The aim of the thesis is the application of input evaluation methods related to sustainable consumption and production in a selected company. within the thesis This methodology is applied to a specific enterprise and identifies potential for improvement in all its parts, i.e. in the whole system of production and consumption influenced by the enterprise including the incorporation of all economic, environmental and social aspects. The result of this evaluation is a set of proposed measures, the anticipated implementation costs of which are calculated in relation to their realization, payback period and also the effects of these benefits. These measures are recommended to the enterprise for implementation in order for it to achieve savings, increased competitiveness, improved economic performance, strengthen social prestige, and reduce the negative environmental impact and other effects.

In recent decades, the global impacts of unsustainable consumption and production patterns have become a leading topic of sustainability, and more recently, climate action discourse. At the policy level, green consumerism – an element of green capitalism – has been positioned as the pathway to more sustainable consumption and production (SCP) practices. Within this model, eco-labeling schemes are used to communicate various sustainability attributes, or conditions of production, to the consumer. This study set out to investigate whether SCP is achievable through green consumerism using a two-part case study that centers around the egg industry and specific hen welfare standards. The case study examines the effectiveness of egg eco-labeling schemes and related statements and images placed on egg packaging in informing consumers' purchasing decisions. It also examines the impacts of green consumerism on organic egg production in the presence of strong consumer demand for enhanced hen welfare standards. The results of the case study demonstrate that in the egg industry, green consumerism is not highly effective because consumers' purchasing decisions are often informed by vague and misleading information about conditions of production. Moreover, the presence of strong consumer demand has not resulted in enhanced hen welfare standards in organic production. In interpreting these findings through the lens of David Harvey's theory of the spatial fix, I argue that the true role of green consumerism is to facilitate a spatial fix to resolve the chronic crisis of overaccumulation in the conventional egg industry. Furthermore, that the limitations and contradictions within green consumerism (e.g. vague or insignificant eco-label claims) aid in removing the barrier of capital fixity so that the spatial fix can occur.

This study intended to examine Swedish upper secondary school students' argumentation related to the socioscientific issues about sustainable consumption and production, where the students take a position more specifically about a vegetarian diet. Examining sustainable development as an SSI becomes natural here as it is a constantly emerging feature in both the media but also within the school where it is used to give students a developing knowledge to be able to make informed decisions for future problems. This gave the idea to sustainable consumption and production which is one of the sub-goals (goal 12) of the UN goals for sustainable development which can be linked to the question of whether expanding vegetarian diets in schools would be better for sustainable development. In order to understand students' informal argumentation, the choice is to use the SEE-SEP model, which was used as a tool that gives the possibility to categorize arguments and gain an understanding of which grounds the arguments were based upon. The study will also examine the students' development of arguments during the course of the study to examine if there are changes to the argumentations during the study. The results show that students chose to mainly use environment/ecology and science-based arguments during the course of the study. An overview of the arguments shows that the students choose to use the knowledge aspect as their main support when it comes to the design of the arguments. The process of the study shows that there are changes in the design of the arguments and which categories are chosen to build the arguments.

Syfte:Syftet med denna studie är att genom en jämförelse mellan olika företag inom träförädlingsindustrin skapa en förståelse för hur arbetet med hållbar konsumtion och produktion går till. Metod:Uppsatsen bygger på en kvalitativ metod med en induktiv ansats. Genom ett hermeneutiskt synsätt har en systematisk tolkning och förståelse gjorts utav de fem intervjuade företagen för att kunna besvara frågeställningen. Intervjun följde en semistrukturerad metod med hjälp av en intervjuguide. Slutsats:För att bekämpa de ohållbara konsumtion och produktionsmönster som idag existerar kan vi konstatera att företag inom träförädlingsindustrin försöker att påverka detta genom sitt arbete. Arbetet är till största delen liknande, detta med tanke på de delmål som finns till det globala målet nummer 12 hållbar konsumtion och produktion. Viktiga komponenter i arbetet är hantering av avfall och kemikalier samt att minska avfallen. / Aim:The aim of this study is to create an understanding of how the work with sustainable consumption and production takes place through a comparison between different companies in the wood processing industry. Method:This bachelor’s thesis is based on a qualitative method with an inductive approach. Through a hermeneutic approach, a systematic interpretation and understanding has been made of the five companies interviewed in order to be able to answer the question. The interview followed a semi-structured method using an interview guide. Conclusion:In order to combat the unsustainable consumption and production patterns that exist today, we can state that companies in the wood processing industry are trying to influence this through their work. The work is similar, given the sub-goals that exist for the global goal number 12 sustainable consumption and production. Important components in the work are waste management and chemicals and reducing waste.

