Demand for residential houses in urban areas has become a major problem facing town planners today. With the high increase in urbanization due to the increase in population, residential houses are becoming more difficult to find. Planners aim at developing new ideas to combat the high increase in the demand for residential buildings. In recent times, different methods of analysis have been introduced that will help planners select best locations to erect residential houses. A Geographic information system (GIS) is one of the tools for analyzing and storing a great deal of information. Over the years, GIS technology has been introduced into planning and the result has been of great help to urban planners in planning sustainable environment for residents. This research aims at using GIS technology and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to determine possible locations to build residential houses and analyzing different methods of selecting suitability areas within the study area. An MCDA map was produced from the combination of different factors and constraint which include elevation, orientation of the building (direction), the soil type and land use type. Proximity analysis was also done to find out how infrastructures (existing roads, shopping malls and health care enter) are close to the study area. Results show that the southern, eastern, and a part of western side of the study area is better to build residential houses than other areas. Three different methods (visual interpretation method, seeding method and neighborhood method) where used to find out which method produces the most suitable locations within the study area. In order to calculate the suitability areas and suitability values, the sum of pixel values were calculated for each method. The visual interpretation method servers as a standard method of deciding the suitability area covers 15,375 m² and has the highest suitability values of about 500 pixels. The seeding method was used as an automatic method for selecting the suitability area; result shows that the suitability area covers 17,421 m² and has the highest suitability value of about 1200 pixels. The neighborhood method was calculated using two different statistics (mean statistics and majority statistics). The mean statistics covers an area of 12,439 m² while the majority statistics covers an area of 14,332 m². From analysis carried out, the seeding method is preferred for selecting suitability areas than the visual interpretation method and the neighborhood method but the visual interpretation method covers more suitability area than the seeding method and neighborhood method.

Industry is a key player in the transition to a sustainable society, where manufacturing companies need to respond to the challenges of environmental concerns in several ways. The need for managing environmental technological change in production systems is and will continue to be a challenge for manufacturing companies, as they often tend to focus on short-term priorities to stay economically competitive, rather than developing the organisation to manage longer-term environmental competitiveness. In accordance with this, the objective of the thesis is to develop an understanding of how to manage environmental technological change in a production system. By identifying four categories of contextual preparedness, these being short-term focused, trade-off prepared, balance-seeking or long-term prepared, the thesis provides perspectives on how to manage change related to time and contextual aspects. The operation managers need to manage the projects by allocating individuals who can work systematically and build a strong knowledge base by collaborating with internal and external stakeholders. It shows that knowledge is not only about technology but also about realising the need for change and developing strong longer-term objectives. A model is developed to support operations managers with purposeful actions, such as reflecting upon their long-term capabilities and making conscious decisions when to manage their environmental technology change processes regarding their own production system. The model presents how to “zip” sustainability into operations, so as to provide guidance for operations managers on how to systematically manage long-term change in a context that needs to work with multiple time aspects - and priorities. By using the term zip it is emphasised that the long-term developments have to be consciously integrated into the organisation aligned to the short-term needs. Literature reviews, as well as four empirical case studies, have been conducted in order to explore environmental technological change. In the first two studies, the factors which affect environmental technological change in a production system have been identified. In the two subsequent studies the change processes as such were studied, leading to an increased understanding of how the production system and temporal dimensions influence the change processes. The studies conducted and the results are presented in six appended papers.

PFAS are a group of relatively newly discovered man-made pollutants. PFAS contains a C-F bond which is one of the strongest bonds in organic chemistry. Therefore, PFAS are not easily degradable and, once release into nature, are very persistent. PFAS are also labile in natural environments and therefore, they can sometimes be found far from the source of pollution. Their persistent and labile nature, in combination with their bioaccumulation ability and human health effects make of this compounds an important contaminant to take care of. Currently there are not stablish, wellfunctioning methods to treat contaminated soils and waters. A lot of research is performed at the moment to find good treatment options. In this work a test to chemically degraded spiked samples of PFOA, PFOS and PFBA was performed. By means of experimental design tools, we aim to evaluate which operational factors are relevant for this treatment. Best results when using hydrogen peroxide as a reactant was 70% degradation for PFOS and 42% degradation for PFOA. When persulfate was used as a reactant, a 57% degradation of PFOS, 99% degradation of PFOA and 99% degradation of PFBA was achieved.

