Research question: What initiatives does Lidl Sweden implement in the area of environmental sustainability?                          Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate what initiatives Lidl has developed and how the company implemented its corporate social responsibility in the direction of environmental sustainability. The purpose is also to compare the company’s activities with the guidelines of the EU Environment Commission and theoretical frameworks developed by previous research, and, as the result, to provide recommendations to the Lidl management. As well the purpose is to review the general improvement patterns within the food retail industry. Method: The research is made by using a qualitative method with a deductive approach. In order to present quality information in the study, a case design was chosen. The empirical analysis includes four interview transcriptions, secondary data and documentation, as well as a comparison to the theoretical concepts in the descriptive analysis. Conclusion: The responsibility and awareness of the improvement of the environmental sustainability is vital in the food retail industry. Indeed, it was found that aspects such as product and supplier’s control, the use of resources, transportation and distribution, as well as waste management and information communication to the employees and customers are considered as important aspects of the contribution for the environmental impact reduction. Lidl Sweden has developed and implemented some initiatives towards environmental sustainability, as well regarding the corporate social responsibility. However, there are some suggested actions that can be taken in order to excel the development.

Widespread adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) can help to achieve deep reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions; however, the degree to which this potential will be realized depends on consumers’ decisions to purchase these vehicles over conventional ones. To provide comprehensive insight into the psychological and contextual influences on consumer vehicle preferences, three studies were performed using a mixed-methods approach. Study 1 employed a survey and stated choice experiment to explore: 1) the explanatory power of the three psychological variables from Ajzen’s (1991; 2005) theory of planned behaviour in predicting PEV purchase intentions among new vehicle buyers from British Columbia, and 2) the influence of hypothetical variations in financial and non-financial incentives on estimated PEV preference, with the goal of informing the design of provincial policy measures. Vehicle preferences were most strongly influenced by purchase price and point-of-sale incentives – with a roughly 4% forecasted increase in PEV new vehicle market share under a $5,000 purchase rebate – as well as by attitudes about PEVs (especially concerning personally-relevant PEV benefits), perceived behavioural control, and social norms. In Study 2, a latent class choice model was used to integrate survey and choice experiment data to characterize consumer classes based on vehicle preferences, demographic characteristics, and psychological variables. Findings revealed profiles of five distinct preference-based segments and demonstrated that the inclusion of psychological covariates can improve the fit of such latent class models. Study 3 extended these findings through a controlled message framing experiment that evaluated the impact of psychological distance on PEV purchase intentions. Results demonstrated that messages emphasizing both personally-relevant and societally-relevant PEV benefits increased related purchase intentions compared to the control group. Taken together, these findings may be useful in the development of PEV policies as well as targeted marketing and communications strategies aimed at supporting a transition to PEVs within Canada. / Graduate / 0451 / 0621 / 0709 / christine.kormos@gmail.com

In urbanized areas, building and transportation systems generally comprise the majority of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy consumption. Realization of global environmental sustainability depends upon efficiency improvements of building and transportation systems in the built environment. The selection of efficient buildings and locations can help to improve the efficient utilization of transportation and building systems. Green building design and rating frameworks provide some guidance and incentive for the development of more efficient building and transportation systems. However, current frameworks are based primarily on prescriptive, component standards, rather than performance-based, whole-building evaluations. This research develops a commercial building/site evaluation framework for the minimization of GHG emissions and energy consumption of transportation and building systems through building/site selection. The framework examines, under uncertainty, multiple dimensions of building/site operation efficiencies: transportation access to/from a building site; heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and domestic hot water; interior and exterior lighting; occupant conveyances; and energy supply. With respect to transportation systems, the framework leverages regional travel demand model data to estimate the activity associated with home-based work and non-home-based work trips. A Monte Carlo simulation approach is used to quantify the dispersion in the estimated trip distances, travel times, and mode choice. The travel activity estimates are linked with a variety of existing calculation resources for quantifying energy consumption and GHG emissions. With respect to building systems, the framework utilizes a building energy simulation approach to estimate energy consumption and GHG emissions. The building system calculation procedures include a sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo analysis to account for the impacts of input parameter uncertainty on estimated building performance. The framework incorporates a life cycle approach to performance evaluation, thereby incorporating functional units of building/site performance (e.g energy use intensity). The evaluation framework is applied to four case studies of commercial office development in the Atlanta, GA metropolitan region that represent a potential range of building/site alternatives for a 100-employee firm in an urbanized area. The research results indicate that whole-building energy and GHG emissions are sensitive to building/site location, and that site-related transportation is the major determinant of performance. The framework and findings may be used to support the development of quantitative performance evaluations for building/site selection in green building rating systems and other efficiency incentive programs designed to encourage more efficient utilization and development of the built environment.

