This thesis is an exploration of how artificial lights are used to create atmospheres in a space, andhow they enhance an individual’s well-being. The focus here is placed on students in Sweden,specifically those who live in one-room apartments. Students typically do not invest much intheir lights yet being in Scandinavia, artificial lighting is used to compensate for the lack ofdaylight hours. As such, the lights they have will impact how they go about their day.A light is designed using product design methods to respond to the research question: “to whatextent can a versatile light source alter the atmosphere of a student’s space to enhance their wellbeing?”As the research is situated in Sweden, aspects of the Scandinavian lighting culture will beexamined and implemented in the design. The student’s well-being will be assessed through thetheory of subjective well-being, specifically how it can be enhanced through perceived control.The light design also aims to be socially sustainable, focusing on how individuals’ well-being canbe improved through lighting. The design also attempts to tackle inequalities by showing it canbe made of cheap and accessible materials, as well as being professionally manufactured. Thecheaper version is to ensure students with lower incomes can access the same quality of light asothers, where the light will create a similar atmosphere. Finally, the concept of social lighting isdefined in the context of this thesis. It concentrates on designing the light based on interviewswith students and emphasising the relationship between a student and their apartment.Through interviews and photos, a design brief was formed to understand what type of lightstudents use in their apartment and what they were looking for. After a series of iterations, afinal design was obtained and created. One version was made professionally in metal by BelidLighting. Another was made out of thick card and paper clips, materials easily accessible tostudents. The models were tested by students in their home for two nights, after which aninterview took place to obtain impressions and feedback on the design.It was concluded that a versatile light source altered the atmosphere of a student space toenhance their well-being to a certain extent. This was due to people’s existing relationship withlights, where they don’t generally interact beyond switching them on and off. Nonetheless,participants enjoyed making their own lamp, and found the lamp design quite unique. Thishelped maintain their subjective well-being.

abstract: Phosphorus (P), an essential element for life, is becoming increasingly scarce, and its global management presents a serious challenge. As urban environments dominate the landscape, we need to elucidate how P cycles in urban ecosystems to better understand how cities contribute to — and provide opportunities to solve — problems of P management. The goal of my research was to increase our understanding of urban P cycling in the context of urban resource management through analysis of existing ecological and socio-economic data supplemented with expert interviews in order to facilitate a transition to sustainable P management. Study objectives were to: I) Quantify and map P stocks and flows in the Phoenix metropolitan area and analyze the drivers of spatial distribution and dynamics of P flows; II) examine changes in P-flow dynamics at the urban agricultural interface (UAI), and the drivers of those changes, between 1978 and 2008; III) compare the UAI's average annual P budget to the global agricultural P budget; and IV) explore opportunities for more sustainable P management in Phoenix. Results showed that Phoenix is a sink for P, and that agriculture played a primary role in the dynamics of P cycling. Internal P dynamics at the UAI shifted over the 30-year study period, with alfalfa replacing cotton as the main locus of agricultural P cycling. Results also suggest that the extent of P recycling in Phoenix is proportionally larger than comparable estimates available at the global scale due to the biophysical characteristics of the region and the proximity of various land uses. Uncertainty remains about the effectiveness of current recycling strategies and about best management strategies for the future because we do not have sufficient data to use as basis for evaluation and decision-making. By working in collaboration with practitioners, researchers can overcome some of these data limitations to develop a deeper understanding of the complexities of P dynamics and the range of options available to sustainably manage P. There is also a need to better connect P management with that of other resources, notably water and other nutrients, in order to sustainably manage cities. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Sustainability 2011

A produção de um bem é responsabilidade de todas as empresas que integram a cadeia de suprimentos, por conseguinte, as implicações socioambientais que esses produtos geram são também de responsabilidade de cada uma das empresas que integram essa cadeia. Assim, o comportamento socioambiental nas empresas precisa ser considerado ao longo da cadeia de suprimentos. Embora existam estudos relacionando sustentabilidade e cadeia de suprimentos, as pesquisas têm-se focado principalmente na dimensão ambiental e econômica. Os aspectos relacionados com as três dimensões da sustentabilidade de forma conjunta têm recebido pouca atenção na pesquisa. Além disso, os estudos têm considerado somente a empresa focal como unidade de análise e, raramente, essas pesquisas abrangem todos os membros que compõem a cadeia. Nesse contexto, a presente tese propõe desenvolver uma