Adopting a Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD) approach to official bilateral development assistance could result in more effective development planning that yields lasting results in developing countries. A Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development Assistance (FSSDA) based on SSD and customised to the needs of a development agency offers guidance in planning for development towards sustainability. This it does by directing donor and recipient planners in generating holistic perspectives, setting the goal of development as an attractive and sustainable society, and providing a flexible decision-making framework to guide strategic planning. Development assistance donor agencies face several difficulties in ensuring aid effectiveness. The FSSDA offers support in addressing these challenges by: positioning the creation of sustainable societies as the fundamental goal of development; allowing progress against imminent sustainability threats while minimizing the risk of unforeseen negative impacts; balancing economic, environmental and social considerations; and providing a fairer basis for aid conditionality.

Sustainability reporting is a vital tool to communicate an organisation’s sustainability performance to stakeholders. Sustainability reporting also allows an organisation to communicate its vision, goals and strategic plans. In order to be strategic towards sustainability, an organisation should have a vision of where it wants to go, and assess where it is today, so as to take the right initiatives towards its vision. This thesis focuses on how GRI sustainability reporting and strategic planning towards sustainability can be combined in an integrated process to help organisations move towards sustainability. The Integrated Process allows an organisation to gain a better understanding of its sustainability context; design resilient strategies in light of that context using a backcasting from Sustainability Principles approach; and report its sustainability performance and progress in bridging the gap towards sustainability, transparently to internal and external stakeholders. / <p>Edwin Janssen +31626078987 Rutger Verkouw +31624155241 Selene Kfoury +551138138481</p>

The one condition that is bottom line for the survival of humanity is socio-ecological integrity. Youth mentoring helps to build capacities in youth to preserve and promote social integrity. This thesis looks at youth mentoring programs in general and Mentor Sweden specifically, and analyzes how youth mentoring programs can contribute strategically towards a sustainable development through the lens of the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development. The final outcome is a proposed set of suggestions which any mentoring organization can use in order to help move society strategically towards sustainable development through its mentoring programs.

Globalization and rapid urbanization in the developing world have been contributing greatly to a current unsustainable reality. In order to move towards a sustainable society, the strength of people working collectively as a community must be recognized and harnessed to begin making changes from the bottom up. This thesis will examine how a common participatory space has the potential to become a community hub, and to foster participatory dialogue, negotiation and decision-making within urban communities of poverty. After examining the current reality, including present development practices, this research strives to find universal elements for a common participatory space where vision building and strategic community action can flourish. This study also examines the processes needed to engage community members in the cultivation, creation and maintenance of a common participatory space.

The aim of this research was to understand what elements should be considered in the construction of a pre-disaster recovery plan in order to move society towards sustainability during post-disaster recovery after a natural hazard event. A conceptual framework for Pre-disaster recovery planning (Pre-DRP) based on the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) was developed and critiqued by professionals in disaster management, resilience thinking, and sustainability in order to collect qualitative data to make the tool more rigorous and applicable to its intended audience. The revised framework, called the Pre-Disaster Recovery Planning Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (Pre-DRP FSSD), includes a broad set of principles, planning strategies and guidelines, specifically designed to help communities become more resilient to disasters and move towards sustainability through Pre-DRP. As such, the Pre-DRP FSSD may help emergency planners at various levels of government to implement some of the strategic guidelines set out in the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015.

