Solutions to the current calamity of fossil fuels are becoming more urgent with each moments passing. It is not news for those in technical professions as well as many others, that reserves of oil are diminishing and prices for petroleum based products are increasing. A most transparent option exists today, and is becoming exploited by many countries worldwide. This solution answers to the title of biofuels, consisting of gases, liquids and even biomass for various energy requirements. Two biofuels in particular hold precedence with regard to transportation fuels, namely biodiesel and ethanol, and have been studied in the following report. The said fuels are produced by transesterification of oils and fermentation of sugar based crops respectively, for use in transport fleets worldwide. Stockholm, Sweden is in the forefront for use of the said fuels in their public transportation sector, with nearly the entire fleet fueled with ethanol. Persistence, extensive research and unprecedented environmental support equate to the success of this fuel, which is used competitively to petroleum diesel, while including reduced environmental impacts. Other cities in Europe also have similar capacities to utilize biofuels, although some have failed to hold to this technology. Troyes, France, the home of CREIDD (Center of Research and Interdisciplinary Studies on Sustainable Development) and UTT (University of Technology of Troyes), has been further studied to produce the relative measures needed for biofuel implementation in this municipality, while generating the impacts toward the environment and municipality in the form of costs, emissions and savings. Surprisingly, and hereafter, it has been concluded that the use of biodiesel, and not ethanol like Stockholm, offers the best course of action for Troyes both economically and environmentally. Cities throughout Europe can follow suit and discover the biofuel most applicable to their locality and promote further sustainability, although the question still arises of whether biofuels are indeed sustainable. / www.ima.kth.se

This thesis project is a continuation of a project that was previously done at KTHenvironmental management course during Fall 2006 semester at Veidekke to identify the deficit and the flaws of the current way of dealing with the environmental matters.The purpose of this thesis project is to plan the environmental management system according toISO 14001 standards specifically for Veidekke Anläggning Öst AB. The first part of the work was to identify the environmental aspects that relate to the activities and the processes at Veidekke Anläggning’s projects. From these aspects, the significant environmental aspects would be identified, in order to act upon them, and minimize the environmental risks as much as possible. An environmental management system is mainly a combination of an environmental policy, environmental requirements, environmental goals, and an emergency response plan. So in order for the environmental goals to be set, an accurate identification of the aspects needs to occur before the process of building an environmental management system starts. Then proper solutions and recommendations will be provided in order to motivate the employees at Veidekke Anläggning Öst to increase their environmental awareness and to take responsibility for their actions. All employees need to undergo a series of educational courses in order to, change their behaviour towards the environment, and to take environmental responsibility for thecompany. The basic foundation to start building an environmental management system is to provide the employees with the necessary environmental knowledge, and the motivation to do the best they can. The most important factor is the willingness of the top management to change. / www.ima.kth.se

This master thesis has been carried out at Industrial Ecology at Royal Institute ofTechnology, KTH, in cooperation with Swedish Environmental Research Institute, IVL.This thesis discussed the usage of the ash from coal incineration in Wuhai, Inner Mongolia,China by studying and analyzing the fly ash from the case plant, the North Power Company.In the first part, there are some background information about the study area, like Wuhaicity and the case plant, the North Power Company. The study focused on the application ofthe fly ash as the fly ash is the main fraction of the ash from coal incineration. Besides, thecurrent situation of the coal fly ash application in whole China including some regions inChina like Shanghai and some applications of fly ash worldwide, are investigated.The chemical properties of the fly ash samples collected from the case plant have beenanalyzed in two main parts, the mass fraction and the trace elements. The concentrations ofseveral metal elements in the fly ash that have the highest toxicity have been comparedwith that in the fly ash from Shanghai and the Netherlands. The leaching possibilities of themetals from the fly ash are also compared with related Chinese standards and Europeanstandards to see if the fly ash in the North Power Company has the potential to exceed the standards. According to the natural condition in Wuhai and the properties of the fly ash, the potential application areas for the fly ash from the North Power Company are: cement andconcrete, bricks, ceramic, road construction and extraction of aluminum oxides. An evaluation of those possible applications have been made by considering theinformation from technology aspects, economical aspects, environmental effects, health andsafety effects and social aspects. Using the fly ash in cement and concrete is the most suitable application among those potential applications, and the usage of the fly ash inceramic production is not a good choice under the current situation. The other three applications are also suitable to use if some tests or pretreatments have been done. At the end, there are also some suggestions for future study and recommendations for the decisionmakers. Therefore, the order of the priority of those potential applications is as follows:Cement and concrete>Bricks and Extraction of aluminum oxides>Roadconstruction>Ceramic. / www.ima.kth.se

