Bygg- och fastighetssektorn står idag för en femtedel av koldioxidutsläppen och en dryg tredjedel av energianvändningen inom Sveriges gränser, vilket pekar på en stor utvecklingspotential. Miljöcertifieringen NollCO2 ska på ett mer holistiskt sätt driva på klimatarbetet i byggprojekt genom att ställa krav på att växthusgasutsläppen under bygg- och driftskedet reduceras, men också att kvarvarande klimatpåverkan balanseras med klimatåtgärder mot ”netto noll”. Forskningen lyfter fram att det i hållbara byggprojekt är svårare att hålla tidplanen och kostnadsbudgeten, där detta bland annat beror på långsamt beslutsfattande, kommunikationssvårigheter och projekteringsomtag. Dessa problem har nämnts i projekt med lägre ställda hållbarhetsambitioner än de som NollCO2 har. NollCO2-certifieringen har dessutom ett annat upplägg än dess förlagor. Dessa anledningar gör det intressant att undersöka vad som gör ett NollCO2-certifierat projekt genomförbart och framgångsrikt. Examensarbetets mål har varit att genom en litteraturstudie och en fallstudie av ett NollCO2-certifierat byggprojekt (1) identifiera vilka projektledningsrelaterade nyckelfaktorer som är viktiga ur ett tids- och kostnadsperspektiv i projekteringsskedet av ett byggprojekt med hög hållbarhetsprofil och (2) analysera de identifierade nyckelfaktorerna genom att ta reda på: ·       Vad varje nyckelfaktor innebär ·       Varför nyckelfaktorn är viktig för byggprojekt med hög hållbarhetsprofil ·       Hur projektgruppen i praktiken får nyckelfaktorn att fungera. Litteraturen som studerades handlade bland annat om grunderna i olika miljöcertifieringar och byggprocessen, som sedan ledde till att studera de fyra termerna tydliga målsättningar, kommunikation, tidig samverkan och upparbetade relationer. De personer som intervjuades var beställarens Projektchef, projektledaren, byggentreprenörens projektchef, platschefen, projekteringsledaren, hållbarhetssamordnaren och arkitekten. De fyra projektledningsrelaterade nyckelfaktorerna identifierades som tydliga målsättningar, kommunikation, tidig samverkan och upparbetade relationer, vilka visades inbördes relaterade varandra. En tydlig målsättning definieras som förståeligt, gemensamt och etablerat i tidigt skede. Där är det även viktigt att ett syfte med uppgiften finns för att förstå målet. Det kan uppnås genom bland annat ett bra och tydligt måldokument. Bra kommunikation i ett byggprojekt handlar om att ha bra informationsdelning mellan de olika aktörerna i ett byggprojekt; både muntligt genom att ge rätt information till rätt person vid rätt tid, och skriftligt/digitalt genom att ha uttalade sätt för hur handlingar, styrdokument och annat inom byggprojektets ramar ska kommuniceras ut. Tidig samverkan är när en byggentreprenör och rätt konsulter blir anlitade i ett tidigt skede. Som en gemensam organisation, likt ett fiktivt bolag sätts all nödvändig kompetens in i början av projekteringen för att minska risken för fel och ändringar. Upparbetade relationer är relationer som på ett eller annat sätt finns med andra inom branschen. Det underlättar att arbeta i en grupp där relationer är etablerade och styrkor och svagheter kända. Ingen av de fyra identifierade nyckelfaktorerna är i sig nya eller unika för CO2-certifierade projekt. Däremot pekar resultaten från studien på att dessa nyckelfaktorer är extra viktiga att beakta i projekteringsskedet av ett projekt där NollCO2-certifieringens krav ska uppfyllas eftersom det ställer krav på en högre grad av samordning mellan medverkande i projektet. / The Swedish construction- and real estate sector today account for a fifth of carbon dioxide emissions, a third of the energy consumption and two fifths of waste in Sweden, which points at a large development potential. The environmental-certification NollCO2 aims to involve sustainability in a more holistic way by establishing an emission limit for the specific construction project, and then undercut that limit by 30%. Research shows that it is harder to keep schedule and budget in sustainable construction projects, where some of the reasons is slow decision-making, communication-difficulties, and design-retakes. These problems have been mentioned in construction projects with less ambitious sustainability-goals than NollCO2 has. The NollCO2-certification is also set up in a different way than its predecessors. These reasons makes it intriguing to research what makes a NollCO2-certified construction project feasible and successful.  