One of the reasons, why it is difficult to implement the concept of social sustainability into organizations, is its inherent complexity and vagueness. The new Social Sustainability Principles (SSPs) within the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) offer a clear definition of success for the social system. This study aims to put the new SSPs into an organizational context. It investigates how people-related issues within organizations, discussed in six organizational and management journals, published between 2009 and 2014, are related to the SSPs. One fourth of the 3305 reviewed articles were found to relate to social sustainability. Most of the articles focused on improving performance through aspects related to social sustainability. The articles mainly discussed aspects related to barriers to the SSPs as problems, solutions or positive aspects that could remove barriers to the SSPs. The results show that for organizational research to be able to support organizations moving towards social sustainability, there is a need for a clear definition of success as well as a frame that takes the whole social system into consideration. The FSSD and the SSPs could help to structure the diverse topics, put research problems in a bigger context and discern relevant problems and solutions.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine what possibilities start-up companies have to work in an environmentally sustainable way, and what barriers they face in that context. The study moreover presents enabling factors which help start-ups realize opportunities and overcome barriers. To fulfill the purpose, it has been divided into two research questions, which follows: What opportunities and barriers do start-up companies, who want to work in an environmentally sustainable way, face? Which enablers can an environmentally sustainable start-up companies make use of to seize opportunities and lower barriers? Method: To fulfill the purpose a single case study was conducted. Empirical data was collected from a case company by semi structured interviews based on the theoretical framework. The selected case company is a start up with high focus on sustainability and the environment. A business incubator was also interviewed using semi structured questions to complement the empirical data collected from the case company. This empirical data was then analyzed against the theoretical framework which then lead to the study’s results. Findings: The study identified three major opportunities which help start-ups in an environmentally sustainable way: an increase in demand for environmentally products; tightened environmental regulations, and increased credibility from stakeholders. Moreover, four major barriers to environmental sustainability in start-ups were found: a low degree of market maturity; lack of financial resources and human capital; competition from established firms; and difficulties in attracting investors. In terms of enablers, the following factors were deemed instrumental in seizing opportunities and overcoming barriers: start-ups’ organizational flexibility, which allows them to rather quickly master necessary organizational change processes towards environmental sustainability; usage of environmental principles; social capital; and incubators as well as other external guidance. Implications: Presented opportunities, barriers and enablers are based on previous studies, the result of this study increase the understanding about how start-ups can work more environmentally focused. The empirical findings about incubators role in helping start-ups becoming more environmentally focused is an unexplored area and needs more attention in the literature. Societies can benefit from this increased understanding since it can lead to a decreased environmental impact, both on a local level by consuming less resources and a global level by slowing down the climate threat. Limitations: By including only one case company and one incubator combined with the qualitative research approach, the study covers a wide but shallow area. By including multiple case companies and incubators the study would have reached a higher level of generalization. Documents could have been studied in order to reach a more quantitative result with could have increased the credibility of the study. / Syfte: Studiens syfte är att skapa en tydligare förståelse för vilka förutsättningar start-up företag har att arbeta miljöfokuserat genom att identifiera väsentliga möjligheter, hinder och möjliggörare. För att uppfylla syftet har det delats upp i två frågeställningar, vilka lyder: Vilka möjligheter och hinder har start-up företag som vill arbeta miljöfokuserat? Vilka möjliggörare finns för start-up företag att ta tillvara på möjligheter samt minska hinder? Metod: För att uppfylla syftet har en enfallsstudie genomförts. Empiriska data har samlats in från ett fallföretag genom semistrukturerade intervjuer som baserats på det teoretiska ramverket. Valt fallföretag är ett start-up med stort fokus på hållbarhet och miljöfrågor. En inkubator har också intervjuats med hjälp av semistrukturerade frågor för att komplettera insamlade data från fallföretaget. Data från empirin har sedan analyserats mot det teoretiska ramverket och genererat i studiens resultat. Resultat: Studien har identifierat tre möjligheter som hjälper start-up företag att arbeta miljöfokuserat: ökad efterfrågan på miljövänliga produkter, bättre förutsättningar tack vare miljöregleringar och ökad trovärdighet mot kunder och intressenter. Det har även identifierats fyra hinder för start-ups att arbeta miljöfokuserat: marknadens bristande mognadsgrad, begränsade resurser i form av kapital och kunskap, konkurrens från etablerade företag samt svårigheter att hitta investerare har identifierats för start-ups som vill arbeta miljöfokuserat. Fyra möjliggörare har även identifierats för att ta vara på dessa möjligheter och minska hindren, nämligen enklare och snabbare förändringsprocess, användning av miljöprinciper, socialt kapital samt inkubatorer och annan extern rådgivning. Implikationer: Presenterade möjligheter, hinder och möjliggörare är baserade på tidigare studier, denna studies resultat skapar en tydligare förståelse för vilka förutsättningar ett start- up har att arbeta mijlfokuserat. Empiriska data kring inkubatorers roll att vägleda start-ups att bli mer miljöfokuserade är ett outforskat område som skulle behöva utvecklas ytterligare. Samhällen kan gynnas av denna tydligare förståelse då det kan leda till en minskad miljöpåverkan, både på en lokal nivå genom ett minskat utnyttjande av resurser samt på en global nivå genom att klimathotet kan bromsas. Begränsningar: Genom att endast studera ett fallföretag och en inkubator kombinerat med den kvalitativa ansatsen blir studiens perspektiv relativt brett och grunt. Genom att inkludera fler fallföretag och fler inkubatorer skulle studien få en större generaliserbarhet. En dokumentstudie hade kunnat genomföras för att nå ett mer kvantitativt resultat vilket skulle leda till en mer trovärdig studie.

