The raising awareness of sustainable strategies within businesses has resulted in corporations becoming more conscious of sustainable development. As concerns about the environment and global climate change increases with carbon emissions as a cause, companies are now considering the extent of their emissions, their so-called carbon footprint. Due to the fact that organizations are starting to recognize the need to engage in sustainability initiatives; it is integral to success to communicate that they are doing so. This research therefore attempts to provide a better understanding of how international corporations communicate their carbon footprint to key stakeholders. To reach this purpose, three research questions was stated. Based on these questions, a literature review was conducted, resulting in a conceptual framework which guided the data collection. Methodologically, a cross-case analysis has been conducted on three international corporations, LKAB, DIAB Group AB and BillerudKorsnäs. The case study included qualitative semi-structured interviews with sustainability- and communication managers and a content analysis of information available through the corporations’ communication channels.  The analysis showed that neither of the three corporations have a clear strategy for their carbon footprint communication. The corporations have implemented sustainability and carbon emissions well within the organization, but they only communicate this to a small extent externally. Through this, there is a difficulty in involving stakeholders in questions regarding the corporations’carbon footprint and allowing this dialogue to be included in the communication. The findings indicate that it is important to let sustainability be a part of the overall communication and to focus on what the company see value in. Finally, we have come to the conclusion that better strategies are needed in order for corporations to communicate their carbon footprint more effectively to stakeholders, as well as methods for how companies can report their carbon footprint to a greater extent.

Rainwater harvesting, the act of capturing and storing rain, is an ancient practice that is increasingly utilized today by communities to address water supply needs. This thesis examines whether domestic rainwater harvesting systems (DRWHS) can be a sustainable solution as defined by social, water quality, and technical feasibility for water security in semi-arid, rural environments. For this study, 50 surveys and 17 stored rainwater analyses were conducted in San Jose Xacxamayo, Mexico, in conjunction with my Peace Corps work of implementing 82 DRWHS. Results showed that all DRWHS were socially feasible because of cultural acceptance and local capacity. Water quality analyses showed that four DRWHS contained coliform bacteria; deeming water unfit for human consumption. Technical feasibility, examined through climate analyses, showed an average year-round reliability of 20-30% under current and future rainfall regime. The DRWHS can be a sustainable water supply option with roof expansion and treatment prior to consumption.

Sustainability and sustainable development is an important topic for today’s society. To manage organizational sustainability, companies use sustainability reporting to measure their performance. A new EU directive [2014/95/EU] requires all companies who have 500 or more employees, to report on non-financial information. Hence, sustainability reporting becomes more institutional. A number of different frameworks exist to help companies to report on sustainability. The most prominent framework is provided by the Global Reporting Initiative [GRI], which helps companies to disclose information on economic, social, and environmental dimensions. As the forestry industry in Sweden and Finland has been considered important for future sustainable development, this industry has been the focus in the thesis. Previous research has focused on why companies report on sustainability. The purpose of this thesis was instead to research how companies report, by investigating the development process of sustainability reports in Swedish and Finnish forestry companies. Moreover, the purpose was to create an understanding of the sustainability report development in accordance with GRI guidelines, within Swedish and Finnish forestry companies. The research question is: How do Swedish and Finnish forestry companies develop sustainability reports in accordance with the GRI guidelines? To answer the stipulated research question, the thesis adopted a qualitative method with an abductive approach. Moreover, the thesis had an descripto-exploratory research design to find relevant knowledge and findings. The thesis theoretical framework introduced concepts related to our research question: sustainability reporting, the organization GRI and their guidelines, a reporting process that was retrieved from GRI’s handbook, and the forestry industry in Sweden and Finland. In addition to this, system-oriented theories such as legitimacy theory, stakeholder theory, and institutional theory were presented. Through seven semi-structured interviews, with various managers from Swedish and Finnish forestry companies, information about the companies’ sustainability report development was collected. The thesis identified several essential segments in the report development process. These included: reasons for using GRI, planning, stakeholder engagement, materiality, data collection, and reporting. We concluded that the phases of the process presented in the theoretical framework, instead were included in a continuous process where the phases turned to segments that were integrated with each other in the companies reporting practices.

