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Den första oktober 2006 infördes lagen (SFS 2006:985) om energideklaration för byggnader.En energideklaration beskriver hur effektivt ett hus är utifrån energisynpunkt. Den talar bland annat om för byggnadens ägare hur energianvändningen kan minskas och driftkostnaderna sänkas. Lagen innehåller skyldighet för ägare till byggnader av olika slag att energideklarera sina byggnader med hjälp av en oberoende expert. Enligt lagen om energideklaration ska cirka 400 000 byggnader i Sverige vara energideklarerade senast 31 december 2008. Detta gäller hyres- och bostadsrättshus, lokaler och specialbyggnader. Ett av de viktigaste avsnitten i energideklarationen handlar om de kostnadseffektiva åtgärder som ägaren till byggnaden kan genomföra för att sänka energianvändningen. Åtgärderna som föreslås är inte tvingande men tanken är att de ska vara så lönsamma att ägaren motiveras genomföra dem för att minska energianvändningen. För att kunna genomföra en energideklaration måste ett företag ha låtit ackreditera sig hos SWEDAC vars huvuduppgift är att verka som nationellt ackrediteringsorgan. För att få en ackreditering av SWEDAC krävs bland annat att företaget har minst en certifierad person i arbetsledande ställning och att det är organiserat på ett sätt som gör att de kan utföra energideklarationer enligt Boverkets föreskrifter. Kommunen är tillsynsmyndighet när det gäller energideklarationerna. Om deklarationen inte utförs kan kommunen utdöma vite gentemot byggnadens ägare om han/hon inte fullgör sin skyldighet genom att energideklarera sin byggnad. Denna uppsats undersöker om det är möjligt att de byggnader som är berörda ska hinna energideklareras inom tidsramarna och vilka ekonomiska konsekvenser detta kan medföra för byggnadens ägare. Det finns inte tillräckligt med resurser för att energideklarera de berörda byggnaderna. Även om berörda experter jobbar heltid åt uppgiften finns ej tid att fullfölja denna inom uppsatt tidsram. Resultatet av detta kan leda till att ägare behöver betala vite för något som i grunden inte är möjligt att uppnå. Kostnaden för att upprätta en energideklaration är ganska stor för byggnadens ägare. Tanken är dock att ägarna ska tjäna in pengar på de åtgärdsförslag som energiexperten ger. Förslagen kan leda till besparingar för både ägaren och miljön. / The first of October 2006 a new law was introduced regarding declaring energy use of buildings. This declaration will be used to describe the efficiency of a building regarding it´s use of energy. The law posts that owners have a responsibility to declare the use of energy in their buildings through an independent expert. According to the law 400 000 of Sweden’s buildings should be declared regarding use of energy by the 31st of December 2008. The most important part of the declaration is regarding the cost-efficient measures that could be taken towards reducing the use of energy. These measures are not forced upon the owner but are designed to be rewarding and efficient. SWEDAC is the Swedish organ certified to accredit companies to be able to declare regarding energy. The municipalities of Sweden are the authorities chosen to supervise the declarations. The resources are not sufficient to manage this task within the given timeframe. Even if the certified experts work full time with this task they will only manage less than half of the buildings. The cost to declare the buildings energy is quite high but the thought is that the law in the end will profit both the owners and the environment.

Over the last two decades, sustainability has matured to become a societal imperative and is at the forefront of UK government policy and industry strategy. For example, the Strategy for Sustainable Construction (BERR, 2008) and Low Carbon Construction (BIS, 2012) reports have focused on encouraging more sustainable construction through reductions in energy, water and resource use. In response to such demands, the UK precast concrete industry developed a sector sustainability strategy and subsequently chose to continue activities in this area through an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) research project. The project focused on the scope for applying the principles of product stewardship (PS) as a means to mitigate environmental impacts associated with precast products, throughout the entire life-cycle of their use. Numerous PS schemes have been adopted in other industrial sectors, such as chemicals, electronics and product manufacture. One of the distinguishing features of PS is that multiple stakeholders need to take responsibility for their ‘share' of environmental impacts, and that life-cycle thinking should pervade the value chain. Hence, through PS, the precast industry might be able to address not only the impacts within cradle-to-gate phases, but also develop a framework to positively act on broader, cradle-to-grave impacts. The aim of this research was to develop a framework for embedding the principles of PS more deeply into the precast industry, creating a novel pathway towards more sustainable construction. The research commenced with a literature review to understand the key sustainability issues affecting the industry, followed by an analysis and synthesis of industry key performance indicator (KPI) data from 2006–2012. Industry participation in the research was facilitated through a questionnaire survey and interviews with senior staff within UK precast businesses. Evidence of PS practices was found to exist within the industry through responsible sourcing schemes, implementation of Environmental Management Systems and through the mitigation of various specific impacts. However, the coordinated communication of such initiatives was found to be lacking and with the advent of new European standards around Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for construction, it was decided that the precast industry would benefit from a sector-specific EPD framework to capture and communicate its PS credentials. An EPD framework and tool was therefore developed and validated through a focus group, to establish whether an EPD can be used successfully to deliver environmental information and refine an approach such that it would accord with the principles of PS. Further research and development arising from this research could focus on implementation and evaluation of the industry-specific EPD scheme, a mechanism to communicate and share life-cycle information amongst upstream and downstream stakeholders and a means through which stakeholder responsibility can be attributed and managed effectively. The key findings of this research have been presented in four peer–reviewed papers (one of which is in draft) which are presented in the Appendices.