estrutura analítica para identificar o perfil de sustentabilidade de cadeias de suprimentos. No referencial teórico discute-se a dinâmica da sustentabilidade sob a visão das dimensões econômica, social e ambiental. Em seguida, apresentam-se os fundamentos da gestão da cadeia de suprimentos, identificando seus elementos-chave (estrutura, processos, e componentes). Posteriormente, relaciona-se a sustentabilidade com os elementos-chave de gestão por meio da cadeia de suprimentos sustentável. Por fim, o referencial teórico propõe a estrutura analítica de pesquisa, integrando parâmetros sustentáveis em cada elemento-chave da gestão da cadeia de suprimentos, objetivando a construção do perfil de sustentabilidade. Referente aos procedimentos metodológicos, a estrutura analítica foi testada em quatorze cadeias de suprimentos de rosas do Equador. Nesse tipo de cadeia, o produtor de rosas é considerado a empresa focal. As cadeias de suprimentos estão compostas por oito membros: a empresa focal e os sete fornecedores de primeiro nível. Os dados foram coletados com o uso de um questionário estruturado. Para estruturação das cadeias foi utilizada uma amostra de 312 empresas. Dessas, 42 responderam o questionário, ou seja, 13% do total. Foram usadas para a configuração das cadeias apenas 26 empresas. Com os dados obtidos foram construídos quatorze perfis, os quais descrevem a posição de sustentabilidade da cada empresa e da cadeia como se fosse uma única empresa. Adicionalmente, a forma em que o perfil é apresentado permite desdobrar as posições obtidas de cada empresa nas dimensões social, ambiental e econômica. Esse desdobramento possibilita identificar qual empresa obteve a maior ou a menor posição de forma global e por dimensão. A partir desses perfis, apresentam-se três tipos de análise: entre cadeias, entre os membros da cadeia, e entre as empresas que ocupam a mesma posição nas cadeias. Os resultados que a estrutura analítica gerou possibilitaram traçar perfis de sustentabilidade em cadeias de suprimentos de acordo com o objetivo proposto. O perfil caracteriza de forma simples a posição de sustentabilidade de uma cadeia, usando os mesmos parâmetros de mensuração em todos seus membros. Além disso, a forma como o perfil foi construído permite analisar a cadeia e seus membros nas dimensões social, ambiental e econômica, separadamente. Esse desdobramento facilita a identificação de brechas entre as dimensões e entre as empresas. / Manufacturing a good is a responsibility shared by all the enterprises integrating the supply chain; therefore, each enterprise of the chain should be held responsible for the socioenvironmental implications generated by these products. That being said, enterprises’ socioenvironmental behavior is an aspect to be taken into consideration along all the supply chain. Although there are studies relating sustainability and supply chain, researches have focused mainly on the environmental and economic dimensions. The aspects related to the three sustainability dimensions combined have received little research attention. Furthermore, studies have considered only the focal enterprise as an analysis unit, and these studies hardly ever encompass all the members composing the chain. In this context, this study attempts to develop an analytical structure in order to identify the sustainability profile of supply chains. In the theoretical background it is discussed the sustainability dynamics under the light of the economic, social and environmental dimensions. Afterwards, supply chain management basis are presented, identifying their key elements (structure, processes and components). Subsequently, sustainability is related to management key elements through a sustainable supply chain. The theoretical background proposes the research analytical structure, integrating sustainable parameters into each key element of the supply chain management, so as to build a sustainability profile. Regarding the methodological procedures, the analytical structure has been tested in fourteen rose supply chains in Ecuador. In this kind of chain, the rose grower is considered as the focal enterprise. The supply chains are composed of eight elements: the focal enterprise and seven first level suppliers. Data has been collected through a structured questionnaire. For the chain structuring a sample of 312 enterprises has been used. Out of these, 42 answered the questionnaire, that is, 13% of the total. Only 26 enterprises have been used to outline the chains. Fourteen profiles have been made with the data collected, describing the sustainability position of each enterprise and that of the chain, as if they were unique enterprises. Moreover, the way the profile is presented allows for the unfolding of the positions obtained by each enterprise in the social, environmental and economic dimensions. Such unfolding enables us to identify which enterprise has had the highest or lowest position globally or per dimension. Based on these profiles, three kinds of analysis have been presented: among chains, among chain members, and among enterprises occupying the same position in the chains. The outcomes from this analytical structure have enabled us to outline the sustainability profiles in supply chains according to the proposed aim. This profile characterizes in a simple way the sustainability position of a chain, applying the same measurement parameters to all its members. Furthermore, the way this profile has been built enables us to analyze the chain and its members in the social, environmental and economic dimensions separately. This unfolding makes it easier to identify gaps among the dimensions and the enterprises.