Although there has been a growing interest in policy and among scholars to consider culture as an aspect of sustainable development, the understanding of culture within the framework of sustainable development has remained vague. This study sought to discover what influence culture may have on the practical application of the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD). The research focused on the approaches FSSD practitioners take in their application of the framework within different cultural contexts in an attempt both to uncover patterns and to develop guidelines for applying the framework in those contexts with cultural sensitivity. A qualitative research approach was selected, and a literature review and semi-structured interviews were used to elicit the approaches of thirteen FSSD practitioners with experience applying the framework outside of Europe and North America. The results revealed four main cultural factors FSSD practitioners account for when applying the framework in different cultural contexts and four practical strategies used to account for those cultural factors. Based on these discoveries, strategic guidelines were created to complement the FSSD so that it can be more easily applied in different cultural contexts, thereby contributing to the framework’s ultimate goal of accelerating the global transition toward a sustainable society.

The purpose of this study was to explore users' and preparers' perception of sustainability reporting, especially for accountants and financial analysts who are involved with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines and GRI based sustainability or CSR reports in the United States. With the increasing trends to sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR), it is important to understand what level users and preparers currently hold towards the sustainability reporting. This study used samples from the following resources: all companies included in the GRI report list as a report preparer group and financial analysts as report users, whose companies' core business focused on social and environmental investing. This study examined four hypotheses concerning general corporate sustainability & reporting and sustainability performance indicators in environmental, economic and social aspects suggested by the GRI Guidelines. This paper contributes to corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting. This paper studied users' perception of sustainability reporting and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Prior research mainly focused on preparers' perception or attitudes toward sustainability reports (Guthrie & Parker, 1990; Kolk, 2004; Lindgreen et al., 2009; White, 2005). Also, this paper adds to the literature on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and its guidelines that have not been extensively studied in prior research. The results revealed that users and preparers agreed on the important issues asked for the general corporate sustainability and reporting, and both groups held similar attitudes towards the environmental, economic and social performance indicators and felt most of them as important to be included in a sustainability report. In addition, both groups indicated the GRI as the preferred standard setting body for sustainability reporting and gave support to GRI for its effort to establish and promote the standards for sustainability reporting. Finally, a considerable number of users and preparers agreed that the GRI report can fairly measure a company's environmental, economic and social performance.

