The diploma thesis is focused on business environmental management, describing usage of environmental tools in organization. The analytical part is linked with theoretical one. The organization is judged as an individual, according to its environmental impacts. The conclusion of the diploma thesis is to evaluate environmental policy of the organization and proposal of solutions to improve its environmental status.

Climate change is connected to several negative effects on local environments around the globe such as, longer, and more intense droughts, less freshwater supplies, ocean warming, sea level rise, polar ice melting, more intense storms, and rainfall (NASA, 2021).  These problems are mainly due to the increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as well as other greenhouse gases (GHG) which cause a similar or stronger climate change effect (WWF, 2021). Practically all climate researchers agree that climate change is caused by human activities (WWF, 2021), as such human activities will have to change to reduce their climate impact. One possible approach to achieve sustainable products is the concept of a circular economy (CE). The proponents of a circular economy describe it as an economic or industrial system which is restorative by its design (EMF, 2010). Currently there is a substantial body of knowledge on how LCA can be used to guide product design in a sustainable direction.  However, as of yet there are limited academic research focused on how environmental assessment can impact the design of Vertical Access Equipment (VAE) and of similar products. This thesis aims to support the VAE sector’s transition towards a CE. The objective of this study was to understand and provide improvement suggestions for the environmental performance and energy use of VAE. This Involved a case study where a LCA was conducted to establish a baseline of four VAE products, a construction hoist, a service lift, an industrial elevator, and a BMU. The results of the initial LCA varied greatly depending on the different products and their use case. Guided by the LCA results, semi-structured workshops were held to find feasible improvement suggestions whose impacts were investigated using LCA once more. Feasible and substantial improvements focusing on the products high impact areas were found for all products. For the construction hoist improvements regarding eliminating waste in the lifting work was most impactful, whilst the service lift required optimizing of maintenance and use of sensors to reduce the maintenance time. For the industrial elevator and the BMU, measures which focused on reducing virgin material extraction showed most promise, such as lifespan extension, remanufacturing, and use of recycled materials. / Mistra REES