The goal of the thesis project has been to (1) identify what project management related key-factors is important from a time- and cost perspective in the design-stage of a construction project with high a sustainability-profile and (2) analyze the identified key-factors by answering; ·       What each key-factor implies ·       Why the key-factor is important for construction projects with a high sustainability-profile ·       How the project-organization get the key-factor to work practically  The studied literature brought up the basics of different environmental-certifications and the construction process, which led to studying the four terms clear goalsetting, communication, early partnering and worked up relationships. The different roles that were interviewed was the clients projectchief, project manager, the contractors projectchief, site manager, design manager, sustainability coordinator, and architect.  The four project management related key-factors were identified (1) as clear goalsetting, communication, early partnering and worked up relationships.  These four key-factors were analyzed (2) with the help of the questions stated earlier. A clear goal is defined as understandable, common, and established in an early stage. It’s also important to understand the intention of the assignment to understand the goal. The clear goals can for instance be achieved using a good and clear goalsetting-document. Good communication in a construction project is all about sharing information with one another correctly. Verbally by giving the right information to the right information at the right time. Written by using certain ways or systems of sharing plans, control documents and other things within the project framework. Early partnering is when a contractor along with the right consultants gets involved at an early stage to contribute with their expertise. By working as a joint organization, almost as a fictive company you can put all the necessary competence in the design stage and therefore minimize the number of errors and changes. Worked up relationships is relations that exists in some way with other people in the construction industry. It’s easier to work in a group that you already have a relationship with, where you know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

The thesis examines the influence of circular economy principles on the standard energy retrofitting practices of a residential building. It highlights the need for deep renovation actions in our building stock to achieve energy and carbonisation reduction. However, this need is usually satisfied only by applying business-as-usual deep renovation practices, which often justify using virgin materials to achieve energy reductions and neglect embodied carbon emissions from applied materials. Therefore, it was necessary to show how the circular economy principles in building refurbishment practices can influence the reduction of carbon emissions and shift our focus from the present to future actions. A case study was chosen for demonstrating this potential through various qualitative methods, such as circular design approaches and reviewing material flows of applied materials while understanding their current and future life cycles. These methods led to tangible results, with reduced operational and embodied emissions. For example, operational carbon emissions were reduced by 38% when comparing the case study with the renovation of the existing building. The study also showed a common oversight - the influence of embodied carbon emissions from applied materials, which reduced overall carbon emissions in the case study to the existing building by 5%. Further, this study presents a clear argument for an immediate shift from solely using virgin materials in building refurbishment. The high embodied carbon emissions from the initial production and construction of virgin materials, often applied in deep renovation, can counter the lowering of operational carbon emissions from the use phase of the building. The construction industry needs to transition from a linear to a circular economy, embracing reused and recycled materials to mitigate these emissions.