The northeast part of Brazil has been the stage for many public policies which are presented as a solution to make the regional economy dynamic and promote the improvement of the quality of life of the population. The execution of the methodology DLIS (Desenvolvimento Local Integrado e Sustentável) Integrated and Sustainable Local Development stands out in this context defining local development strategies through the participation of the communities. From the participative diagnosis in which local problems, vocations and potentialities are pointed out, a development plan is elaborated and a local agenda is extracted. The priority actions of this agenda must be executed by many partners of federal, state and municipal spheres and local civil society organizations. This methodology has been introduced in 26 of the 75 Brazilian municipalities. In the state of Sergipe, it is particularly performed by SEBRAE (Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas) - Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service. The development plans, mainly those whose action scale is the locality, can in fact contribute to local sustainable development, if the geographical, political, cultural and historical singularities are considered, and if the participation of all the development actors is assured. Our work is focused on the evaluation of DLIS methodology, without understanding it as a certifiable model of sustainable development to be pursued for all the municipalities. In accordance with our understanding of the importance of this methodology as a development policy and with the necessity of evaluating it under the concrete perspective of its contents, our work attempted to evaluate the impacts of the actions introduced by DLIS/SEBRAE concerned with cultural sustainability and local participation, seen as essential to local sustainable development, taking as case study the municipality of Canindé do São Francisco, in the state of Sergipe and, for that, we considered some setbacks. We analysed that the way of life, the cultural values and the local social actors identities were not taken into consideration in this process. The expectations in relation to local sustainable development were not considered, as well. We have also analysed the insertion degree of local social actors in the participative process and the treatment given to the locality by the methodology. We see this study as a contribution to the evaluation of participative social policy methodologies through a new relation between state and society, and also, as a fertile theme that points out the insertion of the cultural dimension in development plans. The results can be relevant even for policy makers, local development financiers and for non-governamental organizations interested in knowing the impacts of these actions from the evaluation and perception of the alleged beneficiaries. / A região Nordeste vem sendo alvo de diversas políticas públicas apresentadas como soluções para dinamizar a economia regional e promover a melhoria da qualidade de vida da população. Nesse contexto, vem se destacando a execução da metodologia DLIS (Desenvolvimento Local Integrado e Sustentável) que define estratégias locais de desenvolvimento através da participação das comunidades. A partir do diagnóstico participativo no qual são destacados os problemas, as vocações e potencialidades do local é elaborado um plano de desenvolvimento do qual é extraída a agenda local com ações prioritárias que deverão ser executadas por vários parceiros das esferas federal, estadual, municipal e organizações da sociedade civil local. Implantada em todo país, em Sergipe, através da atuação do SEBRAE (Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas) a metodologia já foi implantada em 26 dos 75 municípios. Os planos de desenvolvimento, principalmente os que têm como escala de atuação o local, podem de fato contribuir para o desenvolvimento sustentável local, se forem consideradas as singularidades em termos de fatores geográficos, políticos, históricos e culturais e ainda, se for garantida a participação de todos os atores de desenvolvimento. Nosso trabalho está focado na avaliação da metodologia DLIS, sem, no entanto, entende-la como um modelo legitimador do desenvolvimento sustentável a ser perseguido por todos os municípios. Face nosso entendimento da importância dessa metodologia enquanto política de desenvolvimento e a necessidade da mesma ser avaliada sob a perspectiva substantiva de seus conteúdos, nosso trabalho procurou avaliar os impactos das ações implementadas pelo DLIS/SEBRAE no que diz respeito à sustentabilidade cultural e à participação local, preconizadas como indispensáveis ao alcance do desenvolvimento sustentável local, tomando-se como estudo de caso o município de Canindé do São Francisco/SE e, para tal, debruçamos nossas análises a partir de alguns vieses. Analisamos que o modo de vida, os valores culturais, a identidade dos atores sociais locais não foram fatores considerados no processo. Seus anseios em relação ao desenvolvimento sustentável local não foram contemplados. Desvendamos ainda o grau de inserção dos atores sociais locais no processo participativo e o tratamento conferido ao local pela metodologia. Entendemos esse estudo como contribuição à avaliação de metodologias de políticas sociais participativas que propõem uma nova relação entre Estado e sociedade, mas também, como tema fecundo que ressalta a inserção da dimensão cultural nos planos de desenvolvimento. Os resultados podem ser relevantes ainda para os formuladores de políticas públicas sociais, agentes de financiamento ao desenvolvimento local e organizações do terceiro setor interessados em conhecer os impactos dessas ações a partir da avaliação e percepção dos seus supostos beneficiários.

Hållbarhet är en stark trend i dagens samhälle vilket avspeglas i bolagens rapportering då hållbarhet ges ett allt större utrymme. Detta har lett till att den traditionella revisorn utför allt mer icke finansiell granskning och en ny roll i form av hållbarhetsspecialister har vuxit fram. Granskningen av hållbarhetsinformation är inte lika reglerad eller strukturerad som denfinansiella. Detta ställer granskaren inför nya utmaningar vilket kan skapa en ökad osäkerheti granskningsprocessen. Området är dock under utveckling vilket således gör det relevant att beskriva och förklara hur en granskare blir komfortabel i granskningen av hållbarhetsinformation. Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva och förklara hur en granskare uppnår känslan av komfort i granskningsprocessen av en hållbarhetsrapport. För att uppfylla studiens syfte och besvara forskningsfrågorna genomfördes en kvalitativ studie med åtta semistruktureradeintervjuer där respondenterna bestod av hållbarhetsspecialister och revisorer. Metodvalet gav utrymme för att skapa en djupare förståelse för granskningsprocessen vilket är centralt för att beskriva och förklara hur en granskare blir komfortabel. Studiens huvudsakliga slutsatser påvisar att det är individuellt hur en granskare uppnår känslan av komfort i sin granskning. Det handlar om i vilken grad de har kunnat avlägsna osäkerhet. Studien visar även att en granskare i grunden blir komfortabel utifrån den kunskapsamt erfarenhet denne besitter. Vidare påvisas det att i en del fall även är faktorer hos kunden och granskaren som påverkar om känslan uppnås. Slutligen konkluderas att hänsyn bör tas till granskarens individuella egenskaper och dess rådande granskningssituation. / In today’s society sustainability is trending, which is reflected in companies reporting as the part for sustainability increases. Resulting in an increase in non-financial auditing for accountants and the introduction of a new profession, in the form of sustainability specialists. Since the review of sustainability information is not as regulated or structured as the financial one, new challenges have appeared in the review process which creates uncertainties. However, the area is under development. Because of this, it is relevant to investigate how a reviewer becomes comfortable in reviewing sustainability information. The purpose of this study is to describe how a reviewer achieves the sense of comfort in the review process of a sustainability report. To fulfill the purpose of the study and answer the research questions, a qualitative study was conducted with eight semi-structured interviews with respondents consisting of auditors and sustainability specialists. The chosen method provided a deeper understanding of the review process, which is central in order to describe and explain how a reviewer becomes comfortable. The main conclusion of the study is that it is individually how a reviewer achieves the feeling of comfort in their reviewing and it is about the extent which they have been able to remove uncertainties. Another conclusion is that a reviewer gets comfortable based on their knowledge and experience. Furthermore, it is shown in some cases that whether the feeling of comfort is achieved is affected by the customer and the reviewer. Finally, it is concluded that the individual characteristics of the auditor should be considered as well as the current review situation.