abstract: Nowadays there is a pronounced interest in the need for sustainable and reliable infrastructure systems to address the challenges of the future infrastructure development. This dissertation presents the research associated with understanding various sustainable and reliable design alternatives for water distribution systems. Although design of water distribution networks (WDN) is a thoroughly studied area, most researchers seem to focus on developing algorithms to solve the non-linear hard kind of optimization problems associated with WDN design. Cost has been the objective in most of the previous studies with few models considering reliability as a constraint, and even fewer models accounting for the environmental impact of WDN. The research presented in this dissertation combines all these important objectives into a multi-objective optimization framework. The model used in this research is an integration of a genetic algorithm optimization tool with a water network solver, EPANET. The objectives considered for the optimization are Life Cycle Costs (LCC) and Life Cycle Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions (LCE) whereby the system reliability is made a constraint. Three popularly used resilience metrics were investigated in this research for their efficiency in aiding the design of WDNs that are able to handle external natural and man-made shocks. The best performing resilience metric is incorporated into the optimization model as an additional objective. Various scenarios were developed for the design analysis in order to understand the trade-offs between different critical parameters considered in this research. An approach is proposed and illustrated to identify the most sustainable and resilient design alternatives from the solution set obtained by the model employed in this research. The model is demonstrated by using various benchmark networks that were studied previously. The size of the networks ranges from a simple 8-pipe system to a relatively large 2467-pipe one. The results from this research indicate that LCE can be reduced at a reasonable cost when a better design is chosen. Similarly, resilience could also be improved at an additional cost. The model used in this research is more suitable for water distribution networks. However, the methodology could be adapted to other infrastructure systems as well. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Construction 2012

abstract: Growing concerns over climate change and the lack of a federal climate policy have prompted many sub-national organizations to undertake greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation actions on their own. However, the interventions associated with these efforts are typically selected in a top-down and ad hoc manner, and have not created the desired GHG emissions reductions. Accordingly, new approaches are needed to identify, select, develop, and coordinate effective climate change mitigation interventions in local and regional contexts. This thesis develops a process to create a governance system for negotiating local and regional climate interventions. The process consists of four phases: 1) mapping the overall transition, 2) reconstructing the current intervention selection system, 3) assessing the system against principles identified in the literature, and 4) creating an improved system based on the assessment. This process gives users a detailed understanding of how the overall transition has progressed, how and why interventions are currently selected, what changes are needed to improve the selection system, and how to re-structure the system to create more desirable outcomes. The process results in an improved system that relies on participation, coordination, and accountability to proactively select evidence-based interventions that incorporate the interests of stakeholders and achieve system-level goals. The process was applied to climate change mitigation efforts underway in Sonoma County, California to explore the implications of real-world application, and demonstrate its utility for current climate change mitigation efforts. Note that results and analysis from interviews with Sonoma County climate actors are included as a supplementary file. / Dissertation/Thesis / Coded results from interviews with Sonoma County climate actors / M.A. Sustainability 2012