Most studies that tried to minimize carbon emissions from marine vessels have used the recycled waste heat generated from the propulsion engines to generate heating and minimize the electricity needed for the cooling systems. In this Master Thesis, a collaboration with Saab Kockums was conducted which had a goal to evaluate the possibilities to use waste heat from a cooling machine to create a more energy-efficient, sustainable and cost-efficient system for a surface vessel. The aim was to reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption without compromising the economic costs. But to also evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using a cooling machine as a heating system for common areas and to examine the functionality and performance of such a system. This system would remove the current existing heating systems on a maritime platform and supplement the heating demand by recycling the waste heat from the cooling machines. The research questions posed were as follows: What structure would a system have that can integrate cooling and heating systems into a sustainable system? How can the functionality and performance of a cooling and heating system, designed with a focus on sustainability and economy, be evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively? How will the functional flow of the concept operate under different operating conditions? What advantages and disadvantages will the concept have in different operating conditions? The research engineering methods applied in this thesis consists of interviews with system engineers, a design of a new heating battery, and a new concept generation. Furthermore, evaluation and systematic design drawing of the system’s connections to its subsystems and a functional flow diagram of the system are included. The result of this thesis shows that there is a possibility to use the water mixed with 20% glycol from the condenser side of a cooling machine with a temperature at 42℃ to provide heat to the platforms heating demands while maintaining its cooling functionality. The implementation would require some new pipelines and multiple valves between certain components so that the cooling machine would operate as a heat pump and/or as a cooling machine despite the weather conditions. Finally, a new heating battery would be needed and created. An operating year was determined to be 292 days and the system would switch between the two operating cases: summer- and winter-mode, in two geographical areas, the Mediterranean and the Baltic Sea. The new system compared to the current system of a Visby class corvette resulted in a reduction of carbon emissions up to 14%, 9% reduction in weight, and up to and 25% reduction in power usage. The fuel reduction cost is estimated up to 14%, for each operating year. / De flesta studier som har försökt minimera koldioxidutsläppen från marina fartyg har använt den återvunna restvärmen som genereras från framdrivningsmotorerna för att generera värme och minimera den elektricitet som behövs för kylsystemen. I detta arbete har ett samarbete tillsammans med Saab Kockums genomförts med syftet att undersöka möjligheterna att använda restvärmen från en kylmaskin för att skapa ett mer energieffektivt, hållbart och kostnadseffektivt system för ett ytfartyg. Målen var att minska koldioxidutsläppen och energianvändningen utan att kompromissa de ekonomiska kostnaderna, utreda för- och nackdelarna med att använda kylmaskinen som ett värmesystem för gemensamma utrymmen samt undersöka funktionaliteten och systemstrukturen för ett sådant system. Detta system skulle ersätta det existerande värmesystemet och komplettera värmebehovet genom att återvinna restvärmen från kylmaskinen. De forskningsfrågor som ställdes var följande, vilken struktur skulle ett system ha som kan integrera kyl- och värmesystemen till ett hållbart system? Hur kan funktionaliteten och prestandan hos ett kyl- och värmesystem, utformat med fokus på hållbarhet och ekonomi, utvärderas både kvalitativt och kvantitativt? Hur kommer det funktionella flödet i konceptet att fungera under olika driftfall? Vilka för- och nackdelar kommer konceptet att ha i olika driftfall? Metoderna som ingick i detta arbete var intervjuer med systemingenjörer, en design av ett nytt värmebatteri, konceptgenerering, utvärdering och systematisk designritning av systemens kopplingar till dess delsystem samt ett funktionellt flödesschema över systemet. Resultatet av detta arbete var att det är möjligt att använda en vattenblandning med 20 % glykol från kondensorsidan av en kylmaskin med en temperatur på 42 ℃ för att ge värme till plattformens värmebehov samtidigt som dess kylfunktion bibehålls. Det krävdes lite nya rörledningar och flera ventiler mellan vissa komponenter för att kylmaskinen skulle fungera som värmepump och/eller som kylmaskin trots väderförhållandena. Slutligen behövdes ett nytt värmebatteri skapas. Ett verksamhetsår fastställdes till 292 dagar och systemet kunde växla mellan två driftfall, sommar- och vinterläge i två geografiska områden, Medelhavet och Östersjön. Det nya systemet jämfört med det nuvarande systemet på en korvett, Visby-klassen, resulterade i en minskning av koldioxidutsläppen upp till 14 %, 9 % minskning av vikten, en minskning av effektförbrukningen upp till 25 % och en bränslereduktionskostnad upp till 14 % för varje verksamhetsår.