Den globala uppvärmningen ökar ständigt och en djupare förståelse över projekt och produkters klimatpåverkan över dess livscykel är nödvändig för att sänka uppvärmningen. Sverige är idag en av de nationer med lägst koldioxidutsläpp per capita och har som mål att sänka sitt utsläpp ännu mer. I Sverige är en av de största sekterorna byggsidan, som står för nästan 19 % av Sveriges totala utsläpp. För att sänka Sveriges totala utsläpp måste åtgärder göras och krav ska sättas för att de ska införas. Trafikverket ansvarar för Sveriges nätsystem efter vägar och järnväg och har som mål att alla nya infrastrukturprojekt ska vara klimatneutrala år 2045 men redan idag efterfrågas information om projekts koldioxidutsläpp. Åtgärder har vidtagits för att sänka utsläppen i samband med produktionen av produkter som ger upphov till stora utsläpp, till exempel asfalt. En produkt som i detta avseende ofta faller mellan stolarna är nybyggnationer av de viltstängsel som följer med vägar och järnvägar.   Ramboll vill ha möjligheten att kunna ta fram värden för olika alternativ på viltstängsel för att klara de krav på redovisade klimatpåverkan som deras projekt har. I denna rapport skapas ett dokument som möjliggör för beräkning av olika stolptyper och deras respektive garantitid. Efter projektets slutförande är förhoppningen att det har skapats en djupare förståelse kring den miljöpåverkan viltstängslet har över sin livscykel från vagga till grav och hur denna beräknas. Detta projekt avgränsar sin undersökning till att endast beakta miljöaspekten från de olika stängseltyperna och lämnar därmed den ekonomiska delen utanför granskningen. De olika typerna av stolpar har en garanterad levnadstid, 20 år på trästolpar och 30 år på stålstolpen. Oavsett vilken produkt som har det större utsläppsvärdet måste den miljö stolparna ska stå i beaktas då beroende på stolptyp kan salt och väta förhindra att full levnadstid på produkterna uppnås.   Vid resultatet visade det sig att stålstolpe och stålnät har nästan dubbel så mycket koldioxidutsläpp gentemot trästolpe med stålnät. Vid montage för de båda produkterna landar det totala utsläppet på 8,45 ton koldioxidekvivalenter för stålstolpen och 3,09 ton koldioxidekvivalenter för trästolpe. På en period över 60 år så har det totala utsläppet för stålstolpen ökat till 26,21 ton koldioxid med två byten av staket och trästolpen får ett totalt utsläpp på 13,68 ton koldioxid med 3 byten. / Global warming is constantly increasing and a deeper understanding of projects and products' climate impact over its life cycle is necessary to mitigate this change. Sweden is today one of the nations with the lowest carbon dioxide emissions per capita and aims to reduce its emissions even further. In Sweden, one of the largest sectors for carbon dioxide emissions is the construction industry, accounting for almost 19% of Sweden's total emissions. To reduce Sweden's total emissions, measures and requirements must be taken. The Swedish Transport Administration is responsible for Sweden's network system of roads, rail, and ways for all new infrastructure projects to be climate neutral by 2045, but already there are requests asking about the carbon dioxide emissions in projects. Measures have already been taken today to reduce emissions associated with the major emissions of products such as asphalt. One product that is often overlooked when a new road is being developed is the game/wildlife fences.   Ramboll wants the opportunity to be able to develop values for different options on wildlife fences to be able to meet the demands on the reported climate impact that their project has. This report creates a document that allows for a rapid calculation of different types of post and warranty period. After the project's completion, it is hoped that a deeper understanding of the environmental impact of the game/wildlife fence has been created over its path from cradle to grave and how it is calculated. This project limits its study to considering only the environmental aspect of the different types of fences, leaving the financial part out of the audit. The different types of posts all differ with their guaranteed lifetime of 20 years on wooden posts and 30 years on the steel post. Regardless of which product has the higher emission value, the environment in which the posts are to be placed needs to be in consideration, as depending on the type of post, salt and wetness can prevent the full life of the products from being obtained.   The result showed that steel post and steel mesh have almost twice as much carbon dioxide emissions evenly against wooden post with steel mesh. When the two products are mounted, the total emissions became 8,45 ton of carbon dioxide equivalent for the steel post and 3,09 ton of carbon dioxide equivalent for the wooden post. If you look at a period over 60 years, the total emissions for the steel post have increased to 26,21 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent with two changes of fence and the wooden post gets a total emission of 13,68 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent with 3 changes.

Die vorliegende Diplomarbeit untersucht die Verdrahtungsressourcen von Xilinx-FPGAs, indem das LCA-Format der 4000er Familie beschrieben und ein Lösungsansatz für das Verdrahtungsproblem präsentiert wird. Bei der Untersuchung des LCA-Formats war die Arbeit mit dem XACT-Design-Editor xde, der ebenfalls Dateien im LCA-Format als Eingabe- und Ausgabedateien nutzt, sehr wichtig. Die Beschreibung ist zwar auf den Baustein XC4002A bezogen, aber sie gilt für alle 4000er Bausteine, weil die Bausteine dieser Familie dieselben Elemente besitzt aber mit verschiedener Anzahl. Um sicher zu sein, daß die Beschreibung des LCA-Formats exakt ist, wurde das LCA-File für einen Volladdierer manuell hergestellt und mit dem LCA-File, der durch das Programm PPR von Xilinx