Concerns the position of the United Kingdom with regard to the collective rights of indigenous peoples. / UN Job no.: G0511383 E. Material type: NGO written statements. Issued under agenda item 6, agenda document E/CN.4/2005/1. Issued under agenda item 15, agenda document E/CN.4/2005/1.

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This book explores the vision of cultivating a year-round system of renewal and positioning of your mind to think thoughts of wisdom. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1105/thumbnail.jpg

abstract: High performing and sustainable building certification bodies continue to update their requirements, leading to scope modification of certifications, and an increasing number of viable sources of environmental information for building materials. In conjunction, the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry is seeing increasing demand for such environmental product information. The industry and certifications are moving from using single attribute environmental information about building materials to lifecycle based information to inform their design decisions. This dissertation seeks to understand the current practices, and then focus on strategies to effectively utilize newer sources of environmental product information in high performance building design. The first phase of research used a survey of 119 U.S.-based AEC practitioners experienced in certified sustainable building projects to understand how the numerous sources of environmental information are currently used in the building design process. The second phase asked two focus groups of experienced AEC professionals to develop a Message Sequence Chart (MSC) that documents the conceptual design process for a recently designed building. Then, the focus group participants integrated a new sustainability requirement for building materials, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), into their project, and documented the adjustments to their specific design process in a second, modified MSC highlighting potential drivers for inclusion of EPDs. Finally, the author examines the broader applicability of these drivers through case studies. Specifically, 19 certified high-performance building (HPB) case studies, for reviewing the impact of three different potential drivers on the design team’s approach to considering environmental product information during conceptual design of a HPB, as well as the projects certification level. LEED certification has changed the design of buildings, and the new information sources for building materials will inform the way the industry selects building materials. Meanwhile, these information sources will need to expand to include a growing number of products, and potentially more data as the industry’s understanding of the impacts of building materials develops. This research expands upon previous research on LEED certification to illustrates that owner engagement and commitment to the HPB process is a critical success factor for the use of environmental product information about building materials. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering 2018

Magister Legum - LLM / Zimbabwe is regarded as one of the most corrupt countries on the African continent. The absence of an assets declaration regime in Zimbabwe has made it difficult to hold accountable public officers implicated in corruption and found in possession of unexplained assets. Corruption by public officers is hard to detect and prove, especially when there are no measures to ensure official acknowledgement of their assets. This paper confronts an important gap in the anti-corruption laws of Zimbabwe. It examines the importance of assets declarations as a tool to fight corruption by public officers in Zimbabwe. In doing so, it will deal also with the main elements of an assets declaration regime for Zimbabwe. Finally, the research provides recommendations on how Zimbabwe can establish an effective assets declaration system to ensure transparency, accountability and openness in the public sector. / German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

This thesis will examine and evaluate how post-colonial and universal key concepts reflects on The Universal Declaration of Human rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the ASEAN Declaration on Human Rights in order to provide diverse understandings of the concept of rights. The purpose of the study is to examine and evaluate how some of the key concepts of post-colonialism and universalism are reflected in these three declarations. The research questions is “How do post-colonial and universal key concepts reflect on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the ASEAN Declaration on Human Rights?”. Through a qualitative content analysis on these three declaration, the study will employ the ideal type method to outline the ideal types of post-colonialism and universalism and then apply the three declarations on these the ideal and key concepts. According to my findings, some key concepts of post-colonialism and universalism are explicitly and implicitly reflected in the declarations, some more heavily than others. While some of the concepts are shared across all three declarations, they differ in others. The African charter and ASEAN declaration tend to be more post-colonial in its approach while the Universal declaration of human rights takes a more universalistic stance. Human rights play a significant geopolitical role. In its name, it has acted as a uniting force, not least with the Universal declaration of human rights. However, ironically, it has also served as justification for war, invasions and other crimes against humanity. As much as this thesis is about human rights, it is also about colonialism, moral doctrine, cultures and the question about who to define these concepts. I hope that this thesis gives the reader a better understanding of human rights in a more pluralistic sense. I do also hope that this can help us increase our tolerance towards each other as humans and bring us closer to a more consensus in how we understand rights.

Soft law is a common feature of international governance, occupying a grey zone between the realms of politics and law. The multifaceted concept can refer to vague provisions or norms generally, but is most useful when defined as international instruments adopted in a non-binding form. Whilst the advantages and appeal of soft law have been widely studied, with its effects explored in both International Relations (IR) and International Law (IL) scholarship, states' behaviour on commitment to soft law per se has remained underexplored. It is often assumed that its non-binding status upon adoption makes commitment to soft law a relatively inconsequential endeavor, at least in comparison to hard law. In this thesis, incorporating insights from public international law into rationalist IR approaches, I argue that soft law instruments can have important effects over time and bring substantial costs for states to bear. This is particularly the case for soft law instruments 'hardening' through domestic law, treaties or customary international law, increasing the sovereignty and implementation costs attached to commitment. I further argue that those potential costs of soft law are taken into account by states when making decisions on commitment. Depending on the importance and likelihood of the costs foreseen, states can craft their commitment to mitigate these costs or block them from arising. Empirical evidence for the place of the costs of soft law in states' decision-making on commitment is offered through an in-depth case study of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, with a focus on the opposition it faced upon adoption - an unusual occurrence for a UN declaration in the field of human rights. Recognizing the potential costs of soft law and their impact on state commitment helps to bridge theory and practice regarding the creation of non-binding instruments and sheds light on challenges raised by the use of soft law by states and non-state actors at the frontiers of international law-making.