Abstract Today's society is developing towards a more conscious and dedicated attitude concerning the need for sustainable businesses. To ensure that the construction business who is responsible for massive impacts to environment and the society, the legislation demanding sustainability reporting has been passed in the EU. The purpose of this legislation is to force companies to include the environmental and social aspects of their operations and not just the economic. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate how the construction companies in Sweden has been affected due to the legislation on sustainability reporting. The aim of this study is, through a qualitative working method, to answer which governing instruments the construction companies use in order to implement sustainability in the entire organisation on a day to day basis. The study has investigated four construction companies largely based in and around the three biggest cities in Sweden, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. The interviewees in each company has a role in which they are involved in the strategic operations towards sustainability. The aim is here for the study to answer which governing instruments has been the most influential and successful. The results of the study reveals that beyond the legislation each company has a very different approach and layout concerning the sustainability reporting. The reason for this is because each company has different guidelines through frameworks and certification standards. Depending on what they consider to be vital elements to report, the reportings differ leading to different forms of governing throughout the companies. This also shows that the most successful governing instruments differ as well. Although the study concludes that the companies have mutual governing instruments in the form of education for the employees to enhance competence. It also shows that they all use instruments impacting employee values which leads to a comprehensible understanding of the company’s visions and guidelines.

There is an overall consensus that the poor governance and corruption plaguing many developing nations are main inhibitors to progress. These inhibitors also lead to the overwhelming feelings of desperation, apathy, and determinism. International development assistance programs utilizing capacity building have been created to deal with sustainable development issues in the developing world. Often these programs are fragmented and address results, not the causes, of problems. This study assesses how existing community development approaches could be aided through a strategic sustainable development perspective. A majority of the research involved creation of a holistic innovative community development approach, which encourages transformational change and effective leadership, and comparison of that to an existing community development approach. Strengths and limitations were observed through this comparison and generic recommendations were created to support current approaches. The study found that existing development assistance strategies are effective at building capacity and helping communities, but encompassing a more holistic perspective could align planning and decision-making with socio-ecological sustainability and thereby support mid- and long-term progress.

Food production and food consumption have been shown to have a great impact on our ecosystem. Human beings have been exploiting the planet in order to feed themselves. This will have negative consequences for future life on the planet. Modern food production and consumption are among the main causes of natural resource exploitation and the problem is very likely to increase. Indeed, during the past thirty years, the global population has grown exponentially by almost one billion every decade, and it is still growing at the same pace. This demographic explosion means that dramatic shifts in the production and consumption of food will be required. Working with food is a great chance to achieve or at least lead towards a condition of recovering, understanding the world around us and managing our natural resourcesÅ. Increasing control and efficiency in food production and consumption cannot solve the problem. There is a much broader spectrum of causes contributing to the ecological decline. It is necessary to look beyond the technological and economic aspects. It is, therefore, necessary to focus on cultural and behavioural causes, promoting the involvement of local peopleÇ. With this in mind, this research explores the potential of urban foraging for generating social consciousness about ecological sustainability using design as method of intervention, and involving food consumers in the process of production and consumption of food in a more sustainable way. In order to do that, this research focuses on a small scale urban foraging project. In this case, by food, I refer to spontaneous food that grow in the natural urban environment of Växjö, and that can be used as a resource for citizens. In summary, this research aims to promote the involvement of local people and to support knowledge exchange in order to pursue socio-ecological sustainability. Engaging with more participants, the research gains the capacity of addressing complexity in a more coherent manner, and use its outcome as a usable resource for the local community that aims to promote its self-sustenance.