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LCA was used to compare the environmental impacts of two different passenger tubs being designed for the GO-4 vehicle. Based on the results, the adoption of biomaterials clearly displays many benefits. / May 2017

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how e-business might be integrated into a strategical framework. The strategical framework was based on the Nilsson and Rapp (2005) strategical framework, and e-business strategies were mainly based on customer relationship management strategies that are used in e-commerce companies. We selected Gröndals Apotek, Nu3 and Apotek Hjärtat as our sample, semi-structured interviews as our method and we found that given the external factors in the business environment, retaining and extending online marketing strategies could be integrated into the corporate strategy without taking into consideration of the firm-size. In addition, we found that e-business acquisition strategies such as SEM and blogs were more useful for different firm-sizes in order to create strategic congruence of integrating e-business into the corporate strategy. Lastly, online customer service and pricing were two features that could be appropriate features in the integrated online marketing strategies that aim’s in displaying the competitive advantage.

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This study investigates Life Cycle Hypothesis savings behaviour among South African households. The mobility matrix methodology as well as a multivariate regression analysis was employed to assess the implications of a permanent increase and a temporary decrease in household incomes based on the impacts of the global financial crisis. Using the General Household Survey data from 2002 - 2010, the study concludes that life cycle savings were greater during the period of 2002 - 2004 (,pre-financial crisis') compared with the period of 2008 - 2010 (,post-financial crisis'). Overall, the global financial crisis significantly negatively impacted household retirement savings.

Most newly constructed schools begin life as places of hope, enthusiasm, energy, and creativity. In many ways they might be considered 'moving' schools. Such schools strive to anticipate and change with the times. Within a relatively short time, however, a significant number of new schools evolve, indeed regress, into conventional schools. This loss of initial momentum and innovative direction experienced by many newly established schools occurs because of what this study describes as the `attrition' of change. This thesis presents an historical case study of a secondary school that was once one of Canada's most renowned, innovative schools in the 1970s, and now 26 years later, can be described as a conventional secondary school. Based on interviews with three cohorts of teachers and administrators who worked in the school in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, the study provides an opportunity for inquiring into and analysing the attrition of educational change. The evidence of this study of the history of an innovative school points to the existence of an ironic change dynamic, and a dual meaning for the title 'the attrition of change'. There is a natural tendency for the school itself to experience attrition and over time to lose much of its early momentum and innovativeness. This pattern, however, is usually accelerated by hostility from the school's larger professional and parental communities who perceive the school's innovations to be a threat to long held educational beliefs and practices. The staff members of the innovative school feel that their inordinately hard work is unappreciated and misunderstood, turn inward to school colleagues for protection and support and adopt a less venturesome approach to innovation and change. In the short term, therefore, the innovative school's influence upon the larger system's attitude towards change tends to be quite negative. In the longer term, however, the innovative school seems to exert significant impact beyond its own walls through the rule-breaking precedents it sets that open up opportunities for others, and through the key leaders it spawns who take their innovative images of schooling to other parts of the system, and initiate change elsewhere. Changes in one part of a system inevitably affect changes in the larger system. Innovative schools, therefore, can erode obstacles to change in the larger system and create a climate of experimentation where one may not have existed previously, thus the second meaning of the `attrition of change'.

This portfolio of published research contains nine papers and assesses the life cycle environmental burdens of energy technologies and buildings. Several analytical tools were used but these all fall under the umbrella of environmental life cycle assessment (LCA), and include energy analysis, carbon appraisal and the consideration of other environmental issues. The life cycle of all products starts with an assessment of embodied impacts. The current author has completed significant research on the embodied carbon of materials. This includes the creation of a leading embodied carbon database (the ICE database) for materials which has been downloaded by over 10,000 professionals and has made a significant contribution to knowledge. This portfolio of work includes analysis on methods for recycling in embodied impact assessment and LCA. This is an influential topic and therefore appears in two of the publications. The ICE database was applied by the current author to over 40 domestic building case studies and an embodied carbon model for buildings was created from these. The latter was used to provide benchmark values for six types of new houses in the UK.The portfolio of work then progresses to full LCA of energy systems. LCA is used to assess the embodied impacts versus operational impacts of 11 kV electrical cables. In this case embodied impacts were not significant and preference should be given to reducing electrical losses in the cables. The tool of LCA was then applied to a national electricity network. It revealed that Lebanon had a particularly poor centralised electricity network that was both unreliable and unsustainable with high impacts in all environmental categories. The final paper in this portfolio is on Building Integrated PV (BIPV) and brings together all aspects of the current author’s work and knowledge. It considers embodied burdens, electricity generation and BIPV can replace roofing materials.