Climate change is one of the pressing issues of our time. In order to limit global warming, the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) need to be reduced drastically over the next decades in all sectors. A special role is played by the power sector, because it is the one responsible for most GHG emissions and because its costs for decarbonization are rather low. Consequently, national policies aim at reducing GHG emissions by supporting the expansion of renewable energy sources for electricity production (RES) and initiating a coal phase-out (CPO). European policymakers have implemented the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), a mechanism for pricing GHG emissions in the power and industry sector across Europe that incentives carbon mitigation. This dissertation investigates how national and European policies affect the power market and especially its GHG emissions and examines how these policies interact. This dissertation shows that RES, in addition to the short-term, well-studied, merit order effect, which reduces power wholesale prices, also have long-term effects on electricity markets. The long-term effect describes the impact that RES have on investment decisions into conventional technologies, which are reduced by over 8 GW in Germany. This indicates that the power market adapts to the expansion of RES. With regard to the GHG mitigation of RES, it is shown that currently RES contribute substantially to the mitigation of GHG emissions. Because wind power substitutes coal power, it has a significantly higher potential to avoid GHG emissions than solar power in Germany. Provided wind stays favorable in the future, this portends from a climate perspective that politics should focus on the expansion of wind. It further justifies higher support schemes for wind than solar energy. The impact of the CPO on the GHG emissions depends strongly on legal implementation. If no further actions are taken, the demand for emission decreases, because existing emitters leave the market and the price drops to 0 EUR/t. The EU ETS loses its incentive effect and the emissions are realized elsewhere since the cap remains the same and is fully exploited. Therefore, alongside the CPO, emission certificates have to be deleted in order to maintain the incentive effect of the EU ETS. Furthermore, the loss in valuation of the German coal power plants depends strongly on the time of the CPO. Given high expected emission prices and the expansion of RES, coal-fired power plants cannot be operated economically advantageously in the long-term. Therefore, no devaluation is expected if power plants are phased out in 2038 or shortly before and hence, those power plants should not receive any compensation. Additionally, this dissertation shows that the EU ETS is a strong European policy that provides sufficient incentives to meet the European climate targets in 2030 and to realize the necessary expansion of RES. However, if national RES development paths are implemented, this leads to higher overall costs but also very different profitability of RES in each country This is because countries with high ambitions regarding the expansion of RES face self-marginalization effects, which reduces the revenues for RES due to the merit order effect, and increases the level of support needed for them to expand. In contrast, countries with low RES ambitions have little or no need of support schemes but benefit from low prices in the EU ETS due to strong RES expansion in countries with high ambitions. Summarizing, this dissertation demonstrated that both national and European policy contribute to the decarbonization of the European power sector. However, the different policies interact. This can have negative impacts, which indicates that a greater harmonization of policies is necessary. Further research should develop comprehensive policy approaches and discuss possible challenges.

Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) require electricity providers to supply a minimum fixed percentage or total quantity of customer load from designated renewable energy resources by a given date. These policies have become increasingly prevalent in the past decade as state governments seek to increase the use of renewable energy sources. As a policy tool, RPS provide a cost-effective, market-based approach for meeting targets which promote greater use of renewable energy in both regulated and deregulated markets. To facilitate the obtainment of Renewable Portfolio Standards, most states allow the trading of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs). RECs represent the environmental attributes of renewable energy generation which are decoupled from the generated power. These credits are created along with the generation of renewable energy, decoupled from energy generation, tracked by regional systems, and eventually purchased by retail suppliers to fulfill their RPS obligations. As of April 2010, RPS have been passed into law in 29 states and Washington D.C. and an additional 6 states have non-mandatory renewable portfolio goals however the U.S. government has yet to enact a Federal Renewable Portfolio Standard. Although the final requirements and details of a Federal RPS are undecided, federal standards would be unlikely to preempt or override state programs which are already in place. A key concern regarding the passage of a federal RPS is that a national REC market would result in a shift of wealth from states with few renewable energy resources and limited resource potential to regions richer in renewable resources. Because of the implications that a federal renewable portfolio standard would have on the economy, the environment, and the equitable treatment of all the states, many issues and concerns must be resolved before federal standards will be passed into law. A theoretical case study for an electric utility generation planning decision that includes obligations to meet Renewable Portfolio Standard is presented here. A framework is provided that allows decision makers and strategic planning teams to: assess their business situation, identify objectives of generation planning, determine the relative weights of the objectives, recognize tradeoffs, and create an efficient portfolio using Portfolio Theory. The case study follows the business situation for Austin Energy as it seeks to meet Texas State RPS and mandates set by Austin City Council and prepares for potential National RPS legislation. / text