Coastal areas around the world have been recognized as largely impacted by anthropogenic activities resulting in pollution of marine sediments. In Sweden, surveys conducted along the coastline of the Bothnian Bay have identified a total area of about 29 km2 as fiber rich sediments. In the Bureå sea area near Skellefteå vicinity, Västerbotten county, elevated levels of mercury (Hg), methyl-Hg, arsenic (As), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) have been classified and believed to be mainly affected by emissions from a pulp and paper industry formerly active on a nearby headland.  Contaminants in sediments are of concern as continuous dispersion can adversely affect the benthic community. To isolate contaminants and reduce their bioavailability, in-situ thin-layer capping using an active material is one suitable approach. This type of remediation method, using biochar mixed with bentonite clay will be implemented on a pilot scale in the sea area outside of Bureå in the spring of 2021. However, bentonite is a relatively expensive material yielding a need to further develop the selection of capping materials suitable to aid in the deposition of biochar in an active thin-layer cap. In this thesis, biochar-based thin layer caps mixed with bentonite clay, rock dust of two grain sizes and a concrete-based slurry was evaluated on their physicochemical properties and efficiency for preventing release of trace elements from sediment to the overlying water. This was conducted by a laboratory column experiment where four set ups were performed: (1) no capping for sediment control, (2) only capping material for material control, (3) sediment mixed with biochar and (4) sediment capped with each material mixed with biochar. Three times during an 8-week test period, 60 mL of the overlying water in the columns was extracted and sent for trace element analysis.  The experimental set up revealed that the capping layers effectively prevent release of trace elements trough the sediment to the overlying water. The concrete slurry showed suitable settling properties and negligible loss of biochar in the set-up of the columns. Also, the biochar+concrete slurry thin-layer cap displayed the highest efficiency for preventing and/or delaying release of As, P, Cu, Fe, Mn and SO4.

There are many reasons to mine landfills. For example, metals are increasingly shifting location from the Earth’s crust through human society into landfills. These new mines are located closer to the market, in contrast to traditional mines in the countryside where the metals are deep inside the crust requiring huge amounts of energy to be extracted. In addition, metals in the landfill pose a potential threat to humans, nature, and the environment. Despite this, landfills are not commonly mined. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to answer the question, Why don’t we mine the landfills? This question has been approached by analyzing different factors, such as the resource potential, institutional conditions, and to some degree technical methods considered important in order to realize a mining operation, above as well as below ground. In addition, the potential of landfills as mines will be contrasted with other metal stocks currently mined in order to understand what drives resource extraction from some metal stocks but not others. Information was mainly gathered through interviews, document studies, and literature reviews between 2010-2013. Metals are currently extracted from the Earth’s crust, in-use as they successively turn into waste, and tailing ponds. These stocks have greater mining potential than landfills. For example, there are more metals in the Earth’s crust as well as in-use. Single tailing ponds contain more metals than landfills. Furthermore, the waste in tailings is homogeneous and has a similar composition to ore, thus similar technology already in ownership to process the ore can be used to reprocess old tailings. Landfills, on the other hand, are usually heterogeneous and contain a mix of various wastes. At the same time, there are no methods to uncover the contents of a landfill and thereby identify particularly valuable ores, which makes it difficult to estimate the resource potential of single landfills. Metals in-use are also situated in a heterogeneous environment, but through state regulation on source separation are made more homogenous and predictable. However, there are homogeneous landfills with fairly predictable content. But these landfills are not mined either, which largely can be explained by institutional conditions. Researchers, officials, legislators, and policy makers have long manifested the idea of landfills as the end station for worthless rubbish, and if landfills have any value it is negative, as a dump. For this  reason, mining the landfill is a mismatch with the current strategy to isolate, cap, and close landfills and thereby becomes a challenging operation. At the same time as landfills are closed, mines are opened up with the support of the government. For example in 2010, the