesses and there is much to improve in the practical procedures for the use of the tool in environmental assessments. This research project has the overall goal of making the ELP a stakeholder-accepted methodology for LCA-based assessment for the built environment. The overall goal includes two subgoals: (i) a research goal is to find an acceptable compromise in the design of the ELP tool between a natural science and technology based scientific accuracy and a social-science based acceptance of the tool and (ii) an implementation goal is to study and report experience from the use of the tool as developed today. The thesis consists of three papers: (i) the first is a study of two Swedish LCA-based tools for the built environment, which is based on comparative assessments using the ELP and EcoEffect (EE), (ii) the second is based on a questionnaire and interview study, in which we have investigated responses on LCA-based tools for the built environment among stakeholder representatives of Sweden’s building sector, with the purpose to identify barriers and opportunities for increased use of such tools and (iii) the third is based on case studies in HS using the ELP. We have identified the dominant environmental aspects in the ELP and also investigated the accuracy of the results. The study is completed with a development of a simplified version of the ELP, which also is applied in HS. Findings show that despite applying the comparative parts of the ELP and EE on an equal basis (i.e. the object specific data), differences in results were found. The following factors give rise to the differences: (i) differences in material grouping and life expectancy for the construction materials used, (ii) diverse Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data and (iii) different impact assessment. The required level of knowledge to compare, analyse and evaluate assessments made with the ELP and EE, is relatively high, which creates an educational barrier towards increased tool use. A number of other barriers that could mitigate a fruitful implementation of LCA-based tools in Sweden’s building sector have also been identified. We have found barriers between: (i) the current and the desired environmental work within the sector, (ii) the knowledge of and the use of LCA-based tools and (iii) the developers of the tools and the potential users. Other barriers further identified are especially connected to: (i) data (availability and credibility), (ii) costs, (iii) time, (iv) customer pressure, (v) knowledge and (vi) incentives. We have also identified the following opportunities for increased use of the tools: (i) different design of the tools for different actors and situations, (ii) combine LCA with LCC, (iii) involve environmental assessment in the implementation of the EU Directive on energy performance of buildings, (iv) develop reference values, (v) simplify input-data collection, (vi) improve environmental labelling and (vii) provide incentives. In the development of a simplified ELP we have noticed that the most important aspects contributing to the environmental load at a city district level (50 % of the total amount), covers 91-99 % of the total environmental load. The thesis shows that different simplifications of the ELP-tool are required for different purposes, actors and situations. A simplified version of the ELP, “ELP-light” was developed and applied in HS. In the development of ELP-light, we have used some of the identified opportunities and bridged some of the identified barriers. / QC 20101105

In recent decades, society's concern about unsustainable development has grown steadily, while the desire to deal with the situation has also grown in connection with the concern and increased interest in the environment. The development of new concepts for systematic control and follow-up has also been steadily growing. The concepts developed are different environmental management systems, where the most accepted management system is ISO 14001. This has resulted in the development of tools with specific goals, in this study's focus, the Life Cycle Analysis. With the above background as a basis, this study aims to investigate and develop improvement measures in an organization with a focus on life cycle analysis and process mapping. The theory of the study is based on the ISO standards and in literature, while relevant models for the study are presented. The method through the writing of the study has been based on interviews, observations and literature studies and that validity, reliability, generalizability, and ethical positions have been kept in mind throughout the study to ensure a high quality.  The completed study came up with two suggestions for improvement: implement a process map for work with life cycle analysis and implement a flowchart for the decision process for products on which an LCA is to be performed. In the penultimate chapter of the study, the improvement proposals are presented which can hopefully make the organization's current working methods more efficient. / De senaste decennierna har samhällets oro för den icke-hållbara utvecklingen vuxit stadigt, samtidigt som även viljan att hantera situationen vuxit i samband med oron och ökat intresset för miljön. Utvecklingen av nya koncept för systematisk styrning och uppföljning har även de varit stadigt växande. Koncepten som utvecklats är olika miljöledningssystem, där det mest accepterade ledningssystemet är ISO 14001. Detta har resulterat i att verktyg med specifika mål utvecklats, i denna studies fokus, Livscykelanalysen. Med bakgrunden ovan som underlag, syftar denna studie till att undersöka och utveckla förbättringsåtgärder i en organisation med fokus på livscykelanalys och processkartläggning. Studiens teori grundar sig i ISO-standarderna och i litteratur samtidigt som relevanta modeller för studien presenteras. Metoden genom studiens skrivande har baserat sig på intervjuer, observationer och litteraturstudier samt att validitet, tillförlitlighet, generaliserbarhet och etiska ställningstaganden hafts i åtanke genom hela studien för att säkerställa en god kvalitet.  Den genomförda studien kom fram till två förbättringsförslag: implementera en processkarta för arbete med livscykelanalys samt implementera ett flödesschema för beslutsprocess vid produkter som en LCA ska utföras på. I studiens näst sista kapitel presenteras förbättringsförslagen som förhoppningsvis kan effektivisera organisationens nuvarande arbetssätt.

Sustainable design has recently become a hot topic in the field of architecture. With advancements in technology, sustainability has become more accessible to designers. However, instead of relying solely on various high-precision sustainable technologies, nature can be the best teacher. Learning from the cyclical patterns of life can help us better understand nature, become a part of nature, and even design projects that are renewable. This thesis aims to explore the process of decay and regeneration, utilizing the Neo-Zoomorphic concept and drawing inspiration from the phenomenon of a whale fall. It borrows from the external form of whales and their internal life cycle patterns to design a pavilion at the boundary of Pandapas Pond wetland and forest. The whale's skeleton becomes the main wooden structure, and the decaying flesh is represented by a woven bamboo fabric. The skin is simulated by a transparent wood shelter. All the connection points use traditional wood Joinery. Only natural biodegradable materials are used throughout while concrete or metal are avoided. As time passes, this project will gradually decay and eventually will return to nature without requiring any intervention. / Master of Architecture / Sustainable design has recently become a hot topic in the field of architecture. With advancements in technology, sustainability has become more accessible to designers. However, instead of relying solely on various high-precision sustainable technologies, nature can be the best teacher. Learning from the cyclical patterns of life can help us better understand nature, become a part of nature, and even design projects that are renewable. This thesis aims to explore the process of decay and regeneration, utilizing the Neo-Zoomorphic concept and drawing inspiration from the phenomenon of a whale fall. It borrows from the external form of whales and their internal life cycle patterns to design a pavilion at the boundary of Pandapas Pond wetland and forest. The whale's skeleton becomes the main wooden structure, and the decaying flesh is represented by a woven bamboo fabric. The skin is simulated by a transparent wood shelter. All the connection points use traditional wood Joinery. Only natural biodegradable materials are used throughout while concrete or metal are avoided. As time passes, this project will gradually decay and eventually will return to nature without requiring any intervention.