The transport sector is an extensive contributor to the total CO2 emissions, and private transports hold a vast share. This has implications on environmental and human health, which eventually have economic consequences for society. Equal access to opportunities is essential in a sustainable society and public transport is a crucial element. Apart from public transport, physical active transport modes are key components in a sustainable transport system. The aim of this thesis was through an intersectional perspective to gain deeper understanding about travel mode choices and to identify barriers to use of public transport. This thesis comprises an extensive literature review of 62 articles, reviews and publications on travel behavior and travel mode choice undertaken in different parts of Sweden, Germany, UK, Portugal and the USA. A limited case study shares through nine qualitative interviews the travel experiences of four men and five women in different ages in Nåntuna/Vilan and Sävja in Uppsala, Sweden. The influencing factors were categorized and later intersectionally analyzed with the respect to gender, age and socioeconomic class. The analysis revealed that travel mode choices are complex and can be made for various reasons. Access to a car, habits, travel pattern and time indicated to be the most influencing factors. Economic resources seemed to influence the availability of transport mode, and indications could be seen that economic resources might impair gender differences. Looking at preferences and actual mode choice, the study sample illustrates that men, older, and richer, are having more opportunities to take their preferable mode choice. Planning factors appeared to both promote and constrain the use of public transport. Public transport seemed to have hard to meet everyone’s need, and indicated to have low competitiveness to the car. It is suggested that future research focuses on how to meet more people’s need in order to increase the use of public transport by its own attractiveness. Further research is also suggested about the health perspective of physical active modes and public transport. The study revealed difficulties in studying experiences outside the white, majority Swedish norm. More time would have been needed to include ethnicity, as it is an important aspect and should be included in future research. / Transportsektorn bidrar till en omfattande del av det totala koldioxidutsläppet, och privata transporter utgör en ansenlig del av detta. De miljö- och hälsomässiga negativa effekterna är betydande, vilket följaktligen kommer att få sociala och ekonomiska konsekvenser. Det övergripande politiska målet är att öka användandet av hållbara transportmedel, så som fysiskt aktiva färdmedel och kollektivtrafik. Lika möjligheter att nå arbeten och service är en förutsättning för ett hållbart samhälle, och kollektivtrafiken är en viktig nyckel till detta. Förutom kollektivtrafiken är också fysiskt aktiva färdmedel, så som cykling och gång, en nyckelfaktor i ett hållbart transportsystem. Syfte: Syftet med den här masteruppsatsen är att få djupare kunskap om de faktorer som påverkar resebeteende och färdmedelsval, samt att identifiera barriärer för kollektivt resande. Uppsatsen har ett intersektionellt perspektiv och undersöker hur maktfaktorer som kön, ålder och socioekonomisk klass påverkar valet av färdmedel. Metod: En omfattande litteraturstudie om resvanor och resebeteende i Sverige, Tyskland, Storbritannien, Portugal och USA föregick en fallstudie. Med fokus på de två områdena Nåntuna/Vilan och Sävja, i Uppsala, Sverige, genomfördes en mindre fallstudie. Nio kvalitativa intervjuer belyser fyra män och fem kvinnors erfarenheter från sina dagliga färdmedelsval. Resultat: Av dessa framgår att färdmedelsval är komplexa; de kan göras av olika anledningar, samt olika anledningar kan leda till samma val. En mängd olika faktorer indikerade på att påverka valet av färdmedel, bland annat tillgången till bil, vanor, attityder, resmönster och restiden. Dessutom indikerar resultat att maktfaktorer som kön, ålder och socioekonomisk klass formar möjligheterna till att välja färdmedel. Indikationer tyder på att ekonomiska resurser styr tillgången på färdmedelsval samt kan minska könsskillnader. Det emellertid ringa urvalet exemplifierar att män, äldre och rikare har större möjligheter att välja sitt önskvärda färdmedelsval. Respondenternas erfarenheter visar att planeringsfaktorer kan både främja och försvåra användandet av kollektivtrafiken. Kollektivtrafiken verkade ha svårt att möta människors olika behov och därmed vara konkurrenskraftig i förhållande till bilen. Mer forskning om detta är nödvändig för att öka och behålla resenärer utifrån kollektivtrafikens egen attraktionskraft. Vidare så föreslås ytterligare studier om länken mellan hälsa, fysiskt aktiva färdmedelsval och kollektivtrafikanvändande. Studien innefattar inte erfarenheter från personer med annan bakgrund än vit, majoritetssvensk eftersom det hade krävt mer tid än vad denna studie medgav. Det är dock ett viktigt perspektiv för framtida forskning.