According to the national climate policy framework adopted by Riksdagen (the Swedish parliament) 2017, Sweden should reach zero net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2045. For this to be successful, the construction and real estate industry, which annually accounts for one fifth of Sweden’s territorial greenhouse gas emissions, needs to minimize its emissions. One step towards reducing the emissions is to track and quantify them and that is why in 2022 a new law will come in to force that requires the developer to make climate declarations on all new buildings. This study has investigated how and when climate calculations of planned buildings should be carried out in order to be as beneficial as possible. Furthermore, the study examined material choices and emission allocation in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by the construction process. A building information model (BIM model) of an educational building which is planned to be built, served as a case study for this project. The BIM model was imported to a spreadsheet program in order to create three different versions of the building in three common framing materials; wood, concrete and steel. A list of all used building components, construction resources and associated quantities was produced and exported for each model. The list was imported to a climate calculation tool, based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), to manually link the construction resources with their corresponding LCA data. General waste fractions and general transport scenarios were entered for each construction resource. Theresults showed that the wooden frame model emitted 28 %less carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) than the concrete frame model and 22 % less than the steel frame model. The wood frame itself generated a 54 % less greenhouse gas emissions than the concrete frame and 45 % less than the steel frame. Concrete and insulation were the two resource groups that caused the greatest climate impact in five out of six cases. The production of the building components caused 88–90 % of the total climate footprint for all three models. Transport of the building components to the construction site and resource waste at the construction site both caused between 4–6 % of the climate impact in all models. The study also found that the climate calculations should be carried out as soon as the general architectural model of the building is created, in order for the calculations to serve as a decision basis in the project planning where design choices are made. The price for the climate calculations at an early stage in the construction process is low because the BIM model is relatively simple and therefore the calculations are not time-consuming. If the climate calculations occur at a later stage of the construction process, the emission figures become more accurate, but the price for the calculations increases. In addition, it is more difficult and much more expensive to make changes at a later stage. Thus, the probability is that the climate calculations will not be used in any decision. Nyckelord

Studien genomfördes åt Volvo CE där syftet med arbetet var att ge medarbetarna på Volvo CE en inblick i olika materials livscykler genom att utvärdera tre plastsorter med ett referensmaterial i stål ur ett livscykelperspektiv. Målet var att hitta det mest lämpade materialet av de fyra alternativen som ur ett livscykelperspektiv har lägst klimatpåverkan samt redogöra vilka åtgärder som kan göras för att reducera klimatpåverkan ytterligare. Genom att använda återvunnen råvara, förnyelsebar energi samt förnyelsebart fordonsbränsle kan ett materials klimatpåverkan minska med upp till 87%. Det material som är bäst lämpat att använda ur ett livscykelperspektiv i dagens läge är Referensmaterialet stål men om återvunnen råvara av Material 1 håller för de givna konstruktionsegenskaperna bör det användas istället. Den dagen tillverkning av stål kan ske utan att fossila utsläpp genereras, kommer stål ha lägre klimatpåverkan än förnyelsebar bioplast.

Volvo Construction Equipment is investigating the potential of hybrid wheel loaders. To determine if this new hybrid wheel loader concept is preferable from an environmental point of view to the latest G- series Volvo wheel loader, a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) has been performed  on the Volvo L150G wheel loader and a hybrid wheel loader concept. The complete machines have been studied throughout their life cycle: raw material extraction, material processing, manufacturing processes, transportation, use phase, and end of life. In order to quantitatively assess the environmental impact of all lifecycle stages, five different environmental indicators have been used: global warming potential, abiotic resource depletion potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential and ozone depletion potential. In addition, a sensitivity analysis and two weighting methods are used to interpret the results. The results show that a hybrid wheel loader concept reduces environmental impacts significantly compared to a conventional L150G, except the impact category ADP (element). Moreover, the use phase has by far the greatest impact within the life cycle, for most impact categories (90% of the total life cycle impact). A sensitivity analysis on use phase with impacts also showed the limitations for use in China. / Volvo Construction Equipment undersöker potentialen av hybrid hjullastare. För att avgöra om ett hybrid hjullastare koncept har fördelar ur miljösynpunkt jämfört med en G-serien Volvo hjullastare har en jämförande livscykelanalys (LCA) utförts på Volvo L150G hjullastare och ett hybrid hjullastarkoncept. De kompletta maskinerna har studerats under hela deras livscykel: utvinning av råmaterial, materialbearbetning, tillverkningsprocesser, transport, användningsfas och slutet av skrotningsfasen. För att kvantitativt kunna bedöma miljökonsekvenserna av alla livscykelnskeden har fem olika miljöindikatorer använts: global uppvärmningspotential, abiotiska resursutarmningspotential, försurningspotential, övergödningspotential och ozonnedbrytingspotential. En känslighetsanalys och två viktningsmetoder har tillämpats för att tolka resultaten. Resultaten visar att ett hybrid hjullastarkoncept minskar miljöpåverkan avsevärt jämfört med en konventionell L150G, förutom påverkan från kategorin resursutarmningspotential. Dessutom har användningsprocessen i särklass störst påverkan inom livscykeln för de flesta effekt kategorier (90% av den totala livscykelpåverkan). En känslighetsanalys på användningsprocessen och dess effekter visade också på begränsningar för användning i Kina.