The policy of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) has been promoted at the global level as an innovative approach to reduce forest loss that contributes to about one-fifth of global climate change. My dissertation brings together theories of policy processes and political ecology to examine REDD+ at three levels: global, national and local. It focuses on how this global climate policy is translated from one geographical scale to another and from policy into practice. The analysis of how REDD+ is transformed through this process provides insights into the extent to which REDD+ is likely to achieve its aims of reducing forest loss and mitigating global climate change. The national and local cases are drawn from Ghana, West Africa. The study is mainly qualitative, and employs semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, oral histories, participatory activities, and document analysis, as methodologies. At the global scale, I explore how REDD+ became a global climate policy and the range of global expectations that supported its rise to prominence. I argue that REDD+ became prominent because of three main strategies employed by its proponents: first, the re-introduction of the role of forest-sector emissions to climate change negotiations; second, the setting-up of financial schemes to attract and mobilise support for REDD+; and third, the establishment of safeguards mechanisms to address criticisms raised by stakeholders that opposed REDD+. At the national level, I examine how the policy processes related to REDD+ were translated from the global scale to the national context of Ghana. I critically examine the narratives around how deforestation was understood and the range of actions that were subsequently identified as options for achieving REDD+ outcomes. I show that REDD+ has created opportunities for promising reforms and structures on forest management in Ghana; yet it is unlikely to achieve its intended objectives because of (i) problems with the way the narrative has framed the causes of deforestation; (ii) a failure to fully address long-standing problems with tenure and benefit-sharing frameworks; and (iii) the centralisation of revenue generation that is limiting local-level implementation of plans. At the local levels, I focus on how two REDD+ pilot projects were unfolding. Similar to the national level, my analysis reveals that the projects have employed questionable narratives about the ways deforestation is produced in both cases. In addition, the solutions designed to address deforestation were found to contain misplaced assumptions that undermine the prospects of both projects to achieve their intended objectives. The research highlights the messy processes of translation of global climate policies such as REDD+ as they move from one scale to another, and from policy to practice. The study contributes to understanding how problematic narratives, misguided assumptions, and diverse interests, create gaps between the policy ideas and their implementation as global climate policy is translated from one geographical scale to another.

Healthcare waste (HCW) incineration practices in the global South countries are among the major sources of black carbon (BC) emissions or smoke. This study analyzes HCW incineration trends during emergency situations and smoke from HCW incineration processes in Haiti. The study was prompted by the current arguments about the climate change and the growing health effects associated with BC emissions. The conceptual framework was based on both adverse health effects from BC emissions exposure and climate change potential of BC emissions. Therefore, the goal was to determine whether cardboard HCW sharps containers emit lower BC emissions to the atmosphere during the incineration process, relative to the plastic sharps containers, and the pattern of emergency HCW incineration before and after the 2010 earthquake and cholera emergencies in Haiti. This was an observational study conducted with secondary data on HCW incinerated weights from January 2009 to December 2013 and primary data on average smoke densities. Linear regression analysis of the pattern of HCW incinerated weights revealed a relatively linear pattern (R2 = 0.164) with fluctuating scenarios (peak sharp rise in 2012). Independent samples t-tests demonstrated significantly lower smoke emission during the incineration processes of cardboard sharps HCW containers as compared to plastic containers (95 % CI, p = 0.003). Implications for positive social change include provision of quantitative evidence of the benefits of cardboard sharps HCW containers in reducing smoke during incineration activities, potential data for policy formulation, suggestions for review of existing HCW guidelines, and additional research on potential health impacts of emergency HCW disposal and BC emissions.