Energy use and the environment are inextricably linked and form a key role in concerns over sustainability. All methods of energy production involve resource uncertainties and environmental impacts. A clear example of this is the use of fossil fuels which present three main problems, being: finite resources; significant contribution to environmental pollution; and reliance on imports. Hence there is a clear need to reduce the use of fossil fuels for energy. Bioenergy has the potential to both displace fossil fuels, and reduce the effect of climate change by sequestering carbon dioxide during the production of biomass. It is also possible that bioenergy can reduce the UK’s dependence on energy imports and boost the rural economy. This thesis provides an interdisciplinary assessment of bioenergy production in the UK. Due to the complexities of bioenergy systems several appraisal methods have been used. An initial study examined the barriers to and drivers for UK bioenergy development as a whole. It was found that for projects to be successful, bioenergy schemes need to be both economically attractive and environmentally sustainable. A biomass resource assessment was then completed using the South West of England as a case study. This demonstrates that bioenergy can make a useful contribution to the UK’s energy supply, due to the diverse range of biomass feedstocks currently available. However a range of barriers and constraints will need to be overcome if the UK is to reach its bioenergy potential. To assess the potential environmental impacts of bioenergy production different case studies were selected. Life cycle assessment is widely regarded as one of the best methodologies for the evaluation of burdens associated with bioenergy production. This was applied, alongside net energy analysis, to a small-scale biomass gasification plant which uses wood waste as a feedstock. As an alternative biomass source, the perennial energy crops Miscanthus and Willow were also assessed. Several different scenarios of biomass cultivation, transportation, and energy conversion were then compared, to assess the potential environmental impacts. Biomass gasification offers good potential for reducing fossil fuel use and climate change impacts. Nonetheless embodied energy in the construction phase can be high and other impacts such as particulate emissions, ecotoxicity and land use can be important. Therefore environmental benefits are maximised when both electricity and heat are utilised together, and when waste is used as feedstock. The ultimate applicability of biomass gasification is restricted by the quantity of feedstocks that can be made available for conversion. Perennial energy crops offer several advantages over annual crops including more positive energy balances and reduced agro-chemical inputs. However their cultivation needs to be carefully sited to avoid issues of land use change and the displacement of food crops. This study shows that each bioenergy production pathway needs to be assessed using a range of appraisal techniques, which include: biomass resource assessment, technical and economic feasibility, life cycle assessment and net energy analysis. It concludes that biomass gasification CHP offers an alternative to fossil fuel generation but more technical knowledge is required in the UK if it is to become widely used for biomass energy.

In 2008, the UK Government enforced the target to reduce the UK carbon account for the year 2050 to at least 80% less than the 1990 baseline. In order to meet this ambitious target it is widely thought that the UK energy future should be ‘electrified’ as a suite of low carbon generation technologies provide ever increasing proportions of electricity supply. This work has identified and investigated two technologies that could make significant contributions to low carbon power supply in the UK; that of industrial combined heat and power, CHP, and tidal power. Life cycle case studies were completed on an existing UK CHP plant and the Severn Barrage scheme as it was proposed until 2010. The Severn Barrage assessment has shown that the lifetime environmental impact is dominated by the operation stage. This is contrary to previously published studies, which have underestimated (Parsons Brinckerhoff Ltd; Black and Veatch Ltd; 2010)(Roberts 1982)(Spevack, Jones and Hammond 2011) or even ignored (Black & Veatch 2007)(Woollcombe-Adams, Watson and Shaw 2009)the contribution from this life stage. Furthermore, the results have demonstrated that the impact intensity of power from the Barrage is almost entirely reliant on that of the National Grid mix which provides the operational power required. It has been shown a large improvement to the impact of the operation stage can be made by removing the electricity demand for ‘flood pumping’. However, even without ‘flood pumping’, the impact of the power demand for plant operation will dominate. Hence the greatest improvements to the schemes lifetime impact can be made via the National Grid mix itself. The industrial CHP assessment has shown that there are large impact savings available from widespread implementation against the current and the baseline National Grid mixes. However, even if it is assumed that units are exclusively bio-gas fuelled, the carbon intensity of the power generated is very likely to exceed that of the low carbon Grid mix by 2050. The discussion shows that the interactive roles that these two technologies could play, with each other and the evolving Grid mix, on the pathway to 2050 is, however, more complex than simply considering the isolated impact intensity. The commissioning of the Severn Barrage could mark the point at which the carbon intensity of the National Grid falls below that of CHP. However because the carbon intensity of the plant is reliant on the national power supply, it is argued that further CHP implementation should only be stopped if there is a suitable low carbon and low impact alternative that can fill the capacity gap. This thesis concludes that to fear that today’s CHP schemes could represent a technology ‘lock-in’ in the long term future is to underestimate the role the technology has in the current and more short term future Grid mix. The work presented demonstrates the importance of life cycle thinking in the development of a low impact energy strategy. The discussion has also shown the importance of scenarios in assessing the requirements for such an ambitious change. The pursuit of change implies that the future is necessarily dynamic. The work has illustrated that scenario thinking allows exploration of potential strategy decisions and hence, is essential to having confidence in the decisions made.