Companies are recognising the need for being sustainable in their approach to business. There are mounting pressures from environmentalists, NGOs and Governments for greater transparency. Awareness of company’s reputation, contribution to society, and environment are all public knowledge these days thanks to the internet and free media culture. On one hand, there are companies who are unable to find their feet in CSR and perceive it isas a ‘publicity’ tool only, overlooking many other benefits which it brings along. On the otherhand, there are companies who have taken the first step in getting involved with CSR relatedactivities, however, need guidance for further improvements with their performance measurement and reporting. This thesis aims to present CSR as an ‘umbrella’ under which many of the sustainable development issues rest. It aims to present CSR as a tool which, if utilised, can bring benefitsto companies in environmental, social and long term financially. With the help of casestudies, recommendations and suggestions are given to improve CSR policies/strategies and broaden the horizons of business. / www.ima.kth.se

This report reviewed Chinese building energy and related codes, directives and guidelines and compared them with Swedish ones. It also provides general information on residential buildings in China (area, height, layout, etc.) and describes building envelope insulation status and market there (window, exterior walls and roof) and energy related characteristics (heating, heating fee system, cooling and ventilation). This report is targeted towards governmental organizations in Wuhai city in Inner Mongolia of China since this thesis is project (Sino-Swe project) based research and Wuhai city is the place where the project is being carried out. A one week trip to Wuhai city was done during the research time and information concerning aspects such as market, energy saving status and residents’ attitudes were collected through interviews, organized meetings and on-site investigation. Data collected from national level and Wuhai city are combined to support simulation of energyperformance of a model building in Wuhai. Two tools are employed to calculate energyconsumption. One is Dest, developed by Institute of Building Environment and Building Services,Tsinghua University, Beijing, China and has been used in various prestige large structures such as State Grand Theatre. The second one is Standardized Method, proposed by Heating, ventilation and air conditioning design code. It is a traditional and simple energy calculation method and can be realized by Excel. Nowadays, instead of directly using it, its calculation concepts and steps are integrated into different commercial calculation softwares but in a more complex way. Different envelope types, heating methods, ventilation systems are evaluated and building energy consumption for heating and corresponding initial investment and operation cost are calculated. Then life cycle cost methodology is applied to compare different alternatives and those alternatives, according to their payback time, are located into different categories. From the calculation the following figure is obtained and suggestions are made. / www.ima.kth.se

Along with the rapid development of industry and agriculture, growth of population, improvement of urbanization level, China has been confronted with increasingly serious deficiency and pollution of water resource. In order to deal with the challenge as well as reduce waste discharge, it is necessary to strengthen all the possible efforts in controlling water pollution. Therefore, the control and management of water pollution is of vital significance to the development of national economy and social society, which is worth doing research on academically and practically. Water pollution management, in a sense, results from the urbanization and cosmopolitanization process. In this aspect, the European countries have acquired a lot of successful experience in water pollution control, which provides plenty of useful knowledge and reference for China’s ongoing efforts in water pollution control. This thesis, by taking a comparative analysis approach, looks into the European countries’ experience of water pollution control, makes evaluations on their managerial strategies, system and methods. Then it reviews China’s efforts on water pollution control, and analyzes the current situation of China’s water management, especially the water pollution control system of Huaihe River Basin, and as a result puts forward suggestions to improve China’s water pollution control system such as verification of property rights of water resources, enhancement of legal framework, investment and taxation policy preference, technological improvements, public participation and prevention measures. / www.ima.kth.se