Swedish mining sector was subsidized with € 4 billion. This support is one of many factors that contribute to keeping the price of metals as a commodity down, which could make metal extraction from other stocks indirectly unfeasible. In addition, metals in landfills are not available on demand, although they lack a function, since landfills are owned by someone. The metals in the Earth's crust as well as in-use, on the other hand, are made available by exempting the ownership. If the demand for metals continues to increase, while being depleted in the Earth’s crust, additional sources for recycling need to be accessible. Compared to the risk associated with the schemes in outer space and the deep sea, the metals in the landfills seem less distant. However, there is no pressure today from policies to initiate something so awkward, unorthodox and “dirty” as extracting metals from landfills. The metal prices are too low and what is profitable and thus possible to mine from the Earth’s crust, i.e., reserves, is constantly redefined, with the help of governmental support through research funding of technological development and subsidization of the mining operation, which reduces costs. / Det finns många anledningar att gräva ut deponierna. Till exempel flyttas allt fler metaller från jordskorpan via samhället in till deponierna, där de befinner sig relativt nära marknaden till skillnad från metaller i ödemarken långt nere i jorden. Väl i deponierna utgör dessa metaller dessutom ett hot mot människa, natur och miljö. Trots detta är det sällan deponier grävs ut. Därför syftar denna uppsats till att svara på frågeställningen: Varför utvinns inte metaller från deponier? Detta syfte har studerats genom att analysera olika faktorer som anses viktiga för att realisera ett gruvprojekt, ovan så väl som under jord, såsom resurspotential, institutionella förutsättningar och delvis tekniska metoder. Dessutom har deponier kontrasterats mot andra metallförråd som för närvarande utvinns för att därigenom förstå vad som driver resursutvinningen från vissa metallförråd, men inte andra. Informationen har i huvudsak samlats in igenom intervjuer, dokumentstudier och litteraturstudier mellan åren 2010 och 2013. För närvarande utvinns metaller från jordskorpan, från användning i takt med att de successivt blir till avfall, och från gruvavfall. Förutsättningarna för att utvinna metaller från dessa förråd är bättre än från deponier. Till exempel finns det mer metaller i jordskorpan såväl som i användning. Enskilda gruvavfallshögar innehåller mer metaller än deponier. Dessutom är gruvavfallshögar homogena, med en likartad komposition som malmen, vilket gör att samma teknik redan i ägandet kan användas för att reprocessera gruvavfallet. Deponier däremot är i regel heterogena med en blandning av många olika typer av avfall. Samtidigt saknas metoder för att genomlysa och analysera innehållet i deponier för att därigenom identifiera värdefulla resurser, vilket gör det svårt att uppskatta resurspotentialen i enskilda deponier. Metaller i användning befinner sig också i en heterogen miljö, men genom lagstiftning om källsortering görs flödena homogena och förutsägbara. Det finns dock homogena deponier med ett någorlunda förutsägbart innehåll. Men inte heller dessa deponier grävs ut, vilket till stor del kan förklaras av de institutionella förutsättningarna. Forskare, tjänstemän, lagstiftare och beslutsfattare har länge manifesterat tanken på deponier som slutstation för sopor och om deponier har något värde så är det framförallt negativt; de utgör en soptipp. Därför står utvinning av mineraler från deponier på många sätt i konflikt med den nuvarande strategin att isolera, täcka och stänga soptippar och blir därigenom en utmanande operation. Medan allt fler deponier stängs i Sverige, öppnas allt fler gruvor med stöd från staten. Bara under 2010 subventionerades gruvsektorn med 35,5 miljarder kronor. Detta stöd är en av många faktorer som hjälper till att hålla nere priser på metaller, vilket gör att utvinningsprojekt från andra metallförråd indirekt blir svåra att genomföra. Dessutom är metallerna i deponierna inte tillgängliga för efterfrågan, trots att de inte fyller någon funktion, eftersom deponier vanligen ägs av någon. Metallerna i jordskorpan såväl som i användning görs emellertid tillgängliga, genom att ägandeskapet undantas med hjälp av olika lagar. Om efterfrågan på metaller fortsätter att öka samtidigt som metallernas tillgänglighet i jordskorpan minskar, måste ytterligare metallförråd tids nog komplettera återvinningen. Jämfört med riskerna att bryta metaller från havsbottnen och rymden borde deponier ligga närmare till hands. Men idag finns det inga politiska påtryckningar att inleda något så krångligt, okonventionellt och "smutsigt" som att utvinna metaller från deponier. Metallpriserna är för låga och vad som är lönsamt och därför möjligt att bryta från jordskorpan, dvs. reserverna, omdefinieras ständigt med hjälp av statliga forskningsanslag till teknisk utveckling och statliga subventioner av gruvdrift som håller nere kostnaderna.