Today global warming mitigation, natural resource conservation and energy saving are some of the significant concerns of different industries, such as cement and concrete industries. For that reason, a streamlined life cycle assessment (LCA) model of one ton of a Portland cement, CEM I produced in Cementa AB’s Degerhamn plant, has been developed by using the LCA software KCL-ECO. LCA is a tool that identifies in which stages of a product’s life cycle the most environmental burdens occur. The environmental analysis was limited to identify total energy consumption and total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per ton of Portland cement. Results show that the most significant energy consumption and CO2 emissions are related to clinker kiln, due to the process of calcination of limestone and fuel combustion in the kiln. Of total CO2 emissions, 52 % and 46 % result from the calcination process and fuel combustion respectively.  One of the applications of CEM I is in construction of concrete bridges. Therefore an LCA model of a concrete bridge located north of Stockholm was developed in KCL-ECO. Environmental indicators calculated are: total CO2 emissions and energy consumption through the entire life cycle of the bridge. CO2 uptake or carbonation of the concrete during the service life of the product and end of life treatment is one of the advantages of concrete products. During the carbonation process, some of the total CO2 released from calcination will be absorbed into the concrete. Results indicate that production of raw materials and transports during the life cycle of the concrete bridge, are main contributors to total CO2 emissions. Among raw materials, cement production has the highest CO2 emissions. Energy consumption is mainly related to concrete and concrete products production. CO2 uptake during the use phase of the bridge is small compared to total CO2 emissions from calcination. Furthermore, the results show that different waste handling practises result in different CO2 uptake behaviours. The total CO2 uptake from crushing and storing of the demolished concrete (scenario 1) and landfilling of the demolished concrete (scenario 2) is 10 % and 5 % of the total CO2 emissions from calcination respectively.  Since comparison of different construction materials from an environmental point of view is always desirable, the LCA tool was used to compare the total energy consumption and the CO2 emissions from a concrete bridge and a wooden bridge. The functional unit was defined as 1 square meter of bridge surface area, since the bridges were of different sizes and shapes. In this comparison the total emissions and energy consumption were much higher for the concrete bridge than for the wooden bridge.  In order to show how different assumptions could affect the results, a virtual concrete bridge with the same shape and size as the wooden bridge was designed and compared with the wooden bridge. The functional unit selected for this case was one bridge. In this case the virtual concrete bridge requires less energy, while the wooden bridge emits less CO2 to the atmosphere. For the wooden bridge, CO2 in growing forests was included, which could be debated. Overall, a comparison of the environmental performance of the wooden bridge and the concrete bridges was more complex than initially expected and great care is recommended in choosing material and application. With concrete, the design (and quantity of material used) seems to be a very sensitive parameter and may result in much larger energy used and CO2 emissions than a wooden bridge. On the other hand, the virtual bridge comparison showed that concrete advantages such as higher durability and lower maintenance may be theoretically combined with a comparable energy and climate performance as a wooden alternative.