<p>The environment has become an important part in people´s lives, and in today´s society stakeholders demands have increased upon companies when it comes to sustainability reports. How these sustainability reports are designed depends on whom it’s for, laws and regulations, and the companies own norms and values. The purpose of sustainability reports is to measure, monitor and compare a company´s enviromental impact. It’s not only about integrating economics, but also enviromental and social standards together to get both financial and competitive advantages.</p><p><em>Sustainable Value method</em> is a new model and is the first real method that can be used to evaluate a company´s resources, both financial, social and enviromental to a sustainable value.This model is used to compare the resource efficiency between companies.</p><p>In this thesis, a documentary study with an experimental approach has been made.Sustainability reports from six selected companies (in the engineering and forestry sector) have been investigated with respect to their accounting for carbon dioxide, and an experiment using the method “Sustainable Value Approach” was subsequently performed. The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of sustainability reports by using the <em>Sustainable Value methodology</em>. As a bonus, we determined how effective the six firms used their carbon resources, in monetary terms.</p><p>We found out, that all sustainability reports have been useful to make calculations under the <em>Sustainable Value methodology</em>. Only Atlas Copco gave a positive sustainable value (SV),which means that only Atlas Copco has generated higher returns with its carbon emissions compared to our benchmark had with the same emissions.</p> / <p>Miljön har blivit en viktig del i människans liv och i dagens samhälle har intressenternas krav på företagen ökat när det gäller miljöredovisningar. Hur dessa hållbarhetsredovisningar utformas beror på vilka intressenter de vänder sig till, lagar och regler samt egna normer och värderingar. Syftet med hållbarhetsredovisningar är att mäta, bevaka och jämföra ett företags miljöpåverkan. Det gäller att företagen kan integrera, inte bara ekonomi, utan också miljö och det sociala tillsammans för att få både ekonomiska fördelar och konkurrensfördelar.</p><p>Sustainable Value metoden är en ny modell och är den första riktiga metoden som kan användas för att värdera ett företags resurser, såväl ekonomiska som sociala och miljörelaterade till ett hållbart monetärt värde. Denna modell används för att kunna jämföra resurseffektivitet mellan företagen.</p><p>I arbetet har en dokumentstudie med experimentiell ansats gjorts. Hållbarhetsredovisningar från sex utvalda företag (inom verkstad- och skogsbranschen) har undersökts med avseende på redovisning av koldioxidutsläpp. Experiment med en metod <em>Sustainable Value –metoden </em>har därefter utförts. Studiens syfte har varit att undersöka hur användbara hållbarhetsredovisningar är vid en beräkning av Sustainable Value. Som bonus på arbetet får vi (genom <em>Sustainable Value –metoden</em>) reda på hur effektiva företagen är på att nyttja resursen koldioxid.</p><p>Vi kom fram till att samtliga hållbarhetsredovisningar varit användbara till att göra beräkningar enligt <em>Sustainable Value-metoden</em>. Endast Atlas Copco gav ett positivt hållbart värde (SV), vilket innebär att Atlas Copco har skapat högre avkastning med sina koldioxidutsläpp jämfört med vad vårt benchmark skulle gjort med samma utsläpp.</p>

The environment has become an important part in people´s lives, and in today´s society stakeholders demands have increased upon companies when it comes to sustainability reports. How these sustainability reports are designed depends on whom it’s for, laws and regulations, and the companies own norms and values. The purpose of sustainability reports is to measure, monitor and compare a company´s enviromental impact. It’s not only about integrating economics, but also enviromental and social standards together to get both financial and competitive advantages. Sustainable Value method is a new model and is the first real method that can be used to evaluate a company´s resources, both financial, social and enviromental to a sustainable value.This model is used to compare the resource efficiency between companies. In this thesis, a documentary study with an experimental approach has been made.Sustainability reports from six selected companies (in the engineering and forestry sector) have been investigated with respect to their accounting for carbon dioxide, and an experiment using the method “Sustainable Value Approach” was subsequently performed. The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of sustainability reports by using the Sustainable Value methodology. As a bonus, we determined how effective the