abstract: Pro-environmental goals often pit immediate self-interest against future communal interest. Consequently, the motivation to behave in pro-environmental ways can be particularly difficult to maintain over time. By framing environmental ills as threats to one's chronic concerns, I suggest that chronic motivations, such as disease avoidance, can be leveraged to engender longer-lasting pro-environmental motivation. Specifically, I suggest that three distinct categories of environmental ills should be associated with distinct chronic concerns, and that the mechanisms that regulate these concerns should also regulate reactions to related environmental ills: pollution should engage a pathogenic disgust mechanism, wastefulness a moral disgust mechanism, and framing environmental outcomes as posing safety concerns should be linked to fear and anger mechanisms. Results of four experiments did not lend consistent support to the hypotheses. Neither situationally primed concerns nor motivation-relevant individual differences produced consistent results suggesting an association between the proposed motivations and the relevant environmental outcomes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Psychology 2012

abstract: Urban sustainability is a critical component of sustainable human societies. Urban riparian parks are used here as a case study seeking to understand the social-ecological relationships between the subjective evaluation of ecosystem services and the vision and management of one kind of green infrastructure. This study explored attitudes towards ecosystem services, asking whether 1) the tripartite model is an effective framing to measure attitudes towards ecosystem services; 2) what the attitudes towards ecosystem services are and whether they differ between two types of park space; and 3) what the relationship is between management and the attitudinal assessment of ecosystem services by park users. A questionnaire was administered to 104 urban riparian park users in Phoenix, AZ evaluating their attitudes towards refugia, aesthetics, microclimate and stormwater regulation, and recreational and educational opportunities. The operationalization of the tripartite model was validated and found reliable, but may not be the whole story in determining attitudes towards ecosystem services. All components of attitude were positive, but attitudes were stronger in a habitat rehabilitation area with densely planted native species and low flows, than in a more classic park with mowed lawns and scattered vegetation, a mix of native and non-native species, and open water. Park users were more positive towards refugia, stormwater regulation, recreation, and educational opportunities in the habitat rehabilitation area. On the other hand, microclimate regulation and aesthetic qualities were valued similarly between the two parks. Most attitudes supported management goals, however park users valued stormwater regulation less than managers. Qualitative answers suggest that the quality of human interactions differ between the parks and park users consider both elements of society and the physical environment in their subjective evaluations. These findings reveal that park users highly value ecosystem services and that park design and management mediates social-ecological relationships, which should at least underlie the context of economic discussions of service value. This study supports the provision of ecosystem services through green infrastructure and suggests that an integration of park designs throughout urban areas could provide both necessary services as well as expand the platform for social-ecological interactions. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Sustainability 2012

State energy plans are created at the request of a sitting governor or State Legislature in order to provide guidance set goals for the state’s energy sector. These plans will be critical indicators of energy trends such as the future market share of coal, natural gas, and renewables. If the future of energy in the United States is to be remotely sustainable, low-carbon policies must headline state plans. The strength of a state’s energy plan in terms of sustainability is directly related to that state’s willingness to prioritize and commit to incorporating energy sources that produce negligible carbon emissions. Questions about the role of efficiency can be answered by the political need for short-run payoffs that do not necessarily align with the long-term goals of sustainability (Kern & Smith, 2008). The nature of the American political system is that representatives want to be able to bring immediate results to their constituents, results that are usually shown in the short-run by efficiency programs. While the state energy plans in question (California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Iowa, South Carolina, and Virginia) engage with sustainability at varying levels of strength, they deal mostly in weak sustainability by failing to commit to renewables. Historical reliance on energy efficiency and its accompanying theories of growth has created a climate in which state energy plans do not generally realize their enormous potential to lead the national transition away from fossil fuels.