The business environment in which media companies exist today is rapidly changing. Many media companies are in the process of positioning themselves to this ongoing change and to finding their place in the new media landscape. A process of change creates an opportunity to optimize work processes on different levels. In order to meet these opportunities, as well as being proactive when it comes to environmental performance, we need to understand the current structures of media companies, for example when it comes to work processes. The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the process structures and the potential climate impact of the content production of three different media companies in Sweden: a local newspaper, a monthly magazine and a local television station. The overall research questions of this thesis are: • What are the major editorial processes at media companies and how can the workflows be visualized, in order for us to discover how the processes can be optimized and how this in turn may affect the environmental impact? • How are the results of the process analysis related to a general assessment of the carbon footprint of the content production, in order for us to identify the major reasons for this potential climate change impact and opportunities for change? The research methods used were semi-structured interviews and carbon footprint assessment. The research results suggest that in general terms, newspapers and magazines spend a considerable amount of working time producing content, and content production is the single most important reason for travelling at the three media companies studied. Travel is also done by management to a high degree in all three case studies, mostly to different kinds of business meetings. Planning is another work activity that takes up a considerable amount of time when looking at the total time spent at work. Computers are to a high degree used when planning, but more advanced computer programmes or tools could be recommended to expand the planning possibilities further, thereby saving time and money for the media company.The results of the life cycle assessments indicate that the major reasons for potential climate change impact are travel – both work-related business travel and trips to and from work – electronic equipment, and electricity use. The research results suggest that in order to reduce potential environmental impact from travel, media management should look into technical solutions for meetings at a distance, car-pooling or increasing the use of public transportation. Furthermore, new technical solutions have a potential to lower the costs of the content production processes and streamline work processes in general. With a conscious effort by management, new technology could also be beneficial for the overall environmental impact of the media company. The media companies could for example consider the environmental performance to a higher degree when buying new electronic devices, such as computers. Finally, the media companies could look over their electricity use and make an attempt to reduce their electricity use, as well as making active choices for environmentally friendly alternatives when choosing electricity supplier. / <p>QC 20121128</p>

Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) covers a set of tools and techniques that aim to estimate the environmental impacts generated by a product or service all along its life-cycle including: rawmaterial extraction, production steps, transportation, use phase and end-of-life scenarios.The Life-Cycle Inventory (LCI) is a key step in LCA. It focuses on quantifying all physicaland/or monetary flows involved in the life-cycle of the product/service considered. Theseflows are named as ‘elementary flows’ in ISO terms. After having dealt with the main issuesof the ‘Goal and Scope definition’ step, that is giving a clear definition of the ‘functional unit’to consider, setting clear boundaries between elements to count in and those to disregard,practitioners need a coherent framework to quantify elementary flows and estimate missingelements. Several methodologies have been developed, each of them with both clearadvantages but also distinct disadvantages, depending on the purpose of the study: processbasedmethods, Input-Output based methods (IO-based methods), and also hybrid methods.In 2004, Suh suggested a method known as IHA (Integrated Hybrid Analysis) that appears towipe out the strict boundary between process-based and IO-based methods, taking advantagesof both methods as complementarities. Previous hybrid models were found incompleteregarding end-of-life scenario, especially with open-loop recycling.However, Suh admits that there remain several drawbacks in the IHA model, such as thetreatment of international trade and flows of products and services. They are usuallyconsidered as a single, homogeneous commodity despite their huge variety. This is apersistent limitation, already known by process-based and IO-based LCA practitioners. In aglobalized economy, where most products are manufactured in one place and consumed onthe other side of the world, this serious limitation cannot hold any longer.In this thesis, a review of both process-based, IO-based and hybrid methods for LCI ispresented, in terms of principles, advantages and limitations. It is followed by an explanationand demonstration of the mathematics underpinning the IHA model. Then, a model isproposed that would enable the model to take international trade into account. This is enabledthanks to the inspiration provided by a multi-regional framework proposed for ecologicalfootprint calculation. A numerical example supports this suggestion.The outcomes of this improved model are thought to go beyond its initial aims: the multiregionalIHA model could act as a variable geometry model where strongly affected regionsare efficiently focused on, without disregarding the others. This could prove efficient inavoiding side-effects of policy-making. Also, it would enable the development of moreregion-specific environmental impact coefficients, thus putting less pressure on fragileecosystems. The IHA model is a robust model: it is simple to handle – provided a userfriendlyinterface exists – but with a complex and evolutionary engine. It is compatible withan iterative progress in data collection. User-friendly software development could proveefficient to spread LCA practice and increase information exchange among industries,database builders and researchers. Using a multi-region framework would help industriescustomize impact assessment according to both the regional environmental condition andspecific geographic distribution of the supply chain, thus enriching their toolbox for strategicplanning.