six firms used their carbon resources, in monetary terms. We found out, that all sustainability reports have been useful to make calculations under the Sustainable Value methodology. Only Atlas Copco gave a positive sustainable value (SV),which means that only Atlas Copco has generated higher returns with its carbon emissions compared to our benchmark had with the same emissions. / Miljön har blivit en viktig del i människans liv och i dagens samhälle har intressenternas krav på företagen ökat när det gäller miljöredovisningar. Hur dessa hållbarhetsredovisningar utformas beror på vilka intressenter de vänder sig till, lagar och regler samt egna normer och värderingar. Syftet med hållbarhetsredovisningar är att mäta, bevaka och jämföra ett företags miljöpåverkan. Det gäller att företagen kan integrera, inte bara ekonomi, utan också miljö och det sociala tillsammans för att få både ekonomiska fördelar och konkurrensfördelar. Sustainable Value metoden är en ny modell och är den första riktiga metoden som kan användas för att värdera ett företags resurser, såväl ekonomiska som sociala och miljörelaterade till ett hållbart monetärt värde. Denna modell används för att kunna jämföra resurseffektivitet mellan företagen. I arbetet har en dokumentstudie med experimentiell ansats gjorts. Hållbarhetsredovisningar från sex utvalda företag (inom verkstad- och skogsbranschen) har undersökts med avseende på redovisning av koldioxidutsläpp. Experiment med en metod Sustainable Value –metoden har därefter utförts. Studiens syfte har varit att undersöka hur användbara hållbarhetsredovisningar är vid en beräkning av Sustainable Value. Som bonus på arbetet får vi (genom Sustainable Value –metoden) reda på hur effektiva företagen är på att nyttja resursen koldioxid. Vi kom fram till att samtliga hållbarhetsredovisningar varit användbara till att göra beräkningar enligt Sustainable Value-metoden. Endast Atlas Copco gav ett positivt hållbart värde (SV), vilket innebär att Atlas Copco har skapat högre avkastning med sina koldioxidutsläpp jämfört med vad vårt benchmark skulle gjort med samma utsläpp.

Today, global warming is commonly known due to the major impact on the earth’s weather conditions. The increase in the average temperature of the lower atmosphere is causing a drastic change in weather conditions. Human intervention is the main cause of global warming and the latter will be limited if greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions are reduced by individuals and companies in all countries around the world. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the biggest contributors of GHGs and, therefore, a number of measures were implemented to reduce CO2 emissions. In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was signed by the Annex 1 countries, of which South Africa is not part, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to reduce GHG emissions. It is not only the responsibility of the Annex 1 countries to stabilise global warming, but all countries have to contribute to the reduction of GHG emissions. Enabling countries to meet these reduction targets, they implemented the following measures: carbon tax, Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) and carbon credits. Carbon tax has been implemented in many countries over the last decade with different levels of success. Carbon tax will be implemented in South Africa during 2013/2014. ESCOs have been implemented to assist companies with the implementation of energy saving projects. These projects will assist in reducing carbon emissions and meeting the set targets and it will also assist in reducing the effect of carbon tax. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects are implemented under the UNFCCC for companies that want to register carbon reduction projects. If the projects meet the CDM registration criteria, the project can be registered as a CDM project and it has the ability to earn tradable carbon credits. These credits can be traded on national or international carbon trading markets. This study considered a combination of all the measures a company can implement to improve energy efficiency and thereby reducing GHG emissions. An evaluation of the feasibility of a carbon reduction project, the ‘Vaal River compressed air energy efficiency improvement project’ of AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) was performed to determine whether the project can be registered as a CDM project. It was concluded that AGA will be able to register the project as a CDM project and earn tradable carbon credits. Furthermore, it is recommended that AGA makes use of the option to finance the carbon reducing project by using external funding provided by EDF (the French equivalent of South Africa’s Eskom). / MCom (Management Accountancy)), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013