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Transportation is good for people, but it needs a social system shift in combination with sustainable technologies in order to move towards a sustainability vision. To explore how that can be done, the authors first found out about both national and municipal sustainability visions and identified a range of social and technological solutions for long and short term use. The exploration of how municipal planning of transportation can be improved lead to the conclusion that planning for transportation in Swedish municipalities can be made more sustainable when conducting the ABCD-method within the framework for strategic sustainable development. To enhance that, the authors merged the five subsystems developed for sustainable traffic solutions and the PESTEL-method. That resulted in the S-E-A-T model that informed the content of a prioritisation tool and also provides structure to the brainstorming sessions within the ABCD-method. The combination of the ABCD method, the S-E-A-T model and the expanded guiding questions form a robust approach for strategic planning of sustainable transportation rooted in a bird´s eye and systems perspective and ultimately based on backcasting from the principles of sustainability. Further testing is though recommended to assess and refine its usefulness and applicability. / Transporter är bra för oss människor, men det behövs ett ändrat förhållningssätt i kombination med hållbara teknologier för att kunna förändra samhället (transporter i synnerhet) mot en hållbar framtidsvision. För att kunna utforska hur detta skulle kunna bli verklighet, så studerade författarna först visioner på nationell och kommunal nivå och sedan en rad sociala och tekniska hållbara lösningar på kort och lång sikt. Analysen av hur den kommunala planeringen av transporter kan förbättras ledde till slutsatsen att den kan göras mer hållbar genom att använda ABCD-metoden som ryms inom ramverket för strategisk hållbar utveckling (FSSD). För att kunna underlätta det arbetet så slog författarna ihop de fem delsystemen förslagna i ”Idépromemoria för hållbara transporter” med PESTEL-metoden. Detta resulterade i S-E-A-T-modellen som sedan bidrog till innehållet i ett prioriteringsverktyg och även till struktur i de kreativa delarna av ABCD-metoden. Kombinationen av ABCD-metoden, S-E-A-T-modellen och de utökade prioriteringsfrågorna utgör en robust ansats för strategisk planering mot hållbara transporter, som bygger på helikopter- och systemperspektiv samt ”backcasting” från hållbarhetsprinciperna. Författarna rekommenderar utökad provning av verktyget för att fastställa och förfina användningen och applicerbarheten.

In a time when the concept of sustainability is gaining increasing attention among the public, as well as among stake holders and policy makers, informing people about what the most sustainable choice to make is, is crucial in leading people in the right direction.  Travelling is an activity requiring a traveller to make multiple choices, with one of the choices being which route between two places to take. The transport sector is also a strong contributing cause to global issues such as climate change, wherefore choices made in relation to transportation are highly relevant in regard to sustainable development.  Up until today, most traffic information systems for passenger car users, only provide travellers with suggestions about the fastest, or the shortest, route option. This study aims at proposing a modelling structure using GIS software, that could also return the most sustainable route alternative.  The complexity of the many spatial impacts of road transportation is thoroughly discussed in the literature review, together with dilemmas regarding route choice behaviours. A proposed modelling structure is presented, with the structure also empirically being examined as a “proof of concept”. The empirical work takes place in the urban area of Hörnefors, Sweden, and findings confirm the applicability of the proposed workflow.  In the specific case of Hörnefors, three distinct route options are investigated, in relation to four sustainability impact variables. The variables investigated are fuel consumption, air pollution, noise, and safety. Results show that the, by far, longest route, is in fact returned as the most sustainable route option. The other two route options exhibit impacts of around double the amount of impacts yielded by the most sustainable one. The generalised sustainability cost is significantly mostly determined by the air pollution variable, due to its far-reaching spatial dispersion patterns yielding impacts even at long distances from a road.  The potential application of the inclusion of sustainability in traffic information systems are additionally reviewed, according to the behavioural mechanisms mentioned in the literature 4review. Estimations of in what contexts “most sustainable route” suggestions are potentially most likely to yield behavioural changes, are also made, and assessed. Conclusions suggest that an inclusion of “most sustainable route option” modelling into travel information systems, have the highest potential to affect route choices when the user is driving at locations previously unvisited, due to the inexistence of a status quo route in such contexts.