The rapid disposal of products has detrimental effects on environment which is increasing resource consumption for the production of new products, along with the waste production. Therefore, designing long lasting products has great importance for achieving sustainable consumption and production. The present study analyzes the implications of an approach called post-use design thinking for achieving sustainable consumption and production through product longevity. To explore that approach, two educational industrial design projects are analyzed throughout the study. The results suggest that post-use design thinking should be considered at the early stages of the design process. The idea generation exercises developed specifically for this design thinking seem to be helpful in generating design solutions for post-use phase. The results also indicate that the post-use design thinking is feasible in terms of design and production for glass packaging products, which is the specific case analyzed throughout the research.

Efforts to reduce negative impacts from consumption and production include voluntary market-based initiatives. Examples are the concept of eco-labelling and the concept of green procurement. These have emerged as policy instruments with great potentials to steer product innovation and purchasing decisions in a sustainable direction. This potential has been recognized by the United Nations, the European Union, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and national governments through, e.g., various programmes and schemes. The aim of this thesis is to assess current criteria development processes within eco-labelling and green procurement from a strategic sustainability perspective and to describe possible improvement potentials from such a perspective to make these instruments more supportive of sustainable product and service innovation. A previously published framework for strategic sustainable development, including a definition of sustainability and generic guidelines to inform strategies towards sustainability, is adapted and used for this purpose. Criteria development processes in two Swedish eco-labelling programmes and at a governmental expert body for green procurement are studied. This includes interviews with criteria developers, studies of process documents and a case study at the governmental expert body for green procurement in which two criteria development processes were shadowed. The result reveals several strengths but also gaps and thus potentials for improvement. The criteria development processes and the resulting criteria mostly concern the current market supply and a selection of current environmental impacts outside the context of long-term objectives. Neither sustainability nor any other clearly defined long-term objective is agreed upon, and the criteria are not structured to support procurers, suppliers and product developers in a systematic and strategic stepwise approach towards sustainability. Recommended improvements include a more thorough sustainability assessment, communication of clearer objectives, broader competence in the criteria development groups and more emphasis on the dialogue and interaction between key actors. This includes an extended view on both the product concept and actors involved. Based on this, a new criteria development prototype is suggested, which aims at widening the scope from some currently known product impacts to the remaining gap to sustainability. During its further development and implementation, the criteria development prototype will be tested in successive iterations of action research together with experienced practitioners within eco-labelling and green procurement.