För att kunna utföra en effektiv tillsyn av nationella avfallstransporter finns det behov av en tydligare samordning. Rapporten syftar till att belysa och diskutera brister och behov i tillsyn och kontroll av nationella avfallstransporter. Rapporten ska ge ett förslag på samordning av tillsyn och kontroll av nationella avfallstransporter.Avfallstransporter riskerar att vara en del organiserad brottslighet där den miljömässiga bördan kan hamna i utvecklingsländer där tekniken för ett miljömässigt omhändertagande inte finns eller är bristfällig. Det finns idag brister i den kommunala tillsynen av nationella avfallstransporter i Sverige. Tillsynen utförs i väldigt liten omfattning. Rapporten ställer tidigare studier och forskning mot myndighetsrapporter för att presentera den bästa modellen för samordning av tillsynsvägledningen över nationella avfallstransporter. En enkätundersökning mot kommunerna i GRÖT – region Mitt visar på ett behov av tillsynsvägledning. Behov av vägledningsprojekt, resurser som personal och tid samt kunskap och möjligheter till samverkan med andra myndigheter nämns som förutsättningar för att bedriva tillsynen. Den tidigare forskning som studerats visar på att det inte är problem specifikt för Sverige utan globalt.För att skapa en bild av hur tillsynsvägledningen idag utförs inom nationella avfallstransporter ställdes frågor till länsstyrelsen. Resultatet från enkätstudierna till kommuner och länsstyrelse sammanvägt med den teori som har studerats visar på att den bästa modellen för samordning av tillsynen av nationella avfallstransporter är under den idag redan etablerade GRÖT – samverkan. Samordningen kan underlätta de hinder som kommunerna pekade ut för att utföra tillsynen, hinder som kunskapsbrist, samordning, resurser och möjligheter till samverkan med andra myndigheter. Förslaget följer också den linje som Miljösamverkan Sverige presenterar i sitt senaste vägledningsprojekt; branschspecifik vägledning, utgå från tillsynsutövande myndighetens behov och samverkan inom tillsynsvägledning. Den kommunala tillsynen av avfallstransporter ska fortsatt utövas i egen regi.Målet med samordningen är att kommunerna ska öka sin tillsynsfrekvens av nationella avfallstransporter. En välfungerande tillsyn av avfallstransporter kommer på lång sikt att göra målet mätbart. / In order to carry out effective supervision of domestic waste transports, there is a need for coordination. The report aims to highlight and discuss deficiencies and needs in the supervision and control of domestic waste transports. The report shall provide a proposal for coordination of supervision and control of domestic waste transports.Waste transportation risks being part of organized crime where the environmental burden can end up in developing countries where the technology for environmental disposal does not exist or is inadequate. There are currently deficiencies in the municipal supervision of domestic waste transport in Sweden. Supervision is carried out to a very small extent. The report compares previous studies and research with the authorities' report to present the best model for coordination of the supervision guidance on national waste transport. A survey of municipalities in the GRÖT region Mitt indicates a need for supervision guidance. The need for guidance projects, resources such as staff and time as well as knowledge and opportunities for collaboration with other authorities are mentioned as prerequisites for conducting supervision. The previous research that has been studied shows that it is not a problem specific to Sweden but globally.In order to create a picture of how the supervision guidance is currently carried out in national waste transport, questions were asked to the county administrative