abstract: The circular economy is viewed as a solution to many of the environmental and social ills that the linear economy has exacerbated. Whether it is through refill solutions or redesigning a cardboard shipping container, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands are rethinking the way their products are delivered to consumers through business model innovations that promote circularity. The consumer plays the important, often overlooked, role of enabler within circular business models. This study aims to increase broader understanding of what motivates circular consumption of fast-moving consumer goods while analyzing the relationship between motivators and the behaviors required to participate. Semi-structured interviews provide insights from consumers who are currently purchasing household cleansers from brands that operate with a circular business model. Results from this study highlight a group of consumers that are distinguished by their common desire to reduce their personal consumption of plastics. There is clear indication that these consumers are in fact seeking out ways to consume more sustainably. A significant subset of this group expresses concern regarding ingredients used in the products. Health concerns for themselves, their family, or a pet are driving a desire to understand product ingredients. There is evidence to indicate that the concern for personal consumption of plastics is being driven by information distributed via social media and supported by targeted advertisements for brands that address this concern. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Sustainability 2020

<p>While the general public may be familiar with commercial airports, there are thousands of small General Aviation (GA) airports serving communities across the United States. Many of these airports are under pressure to survive and to bring in more revenue without impinging on the community and environment. Many organizations and governmental agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), now recognize the value of sustainable development and importance of operation to airport sustainability. Achieving operational sustainability is a means that may help airports on sustainable development and has positive impacts on airports’ economic viability, natural resource conservation, and social responsibility. However, airport operational sustainability is rarely defined in a consistent, measurable manner (Johnson & Gu, 2017).</p><p><br></p><p>This study explored the understanding of airport operational sustainability among five GA Regional and Local airports. Based on the findings, a new definition of airport operational sustainability for U.S Regional and Local GA airports was proposed. A set of performance metrics for airport operational sustainability was developed. The outcomes of the study may help airport shareholders contribute to airport sustainability planning through a better understanding of sustainability principles<a>. A set of performance metrics for airport operational sustainability </a>may be used to quantify the sustainability achievements of airports and help airports measure their performance.</p><p></p>

abstract: Making significant progress on the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) needs change agents equipped with key competencies in sustainability. While thousands of sustainability programs have emerged at various educational levels over the past decade, there is, as of yet, no reliable way to assess if these programs successfully convey key competencies in sustainability. This dissertation contributes to addressing this gap in three ways. First, it reviews the body of work on key competencies in sustainability. Based on broad agreement around five key competencies as well as an emerging set of three, an extended framework is outlined that can be used as unified set of learning objectives across sustainability programs. The next chapter reviews the scholarly work on assessing sustainability competencies. Based on this review, a typology of assessment tools is proposed offering guidance to both educators and researchers. Finally, drawing on experience of the four-year “Educating Future Change Agents” project, the last chapter explores the results from a diverse set of competency assessments in numerous courses. The study appraises assessment practices and results to demonstrate opportunities and challenges in the current state of assessing key competencies in sustainability. The results of this doctoral thesis are expected to make a practical and scholarly contribution to the teaching and learning in sustainability programs, in particular with regards to reliably assessing key competencies in sustainability. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2020