Bakgrund: Ett tillägg i årsredovisningslagen innebär att bolag, som uppfyller storlekskriterierna, från och med för räkenskapsåret 2017 ska upprätta en hållbarhetsrapport. Tillägget anger också innehållet, för att skapa förståelse för bolagets utveckling, ställning och resultat. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att analysera effekter på fastighetsbolagens hållbarhetsrapporter från 2016 till 2017 av det nya lagkravet. Vidare handlar det om att analysera om det finns likheter eller skillnader mellan statliga, kommunala och noterade fastighetsbolags hållbarhetsrapporter. Metod: En kvalitativ forskningsstrategi bestående av en undersökning av två statliga, ett kommunalt och sex noterade fastighetsbolags hållbarhetsrapporter. Vi genomförde fem intervjuer för att få en djupgående blick över vad det nya lagkravet har skapat för effekter. Resultat: Effekterna varierar men gemensamt för de nio bolagen är: tydligare struktur, utvecklat om riskhantering och om sociala förhållanden. Övergripande liknar de statliga, kommunala och noterade bolagens hållbarhetsrapporter varandra, genom att de redovisar enligt aspekterna ekonomi, miljö och social hållbarhet. De statliga bolagens rapporter skiljer sig från de kommunala och noterade bolagens, genom att deras hållbarhetsrapporter genomgående har en tydligare struktur och transparens. Kanhända förklaras det av att de statliga bolagen hållbarhetsrapporterat under en längre följd av år än de övriga. / Background: The Swedish Parliament issued an addition to the annual accounts act, requiring the companies which fulfil the size criteria to produce a sustainability report, starting for the financial year 2017. This addition defines content, needed for the understanding of the company’s development, financial position and performance. Purpose: The purpose is to study effects on investment property companies’ sustainability reports from the year 2016 to 2017, due to the addition. Furthermore, whether there are similarities or differences between reports by state-owned, municipally-owned and listed investment companies` sustainability reports. Method: A qualitative research strategy consisting of a study of sustainability reports by two state-owned, one municipally-owned and six listed investment property companies. We did five interviews to see what the new requirement created for effects on the investment property companies. Results: The effects vary but, in common, the reports for year 2017 by the nine companies have: a more clearly defined structure, a more developed risk management and more on social conditions. Overall, the state-owned, the municipally-owned and the listed investment property companies' sustainability reports are similar to each other, by reporting in terms of economy, environment and social sustainability. The state-owned companies` reports differ from those by the municipally-owned and by the listed companies, as their sustainability reports have a clearer structure and transparency. Maybe can be explained by the longer period of years the state-owned companies have reported on sustainability.

A produção de um bem é responsabilidade de todas as empresas que integram a cadeia de suprimentos, por conseguinte, as implicações socioambientais que esses produtos geram são também de responsabilidade de cada uma das empresas que integram essa cadeia. Assim, o comportamento socioambiental nas empresas precisa ser considerado ao longo da cadeia de suprimentos. Embora existam estudos relacionando sustentabilidade e cadeia de suprimentos, as pesquisas têm-se focado principalmente na dimensão ambiental e econômica. Os aspectos relacionados com as três dimensões da sustentabilidade de forma conjunta têm recebido pouca atenção na pesquisa. Além disso, os estudos têm considerado somente a empresa focal como unidade de análise e, raramente, essas pesquisas abrangem todos os membros que compõem a cadeia. Nesse contexto, a presente tese propõe desenvolver uma estrutura analítica para identificar o perfil de sustentabilidade de cadeias de suprimentos. No referencial teórico discute-se a dinâmica da sustentabilidade sob a visão das dimensões econômica, social e ambiental. Em seguida, apresentam-se os fundamentos da gestão da cadeia de suprimentos, identificando seus elementos-chave (estrutura, processos, e componentes). Posteriormente, relaciona-se a sustentabilidade com os elementos-chave de gestão por meio da cadeia de suprimentos sustentável. Por fim, o referencial teórico propõe a estrutura analítica de pesquisa, integrando parâmetros sustentáveis em cada elemento-chave da gestão da cadeia de suprimentos, objetivando a construção do perfil de sustentabilidade. Referente aos procedimentos metodológicos, a estrutura analítica foi testada em quatorze cadeias de suprimentos de rosas do Equador. Nesse tipo