Roads often bring significant economic and social benefits, but they can also have substantial negative impacts on communities and natural environment. As we become more aware of these impacts, there is a growing demand for the techniques and skills needed to incorporate environmental considerations into road planning and management. The objective of this thesis is to provide a description of practical methods which are useful in designing and executing effective environmental assessments (EAs) to those who are involved in various aspects of Highway/Motorway projects, from planning to construction to maintenance. The techniques discussed can be applied to in-depth environmental assessment studies, or to action/management plans for dealing with environmental aspects of Highway/Motorway projects. The Faisalabad Pindi Bhattian Motorway Project (M-3) with 52.5 Km length,100 meters R.O.W. and Rs. 532.66 million cost falls under the category of projects for which a detailed Environmental Impact Assessment report is required by the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency vide Section 12 of Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997.No EIA of M-3 was conducted during planning and designing phases. Failing to identify potential impacts of the project and neglecting to account for these impacts caused the road agency (NHA) to adopt some solutions that compromise the environment to some extent. Even now, when the M-3 is in operation phase, Implementation Agencies(NHA and NH & MP) have no official Environmental Monitoring and Management Plan to be followed. In the light of above discussion, an EIA of the project at operation stage to identify the potential impacts of the project on environment should be conducted to develop the Environmental management Plan for operation stage of this project as well as for the construction phase of future projects. It is found that the nature and scope of the construction works and the environmental setting of the project were such that many of the adverse impacts often5associated with road construction projects caused insignificant environmental impacts. No adverse impacts were seen in respect of sensitive habitat, wildlife, cultural heritage and endangered species etc. Even the use of borrow material from the vicinity of the project was not likely to cause such changes which may be irreversible or non- mitigable. Air and noise pollutions are the main issues of operation phase of the project but both are not foreseen to cross the limits of Environmental Quality Standards even in year2030. (Except Sox and SPM which will cross the standard limits in 2015 and 2020respectively).Social consultation was carried out during project study with officials and local communities. The aim was to solicit views on the proposed project and incorporate their concerns, demands and needs into the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) and Social Framework Agreement (SFA). Based on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA),a Social Framework Agreement (SFA) has been proposed. However for future projects this instrument shall be prepared and made public when the project is approved and is ready for implementation. / www.ima.kth.se

Risk communication was inferred in public emergence accident during the outbreak of SARS inthe year of 2004 in China. It provides information, avoids panic, and makes decisions during the crisis. After that risk communication was also considered a useful tool in dealing with public health-bird flu in China. This study of risk communication is focus on the emergency river pollution accidents in China,taking Songhua River pollution accidents as a case study. The purpose of this study is examiningthe performance of each aspects of risk communication in emergency river pollution accidents. It includes information flow, government responsibility, and legislation. After Songhua Riverpollution accident, a series of emergency river pollution accidents break out in China. Review these accidents, some factor blocked risk communication including information transparency, corporation behaviors, implement of law and so on. / www.ima.kth.se

The consuming of paper and fibrous products is nowadays tremendous in our dailylife. The raw material used in the paper industry is mainly wood fibers. A betterunderstanding of properties of these fibers will help to improve the performance ofthe paper industry. Fiber deforms with time when subjected to a load, which has to be compensated for in packaging materials by the use of thicker papers thus morematerial. This deformation increases in the variable climate. This well-known complex phenomenon is called mechano-sorptive creep and leads to large losses in the paper industry every year. In order to understand the influence on the creep phenomenon of different fibermorphology, and how and to what extent the fibril angle affects the mechano-sorptive creep, the creep behavior of four series of fibers from spruce were measured by DMA(Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer) at a constant humidity climate followed by animmediately cyclic humidity. The fibers used were mature latewood fibers, matureearlywood fibers, juvenile latewood fibers and juvenile earlywood fibers. The CLSM(Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy) was used to determine the microfibril angle ofthe fibers. The results of the tests show a higher creep rate at cyclic humidity than thatat constant humidity. The comparisons among fibers show that latewood fibers havehigher mechano-sorptive creep ratio (creep rate at cyclic humidity/ creep rate atconstant humidity) than earlywood fibers and that juvenile wood fibers have highercreep ratio than mature wood fibers. One of the main conclusions drawn in this study was that the higher the fibril angle, the lower was the mechano-sorptive creep ratio. / www.ima.kth.se

Haapsalu Bay is a very shallow area consisting of semiclosed regions partly separated by peninsulas in the coastal zone of West Estonia. The main inflow of fresh water, 33.875.436 m3/year, from some small rivers (Ungru, Taebla, Vönnu, Asukula) falls into the eastern part of Haapsalu Bay, with the Nitrogen load 72.331 Kg/year and Phosphorus load 2.327,88 Kg/year. The central part of the Bay receives municipal and industrial sewage waters from the town of Haapsalu with a discharge of nutrients 28.591,6 Kg N/year and 4.34,17 Kg P/year . In addition, atmospheric deposition constitutes an important part of the nutrients load with 40.936 Kg N/year and 183 Kg P/year. As a consequence, intensive production of organic matter and accumulation of nutrients lead to a constant eutrophication process. In order to understand biochemical processes occurring in the marine ecosystem where the turnover of both phosphorus and nitrogen is included a conceptual model has been built up. Haapsalu Model, implemented in Stella Software, illustrates the phosphorus and nitrogen cycles and the concentration of nutrients in their different stages in Haapsalu Bay. Moreover, how various reduction strategies will affect the environment in the bay and in the Baltic proper may be simulated. The model tests nowadays the bay acts a giant waste stabilization pond resulting in the fact that the amount of nutrients carried by flowing water out to Baltic Sea should be small. / www.ima.kth.se