board. The results from the survey studies to municipalities and the county administrative board, together with the theory that has been studied, show that the best model for coordination of supervision of national waste transport is during the already established GRÖT collaboration. The coordination can facilitate the obstacles that the municipalities pointed out to carry out the supervision, obstacles such as lack of knowledge, coordination, resources and opportunities for collaboration with other authorities. The proposal also follows the line presented by Environmental Cooperation Sweden in its latest guidance project; industry-specific guidance, based on the supervisory authority's needs and collaboration in supervisory guidance. Municipal supervision of waste transport must continue to be carried out under its own control.The goal of the coordination is for the municipalities to increase their oversight frequency of domestic waste transports. Well-functioning supervision of waste transport will in the long term make the target measurable.

All Swedish state-owned companies have been mandated by the state to establish sustainability targets within 2013. This thesis intends to shed light on the sustainability targets adopted by Vattenfall AB in the areas of carbon emissions, renewables and energy efficiency. In contact with the company, the thesis evaluates the targets in terms of practicability, adequacy and market competition. In other words, it assesses how Vattenfall intends to achieve the targets, whether they raise the “sustainability bar” high enough for the company and how they compare with targets set by competitor companies such as E.ON and Fortum. Furthermore, the thesis identifies room for improvement within Vattenfall’s sustainability work, and makes recommendations to the company, on how to seek improvement. Having the targets and their related plan of action as the focal point, a number of different areas within the domain of corporate sustainability are covered, such as sustainability approach, strategy, work, performance and reporting, while the Swedish state-ownership policy works as a key guideline. The thesis work is based primarily on literature review and analysis of material published by Vattenfall, E.ON and Fortum, the Swedish state ownership policy, corporate energy target setting, and climate and energy policies of the European Union. / Alla svenska statligt ägda företag har av staten ålagts att under 2013 definiera hållbarhetsmål, och att målen ska vara i bruk fr. o m 2014. Föreliggande studie analyserar de hållbarhetsmål som Vattenfall AB har specificerat inom koldioxidutsläpp, förnyelsebara energikällor och energieffektivisering. I samarbete med företaget, utvärderar studien de tre målen utifrån praktiskt genomförande, relevans och marknadskonkurrens. Med andra ord, studien bedömer Vattenfall´s intentioner hur man ska uppnå målen, huruvida de lyfter ”hållbarhetsambitionen” tillräckligt högt för företaget och hur målen är i jämförelse med de mål som satts av konkurrentföretagen E.ON och Fortum. Dessutom, studien identifierar förbättringsutrymmen för Vattenfall´s hållbarhetsarbete och ger rekommendationer för hur företaget kan hitta förbättringsområdena. Genom att ha målen och de kopplade åtgärdsförslagen i centrum, inkluderas ett antal andra områden inom hållbar utveckling, såsom hållbarhetsinriktning, strategi, arbetsinsatser, genomförande och redovisning, samtidigt som den svenska statens ägarpolicy ska fungera som vägledning. Studien är primärt baserad på en litteraturgenomgång och analys av information publicerat av Vattenfall, E.ON och Fortum, den svenska statens ägarpolicy, företagens presenterade energimål, samt klimat- och energipolicies presenterade av Europeiska Unionen.

Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHPs) are relevant systems for space heating and cooling, very common in Sweden since 1970s. More than one million heat pumps have been sold by Swedish companies. The Energy Technology Department of KTH is working on the optimization of such application in the context of EFFSYS+ which is a national swedish project to keep the industry in a front position for the refrigeration systems and heat pump technology by a strong cooperation with the research institutes. Thermal Response Tests (TRT) were in earlier years developed in order to give an estimation of the average thermal properties of the ground over the length of the borehole heat exchanger (BHE). Further studies have been recently carried out using Distributed Thermal Response Tests (DTRT) based on temperature measurements along the borehole depth. This test permits the determination of the local ground thermal properties and local thermal resistances inside theborehole, which may be essential in the design of large Ground Coupled Heat Pump system (GCHP). A DTRT may provide information about different rock types, presence of groundwater flow and rock fissures, influence of surrounding buildings on ground temperature, among others. The analysis of the measured temperatures has been done previously using the so-called Line-Source model considering a stratified subsurface. In order to compare with the analytical approach, this numerical work simulates the ground with the commercial software COMSOL taking into account the temporal variations of the heat injection rate. An optimization module using a global least square approach is implemented to get a model which fits best the experimental data.

The overall heat transfer coefficient of a building wall, the U value, is an interesting parameter to deduce the heat loss rate through the wall. The current method to determine this U value is well known, but is requires a lot of time to be performed. In this work a new idea of methodology is presented to get an accurate idea of the U value in a really smaller time, using an IR camera. IR thermography is a non destructive method that is mainly used today to carry out qualitative observations. In this work it is used as a quantitative tool to determine the conductivity of a wall knowing the external heat transfer coefficient. The error obtained on homogeneous and heterogeneous walls are smaller than 10 %, which is accurate enough for a fast measurement. The thermal mass of the wall can also be estimated with errors between 5 and 20 %, but only if the user has a good first guess of the real value. Finally some ideas are proposed when the heat transfer coefficient is not known, leading to less reliable results. More work is necessary to transform it as a usable method in everyday life. A part of the report concerns some attempts done with a simulation of the experiment, leading to no concrete results but it is still presented as it took some time to be studied.

In order to answer modern challenges, which come from increasing needs in energy forprivate persons and industries as well as in order to decrease negative environmentalimpacts, caused by the processes of energy generation, it is important to constantly searchfor untapped energy efficiency potential. Moreover, nowadays, energy efficiency hasbecome one of the prerequisites of successful market competitiveness for any type ofindustry on local and global levels.An energy audit is an instrument, which can be used for understanding how the energy isused and identify possible energy-saving opportunities. It can be applied to a facility as awhole, as well as individually to equipment, system(s) or process(es). Moreover, energysaving measures can be both cross-cutting and sector-specific.The purpose of this project was to conduct a detailed energy audit of the Hagby wasterecycling plant and to identify beneficial energy saving opportunities from economic,environmental and social perspectives.In the frames of a preliminary energy audit 10 focus areas for further analysis wereidentified. For every area a baseline assessment of the current energy performance wasconducted, possible energy management opportunities were identified and evaluated aswell as results of each analysis were summarized. According to the results of the study, with the implementation of the suggestions, whichrequire no, low or medium investments it is possible to save 3,2% of the energy per year,which corresponds to 76 846 kWh. Energy consumption can further be decreased byimplementing measures, which need high initial financial investment. In that case totalsavings will be 468 846 kWh or 19,4% of total annual energy consumption. Additionalenergy might be saved just by introducing energy housekeeping measures. Finally,implementation of all the proposed EMO can bring 14,46 tons of 2 CO savings annually.Additional benefits of implementing the energy saving opportunities come from decreasingenvironmental impacts, improving working conditions of the plant employees and higherenergy security at the plant.The results of the energy audit can be a solid base for establishing an energy managementprogram at the plant, which will include performance targets, required resources and aclear procedure of realization of improvements. However, since some of the calculations inthe current study are based on various assumptions, after the company forms the energymanagement program, it is necessary to invite experts from industry in order to giveaccurate calculations for each of the focus areas.