Forests are key providers of terrestrial ecosystem services such as climate regulation, water purification, natural pest control, habitats for biodiversity, as well as different forms of wood based materials and food. Nevertheless forests are dangerously exposed to great pressures from various kinds of societal activities. This report examines the importance of forests for the (i) maintenance of life supporting functions of the biosphere as well as for (ii) providing a flexible resource base for the satisfying of human needs on more and more sustainability-driven markets. How can Swedish forestry be managed such that those two essential roles of forests become mutually supportive? The report also relates the results to three relevant and well-citied protocols for the subject: the Sustainable Development Goals in UN’s Agenda 2030, the Swedish Environmental Quality Objectives, and the Swedish National Forest Program. The approach applied Maxwell’s process design for qualitative research. Data have been collected from literature search and interviews of experts and the analytical instrument for modeling of data was the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD). The report concludes: Sustainable development for forestry relies on a paradigm shift in civilization’s perception of forestry to a practice where planning departures from envisioning a future where natural forest functions to sustain higher life forms and civilization are safeguarded and prioritized before other usages of forestland, and where diversity is enhanced in terms of tree age and species to foster more resilient and high-quality timber forests. When the above points are achieved, the higher diversity of more resilient forests should also have potential to supply markets with various kinds of resources offered to more and more sustainability driven markets. Furthermore, this development of society’s forest use increases the chances for civilization to be sustainable also with relatively smaller forest areas put aside for no forestry at all. In such a situation forestry and society have prioritized forest products and usages with long life spans before such with short. A future sustainable Swedish forest sector has recognized the above, and drawn an essential conclusion from it: the interdependency of forests with society’s overall sustainability performance calls for a cooperative approach that departures from an understanding of basic sustainability principles that are shared across sectors and disciplines. The Sustainable Development Goals, the Swedish Environmental Objectives and the Swedish National Forest Program all fail to take the above broad- systems perspective when it comes to proposing measures for the future, including how to advise further research to explore what the sustainable Swedish forestry could entail. The study arrives at pointing out an overall approach to analyses, planning and further research in those regards, rather than evaluating details on the path towards sustainable forestry. / Skogen är en nyckelresurs i den landbaserade naturen som förser samhället med ekosystemtjänster såsom klimatreglering, vattenrening, naturlig skadedjursbekämpning, habitat för biologisk mångfald, likväl som olika former av träfiberbaserade material och mat. Samtidigt är skogen hotad av kraftigt tryck från olika aktiviteter i samhället. Den här rapporten undersöker skogens betydelse för (i) upprätthållande av biosfärens livsuppehållande funktioner, samt som (ii) flexibel resurs när det gäller att förse mänskliga behov på alltmer hållbarhetsdrivna marknader. Hur bör skogen skötas så att dessa två roller stödjer varandra? Rapporten relaterar också resultaten till tre relevanta och vanligt citerade protokoll: hållbarhetsmålen i FNs Agenda 2030, de svenska miljömålen och det svenska nationella skogsprogrammet. Forskningen har strukturerats med hjälp av Maxwells process-design för kvalitativ forskning. Data har samlats in genom litteraturstudier och från intervjuer med experter. Modellering av data har gjorts genom att använda ramverket för strategisk hållbar utveckling (FSSD) som analysinstrument. Rapporten kommer fram till att: Hållbar utveckling för skogsbruket är beroende av ett paradigmskifte. En skogsskötsel där (i) planering utgår från att föreställa sig en framtid där skogens funktioner för högre liv på jorden är säkrade och satta före annan användning av skogsmark, och (ii) mångfald är främjad gällande trädens ålder och antalet arter så att mer resilienta skogar kan bidra med högkvalitativt timmer. När skogen förvaltas på det sättet så bör de mer diversa och resilienta skogarna ha möjlighet att förse marknader med olika resurser som kan visa sig vara viktiga på alltmer hållbarhetsdrivna marknader. Vidare borde denna utveckling av samhälles skogsanvändning öka chanserna för civilisationen att bli hållbar med relativt mindre ytor reserverade för att skyddas mot skogsbruk. Med en sådan förvaltning har skogsägare och samhället i stort prioriterat produkter och användningsområden med långa livslängder före sådana med korta livslängder. En framtida hållbar svensk skogssektor har insett allt ovanstående och dragit en väsentlig slutsats från det: beroendet mellan skogen och samhällets övergripande hållbarhetsarbete kräver samarbete utgående från grundläggande hållbarhetsprinciper som delas över sektors- och disciplingränser. Hållbarhetsmålen i Agenda 2030, de svenska miljömålen och det svenska nationella skogsprogrammet saknas alla ett tillräckligt brett systemperspektiv när det gäller att föreslå åtgärder för framtiden, inklusive att ge rekommendationer för framtida forskning om hållbart svenskt skogsbruk. Studien pekar snarare ut en övergripande inriktning för analyser, planering och forskning om hållbart svenskt skogsbruk, än utvärderar de exakta stegen på vägen dit.