Thus far substantial amount of literature has been dedicated to the subject of sustainabledevelopment due to its importance in statecraft, policy and its wide ramifications for theworld. One of the most dominant ideologies in the world is Liberalism and how it makessense of sustainable development, earlier research suggests that Liberalism has an unhealthyprioritization for the economic dimension in sustainable development. Highspeed rail networkin Sweden is a case of sustainable transport policy and to some extent sustainabledevelopment. By studying Swedish liberal understanding of and opinions on highspeed railnetworks we can access an understanding of sustainable development. Liberal thought can beproduced by liberal editorials and their view gives a generalization of Swedish liberal thought.The study found that the opinions on highspeed rail network was divided between highspeedrail optimists and pessimists but that they had the same value system just differentinformation. The study also found that the discussion was dominated by economic aspects ofsustainable development when discussion highspeed rail network. And lastly by using VDP(value, descriptive and prescriptive) analysis the study found four main subjects that wasdiscussed and that was fiscal responsibility, utility maximization, greenhouse gas emissionsand labour market regional expansion. All these subjects were influenced by utilitarian marketthought with an economic outlook that proves that Swedish Liberalism has an unhealthyprioritization to the economic dimension in sustainable development.

This dissertation aims to investigate the sustainability impacts of alternative vehicle technologies and develop comprehensive sustainability assessment frameworks to analyze potential impacts of these vehicles in the U.S. In order to assess sustainability impact of vehicle alternatives, life-cycle based models has been extensively used in the literature. Although life cycle-based models are often used for environmental impacts of alternative vehicles, analysis of social and economic impacts of these vehicles has gained a tremendous interest. In this regard, there is a growing interest among the international platform and academia to use the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment framework to have more informed sustainable products, material and technology choices by considering the environmental, as well as social and economic impacts. The Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment framework is still under development and there is an ongoing research to advance it for future applications. In this dissertation, current and future needs of sustainability assessment frameworks and the U.S. transportation are identified and addressed. The major research gaps are identified as follows: (1) there has been small emphasis on effects of spatial and temporal variations on the sustainability impacts of alternative vehicle technologies, (2) no national research efforts as of now have been directed specifically toward understanding the fundamental relationship between the adoption of electric vehicles and water demand, (3) there has been a lack of understanding the dynamic complexity of transportation sustainability, encompassing feedback mechanisms, and interdependencies, for the environmental, social, and economic impacts of alternative vehicles, and (4) there is no emphasis on addressing uncertainties inherent to the U.S. transportation and its complex relationships with the environment, society, and economy. The environmental, economic, and social impacts of alternative vehicles are highly critical for truly assessing and understanding the long-term sustainability of vehicles and propose economically viable, socially acceptable, and environmentally-friendly transportation solutions for U.S. passenger transportation. This dissertation provides a more comprehensive sustainability assessment framework by realizing following objectives: (1) inclusion of spatial and temporal variations when quantifying carbon, energy, and water footprints of alternative vehicle technologies, (2) quantifying environmental, social, and economic impacts of alternative vehicle technologies, (3) capturing the dynamic relations among the parameters of U.S. transportation system, environment, society, and the economy, (4) dealing with uncertainties inherent to the U.S. transportation sector considering the complexity of the system and dynamic relationships. The results of this dissertation reveal that the results with consideration of uncertainties, temporal and spatial variations, and dynamic complex relationships among the system variables can be significantly different than those of without consideration of those. Therefore, when developing policies the robustness of proposed scenarios should be valuated with consideration of uncertainties, temporal and spatial variations as well as the dynamic feedback mechanisms. The outcomes of this study can pave the way for advancement in the state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice in the sustainability research by presenting novel approaches to deal with uncertainties and complex systems.