de cadeia, o produtor de rosas é considerado a empresa focal. As cadeias de suprimentos estão compostas por oito membros: a empresa focal e os sete fornecedores de primeiro nível. Os dados foram coletados com o uso de um questionário estruturado. Para estruturação das cadeias foi utilizada uma amostra de 312 empresas. Dessas, 42 responderam o questionário, ou seja, 13% do total. Foram usadas para a configuração das cadeias apenas 26 empresas. Com os dados obtidos foram construídos quatorze perfis, os quais descrevem a posição de sustentabilidade da cada empresa e da cadeia como se fosse uma única empresa. Adicionalmente, a forma em que o perfil é apresentado permite desdobrar as posições obtidas de cada empresa nas dimensões social, ambiental e econômica. Esse desdobramento possibilita identificar qual empresa obteve a maior ou a menor posição de forma global e por dimensão. A partir desses perfis, apresentam-se três tipos de análise: entre cadeias, entre os membros da cadeia, e entre as empresas que ocupam a mesma posição nas cadeias. Os resultados que a estrutura analítica gerou possibilitaram traçar perfis de sustentabilidade em cadeias de suprimentos de acordo com o objetivo proposto. O perfil caracteriza de forma simples a posição de sustentabilidade de uma cadeia, usando os mesmos parâmetros de mensuração em todos seus membros. Além disso, a forma como o perfil foi construído permite analisar a cadeia e seus membros nas dimensões social, ambiental e econômica, separadamente. Esse desdobramento facilita a identificação de brechas entre as dimensões e entre as empresas. / Manufacturing a good is a responsibility shared by all the enterprises integrating the supply chain; therefore, each enterprise of the chain should be held responsible for the socioenvironmental implications generated by these products. That being said, enterprises’ socioenvironmental behavior is an aspect to be taken into consideration along all the supply chain. Although there are studies relating sustainability and supply chain, researches have focused mainly on the environmental and economic dimensions. The aspects related to the three sustainability dimensions combined have received little research attention. Furthermore, studies have considered only the focal enterprise as an analysis unit, and these studies hardly ever encompass all the members composing the chain. In this context, this study attempts to develop an analytical structure in order to identify the sustainability profile of supply chains. In the theoretical background it is discussed the sustainability dynamics under the light of the economic, social and environmental dimensions. Afterwards, supply chain management basis are presented, identifying their key elements (structure, processes and components). Subsequently, sustainability is related to management key elements through a sustainable supply chain. The theoretical background proposes the research analytical structure, integrating sustainable parameters into each key element of the supply chain management, so as to build a sustainability profile. Regarding the methodological procedures, the analytical structure has been tested in fourteen rose supply chains in Ecuador. In this kind of chain, the rose grower is considered as the focal enterprise. The supply chains are composed of eight elements: the focal enterprise and seven first level suppliers. Data has been collected through a structured questionnaire. For the chain structuring a sample of 312 enterprises has been used. Out of these, 42 answered the questionnaire, that is, 13% of the total. Only 26 enterprises have been used to outline the chains. Fourteen profiles have been made with the data collected, describing the sustainability position of each enterprise and that of the chain, as if they were unique enterprises. Moreover, the way the profile is presented allows for the unfolding of the positions obtained by each enterprise in the social, environmental and economic dimensions. Such unfolding enables us to identify which enterprise has had the highest or lowest position globally or per dimension. Based on these profiles, three kinds of analysis have been presented: among chains, among chain members, and among enterprises occupying the same position in the chains. The outcomes from this analytical structure have enabled us to outline the sustainability profiles in supply chains according to the proposed aim. This profile characterizes in a simple way the sustainability position of a chain, applying the same measurement parameters to all its members. Furthermore, the way this profile has been built enables us to analyze the chain and its members in the social, environmental and economic dimensions separately. This unfolding makes it easier to identify gaps among the dimensions and the enterprises.