Product labelling schemes have become one of the most prominently used instruments to facilitate more Sustainable Consumption and Production. But with a plethora of labelling schemes having been implemented, many now accuse them of being confusing rather than facilitating. As a result, governments in France, UK and Germany, as well as businesses, such as Walmart, and non-governmental organisations, like WWF, have begun to consider seriously the implementation of some form of ‘Sustainability Meta Label’ that condenses existing product-labels and other communication measures into a more coherent overarching scheme. Yet so far, in depth studies on the potential institutionalisation of a Sustainability Meta Labelling Scheme are missing.Based on case study research of four existing product labelling schemes (EU eco, EU energy, Fairtrade and MSC label), this study addresses this gap by developing a novel theoretical framework to study the causalities behind product labelling institutionalisation processes. Combining theoretical arguments of constructivist institutionalism and institutional entrepreneurship with concepts of legitimacy from the governance and organisational studies literature, this framework establishes the institutionalisation of product labelling schemes as contingent on an interactive legitimacy construction between actors involved in the initiation and organisational structures of a labelling scheme and other actors within the production and consumption system. This construction tends to cluster around aspects of tradition, regulation, charisma, knowledge, consequences, and procedures.By concretizing this framework in the context of the studied cases, it is shown how legitimacy constructions are highly complex and how in particular procedural and consequential legitimacy can give rise to fundamental conflicts. The potentially large scope, focus and area of application of a Sustainability Meta Label with the need to find agreements in regard to the very contested notion of Sustainable Development, seems to make the task of managing such conflicts even more difficult. While the mobilisation of knowledge, traditional, regulatory and charismatic logics can circumvent some of these conflicts, they have also demonstrated to be anything but a silver bullet. In a sense, this study shows that the very issue that is claimed to drive the establishment of a Sustainability Meta Labelling Scheme-the different interpretations of the Sustainable Development concept through different product labels-might in fact pose one of the main challenges for its institutionalisation and effectiveness in facilitating more Sustainable Consumption and Production.With these findings this study makes important contributions not only to an increasingly prominent policy making discussion but also to the wider product labelling and new institutional literature. After further empirical testing, the developed theoretical framework could guide future research into the institutionalisation of product labelling schemes and potentially also other ordering mechanisms. While the focus of this study is on commonalities across product labelling schemes such further research could especially expand on how micro, meso, and macro level factors can shape institutionalisation processes in diverse ways.

Textilkonsumtion i världen har ökat drastiskt under de senaste decennierna, vilket också syns i övergången till att fast fashion nu dominerar textilindustrin. Även i Sverige har konsumtionen ökat, vilket bidrar till att textilindustrin skapar allvarliga följder för miljön. Textilåterbruk och återvinning har under tiden släpat efter och ännu idag återvinns enbart enstaka procent av allt textilavfall. Enligt ett EU-direktiv ska samtliga EU-medlemmar år 2025 införa systematisk separat insamling av textilier. Detta erbjuder möjligheter till ökat återbruk och återvinning, men innebär också utmaningar för hantering av ökade flöden av separat textilavfall. En typ av teknologi som kan vara till hjälp för detta ändamål är automatiserad sortering. I denna rapport undersöks genom en litteraturstudie samt en intervjustudie, med aktörer inom återbruks- och återvinningsområdet, vilken inverkan sorteringsprocesser har på återvinning och textilflöden. Huvudsakligt fokus ligger på att förstå samspelet mellan automatiserad sortering och andra processer på en högre nivå, men även tekniska aspekter som inverkar på detta diskuteras. Från undersökningen framkom att automatiserad sortering spelar en begränsad men växande roll för textilflöden, där teknik baserat på nära infrarött ljus och spektrografi är vad som huvudsakligen används. Det finns en stor osäkerhet bland aktörer inom återvinning och återbruk gällande hur separat textilinsamling kommer att implementeras och om det kommer att finansieras via utökat producentansvar eller inte, vilket försvårar utveckling inom området. Det saknas teknik för att möjliggöra automatisering av många steg i den manuella sorteringsprocessen. För att öka automatiseringsgraden ser sig AI-baserade lösningar som det mest lovande utvecklingsområdet, men då det saknas välfinansierade projekt inom detta riskerar utvecklingen gå långsamt. Återvinning utgör enbart en del, som nu är mycket liten, i lösningen av textilindustrins miljöproblem varför minskning av textilkonsumtion generellt, samt förlängningen av textiliers livslängder fortsatt bör prioriteras. / Textile consumption worldwide has increased dramatically in recent decades, as evidenced by the overall transition to fast fashion which now dominates the textile industry. Consumption has also increased in Sweden, contributing to grave environmental consequences caused by the textile industry. Textile reuse and recycling has lagged behind, and to this day, only a fraction of all textile waste is recycled. According to an EU directive, all EU member states are required to implement systematic separate collection of textiles by 2025. This offers opportunities for increased reuse and recycling but also poses challenges for the management of increased flows of separated textile waste. One type of technology that can be useful for this purpose is automated sorting. This report examines, through a literature review as well as an interview study with actors in the reuse and recycling sector, the impact of sorting processes on recycling and textile flows. The primary focus of the report is on understanding the interaction between automated sorting and other processes at a higher level, however technical aspects that affect this are also discussed. The investigation revealed that automated sorting plays a limited but growing role in textile flows, where technology based on near-infrared light and spectroscopy is primarily used. There is a great deal of uncertainty among stakeholders within the recycling and reuse sector regarding how textile collection will be implemented and whether it will be financed through extended producer responsibility or not, which impedes development. With regard to many of the steps involved in manual textile sorting, there is currently no technology that would enable their automation. To increase the level of automation, AI-based solutions appear to constitute the most promising area of development, but the lack of well-funded projects in this area risks slowing down progress. Recycling represents only a small part of the solution to the environmental problems of the textile industry, which is why reducing overall textile consumption and extending the textile lifespans should continue to be prioritized.