Climate change is raising huge challenges for all industries worldwide. It is mainly due to anthropogenic activity and energy consumption which is the cause for emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG) among other environmental impacts and is expected to have huge impact on our societies globally. Of those global GHG emissions, around a quarter is emitted by transportations of all kinds as transportation relies heavily on fossil fuels. If the past years have seen a rising share of electrification within the passenger car industry, the commercial transportation isn’t that prone to electrification and other pathway to decarbonization are studied. Shipping is responsible for around 90% of the world commercial transportation work and therefore is a keyplayer in the transition toward low carbon transportation. It relies exclusively on fossil fuels with different kinds of oil-based fuels being the historical fuel suppliers and has seen a quick increase of the share of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the past decade. Yet the international maritime organization (IMO) has set ambitious emission reduction targets for shipping and alternative fuel technologies are considered to be a relevant pathway if not the most promising pathway to low carbon or even zero carbon shipping. This study aims at evaluating and comparing different alternative fuels pathways available to perform the shift toward low carbon fuel technologies within Swedish short sea shipping (SSS) and inland waterway transportation (IWT) based on a set of criteria designed to reflect all aspects of the implementation of an alternative fuel pathway implementation. Those criteria are divided into 5 different categories which are technological, technical, economic, environmental, and finally social. There are 2 main categories to consider for low carbon fuels, biofuels and electrofuels. Fossil fuels are also included within the study so that the alternative pathways get compared not only with one another but also with the current marine fuels. The first comparison between different alternative fuel pathways is relevant to choose the most promising and feasible one while the comparison between a chosen alternative fuelpathway and the main marine fossil fuels is what stakeholders will look at when considering an alternativefuel pathway implementation challenge. The electrofuels included within the comparison are ammonia and hydrogen within 2 similar pathways which include production using water electrolysis and renewableelectricity (the carbon intensity of the Swedish grid is considered) before consumption within fuel cells (FC)instead of internal combustion engines (ICE). Those electrofuels end up with the last ranks within the comparison due to low technological maturity, technical and economic challenges remaining and social issued to address despite being the most environmentally promising pathways. Biofuel’s pathways on the other hand include both fischer tropsch diesel (FTD) and bio-methanol production using as feedstock various mixes of black liquor (BL) andpyrolysis oil (PO). FTD ends up as the most promising alternative fuel pathway within the whole studywhile bio-methanol appears more challenging but also more promising toward environmental criteria. / Klimatförändringarna innebär stora utmaningar för alla branscher världen över. Den beror främst på antropogen aktivitet och energikonsumtion som orsakar utsläpp av växthusgaser bland andra miljöeffekter och förväntas få stora konsekvenser för våra samhällen globalt. Av de globala utsläppen av växthusgaser kommer omkring en fjärdedel från alla typer av transporter, eftersom transporterna är starkt beroende avfossila bränslen. Under de senaste åren har man sett en ökande andel elektrifiering inom personbilsindustrin,men kommersiella transporter är inte lika benägna att elektrifieras och andra vägar till avkolning studeras. Sjöfarten står för cirka 90 % av världens kommersiella transportarbete och är därför en nyckelspelare i övergången till koldioxidsnåla transporter. Den är uteslutande beroende av fossila bränslen med olika typer av oljebaserade bränslen som historiska bränsleleverantörer och har sett en snabb ökning av andelen flytande naturgas (LNG) under det senaste decenniet. Internationella sjöfartsorganisationen (IMO) har dock fastställt ambitiösa mål för minskning av utsläppen för sjöfarten, och tekniker för alternativa bränslen anses vara enr elevant väg, om inte den mest lovande, för att uppnå en sjöfart med låga koldioxidutsläpp eller till och med utan koldioxidutsläpp. Syftet med denna studie är att utvärdera och jämföra olika alternativa bränslen som finns tillgängliga för att genomföra övergången till bränsleteknik med låga koldioxidutsläpp inom svensk närsjöfart (SSS) och transport på inre vattenvägar (IWT) utifrån en uppsättning kriterier som är utformade för att återspegla alla aspekter av genomförandet av en alternativ bränslesatsning. Dessa kriterier är indelade i fem olika kategorier som är tekniska, tekniska, ekonomiska, miljömässiga och slutligen sociala. Det finns två huvudkategorier att ta hänsyn till när det gäller bränslen med låga koldioxidutsläpp, nämligen biobränslen och elektrobränslen. Fossila bränslen ingår också i studien så att de alternativa vägarna inte bara jämförs med varandra utan också med de nuvarande marina bränslena. Den första jämförelsen mellan olika alternativa bränslevägar är relevant för att välja den mest lovande och genomförbara, medan jämförelsen mellan en vald alternativ bränsleväg och de viktigaste marina fossila bränslena är vad intressenterna kommer att titta på när de överväger att genomföra en alternativ bränsleväg. De elektrobränslen som ingår i jämförelsen är ammoniak och vätgas inom två liknande vägar som omfattar produktion med hjälp av vattenelektrolys och förnybar el (det svenska elnätets koldioxidintensitet beaktas) innan de förbrukas i bränsleceller i stället för i förbränningsmotorer. Dessa elektrobränslen hamnar på de sista platserna i jämförelsen på grund av låg teknisk mognad, återstående tekniska och ekonomiska utmaningar och sociala problem som måste lösas, trots att de är de miljömässigt mest lovande vägarna. Biobränslevägar omfattar å andra sidan både fischer tropsch diesel(FTD) och produktion av biometanol med olika blandningar av svartlut (BL) och pyrolysolja (PO) som råmaterial. FTD är den mest lovande alternativa bränslevägen i hela studien, medan bio-metanol verkar vara en större utmaning men också mer lovande när det gäller miljökriterier.