Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) provides a framework for reorienting education towards sustainability. The ESD framework is criticized for reproducing rather than transforming unsustainable systems, thus a critical analysis of the framework is crucial to understand its role in reorienting education towards sustainability. To this end, we contribute to an understanding of the role of ESD through the lens of experts who are reorienting education towards sustainability. These experts use various approaches at regional, national, and/or international levels. Based on thirteen semi-structured interviews, we find two strands in the understanding of ESD. The first strand reflects the importance of the framework in reorienting education, and the second strand reflects on ESD as part of a larger movement. Furthermore, we flag a critical need for a democratic process of reorienting education towards sustainability, to progress transformative change through ESD. Lastly, our findings suggest a need to consider the individual experience of those involved in bringing ESD into practice.

Two phenomena form the basis for this thesis; bad lighting for children and our connection to nature. The former has somehow largely stayed unchanged through the years, the second one is rapidly changing for the worse. Lighting in spaces designed for children in Sweden often seem like an afterthought focusing on the quantitative aspects, ignoring the qualitative; following standards but often forgetting who the space is meant for. At the same time, cities are becoming denser, making nature something many people actively have to seek out to experience - children’s definition of nature is slowly changing.How can outdoor lighting for children become better? Using the Ringmuren preschool in Uppsala, Sweden, as a case study, this thesis proposes an alternative way of thinking when designing light for children and how it can encourage a connection to nature. The design proposal was made using interviews, site analysis, research and experiments inside a digital twin custom made for RIngmuren preschool. The direct result of this project is a digital twin and a lighting concept, but it also argues that the practicalities of analysing and designing lighting is one thing; getting the people in power to understand why good lighting is important is the first, and largest, hurdle. Producing good, affordable examples of good lighting design that can be applied to varying situations is a good place to start to at the least initiate a discussion.

The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development is approaching its end and it is important to investigate the effects of the efforts to implement education for sustainable development (ESD) nationally, before decisions on forthcoming efforts are made. There are few investigations of the effect of ESD implementation that take a broad approach. In order to measure the educational effects of ESD implementation broadly and inclusively, I introduce the concept of sustainability consciousness (SC), which will be operationalized into the research through a Likert scale questionnaire. This licentiate thesis contributes new knowledge on the implementation of ESD in the Swedish school system as reflected in young people’s SC. Two studies have been conducted. In the first study, I investigated the effects of ESD implementation by a comparison of SC between students in schools with an explicit ESD approach and control schools without an explicit approach. In the second study, I investigated whether the perceptual dip among adolescents found in the field of environmental education was also present in the economic and social dimensions of their SC in addition to the environmental one. The total sample included 2 413 students in 6th, 9th and 12th grades of the Swedish schools system. Results of the two studies indicate that the implementation of ESD in the Swedish compulsory school system does not seem to have been particularly successful as there are only small positive effects of an explicit ESD approach in 6th grade and even a small negative effect of an explicit ESD approach in the 9th grade. Furthermore, the dip in adolescent 9th graders’ SC is confirmed. This indicates that different age groups tackle the effects of the prevailing traditional sustainability teaching in different ways, which suggests that ESD in schools need to be adapted to different levels. / Baksidestext: The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development is drawing to an end and it is important to investigate the effects of implementing education for sustainable development (ESD) nationally. This thesis contributes new knowledge on the implementation of ESD in the Swedish school system. The concept of sustainability consciousness (SC) is introduced and operationalized to measure the educational effects of ESD by taking a broad and inclusive approach in two studies with a total of 2 413 students in 6th, 9th, and 12th grades. The first study investigated differences in students’ SC by comparing students in schools with an explicit ESD approach and control schools without an explicit approach. The second study investigated if there is a dip in 9th graders’ SC in comparison with younger and older age groups. Results reveal that the implementation of ESD in the Swedish schools does not seem to have been particularly successful as there are only small effects of an explicit ESD approach. A dip in adolescent 9th graders’ SC is also confirmed. Different age groups respond to the prevailing traditional sustainability teaching in different ways, which suggest that ESD in schools need to be adapted to different levels.

Coronapandemins bidrag till en kraftigt ökad e-handel lyfter problemet med de ökade returerna och dess negativa miljöpåverkan. Hållbarhet har blivit en viktig aspekt i dagens samhälle som ökar i popularitet parallellt med e-handelns tillväxt, vilket utifrån ett konsumentperspektiv blir motstridigt. Ytterligare en aspekt som är viktig att ta hänsyn till är företags skonsamma returpolicys, som påverkar konsumentbeteendet vid returer. Syftet med studien är att förklara hur konsumenters hållbarhetsattityder påverkar genomförandet av planerade respektive oplanerade returer, samt hur företags returpolicys kan ha en inverkan på konsumenters returbeteende. För att kunna besvara syftet har studien genomförts med hjälp av en kvantitativ metod genom en enkätstudie på studenter från Högskolan i Borås. Studien utgår från teorier om kategorier av online returbeteenden, Theory of planned behaviour och returpolicys som ligger till grund för det resultat som studien genererat. Slutsatser från studiens resultat är att hållbarhetsattityder inte har någon större betydelse för returbeteende, samt att skonsamma returpolicys är att föredra, oavsett om avsikten är att genomföra en retur eller inte. / The Corona pandemic's contribution to a sharp increase in e-commerce raises the problem of increased returns and its negative environmental impact. Sustainability has become an important aspect of today's society that is increasing in popularity in parallel with the growing e-commerce, which from a consumer perspective becomes contradictory. Another aspect that is important to take into account is companies' generous return policies, which affect consumer behavior when returning. The purpose of the study is to explain how consumers' sustainability attitudes affect the execution of planned and unplanned returns, as well as how companies' return policies can have an impact on consumers' return behavior. In order to be able to answer the purpose, the study was carried out using a quantitative method through a questionnaire study of students from the University of Borås. The study is based on theories about categories of online return behaviors, The theory of planned behavior and return policies which together form the basis for results generated by the study. Conclusions from the study results are that sustainability attitudes have no major significance for the return behavior, and that lenient return policies are preferred, regardless of whether the intention is to carry out a return or not. This thesis is written in Swedish.