I dagsläget är det inte helt självklart hur hållbara inköpsprocesser skulle kunna utformas och implementeras i företag. Att utveckla hållbara inköpsprocesser är dock viktigt för att öka det sociala samt miljömässiga ansvarstagandet. Detta för att undvika att materialanskaffning, och därmed framställning av möbler, får en negativ påverkan på människan och miljön.   Denna studie syftar till att besvara hur hållbara inköpsprocesser skulle kunna utvecklas inom möbelbranschen med avseende på socialt och miljömässigt ansvarstagande för att bidra till en hållbar konsumtion och produktion av möbler. Tre intervjustudier har genomförts med tre olika möbelföretag i syfte att exemplifiera hur hållbara inköpsprocesser skulle kunna utvecklas med hjälp av litteratur. Litteraturstudien har baserats på vetenskapliga artiklar, böcker samt Internetkällor och ligger till grund för de modeller och teorier som är till för att uppfylla studiens syfte.     Studiens resultat visar på olika steg som kan implementeras i den traditionella inköpsprocessen för att öka det sociala samt miljömässiga ansvarstagandet i samband med materialanskaffning. Resultatet visar även på i vilken omfattning de olika stegen är lämpliga att utföra samt exempel på hur stegen skulle kunna implementeras i företag. Ytterligare resultat belyser att den cirkulära ekonomin samt olika slags hållbarhetsmärkningar påverkar huruvida hållbar den färdiga möbeln kan komma att bli. Att utveckla hållbara inköpsprocesser kan dock bli en kostnads- samt tidsfråga men det får en avgörande roll för att bidra till hållbar konsumtion och produktion av möbler. / It is not entirely obvious how sustainable purchasing processes could be developed and implemented in companies today. Sustainable purchasing processes are important to increase the social and environmental responsibility. This to avoid that the material procurement, and thereby the production of furniture, has a negative impact on the people and the planet. This study aims to explain how sustainable purchasing processes could be developed in the furniture industry with respect to social and environmental responsibility in order to contribute to a sustainable consumption and production of furniture. Three interviews have been conducted with three different furniture companies in order to exemplify how sustainable purchasing processes could be developed based on literature. To fulfil the purpose of this study, articles, books and internet sources have been used to form the theories and models. The result from this study shows a set of steps which can be implemented in the traditional purchasing process in order to increase a social and environmental responsibility associated with material procurement. The result also shows the extent to which the different steps are appropriate to perform and will exemplify how companies could implement these steps. Further result clarifies that the circular economy and different kinds of sustainability labels affect whether the finished furniture may become sustainable. Developing sustainable purchasing processes may require a lot of time and money, but it has a crucial role to play in contributing to a sustainable consumption and production of furniture.