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To meet climate objectives our society needs to be more resource efficient, and a circular economy is part of the solution. Maintaining and repairing products to prolong their lifetime is usually better than replacing the product. In Sweden there are existing economic policies such as value added tax and tax reductions that incentivize the consumer towards prolonging the life of their products, bu
Due to the growing e-commerce volumes, product returns have become an increasingly important issue within the fashion industry. About 70 % of all returns are caused by poor fit or size. Therefore, there is a need to improve fit and size information online to decrease the rate of returns. In recent years, there has been an increased interest for implementing AI solutions to improve consumer informa
The main drivers of the alarming biodiversity decline are land use and land use change, primarily due to agriculture. It is therefore important to assess the impact on biodiversity caused by production of food and to do so, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method widely used. Since the UNEP-SETAC provisionally recommended the method by Chaudhary et al. (2015, updated 2018) for impact assessments o
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Mandate (GGRM, reduktionsplikten) is Swedish legislation focused on reducing carbon emissions by mandating that the emissions of certain fuels are reduced by a specified percentage, that percentage increasing each year. This paper investigates the rationale behind a political drive to decrease the GGRM, the cost-effectiveness of the GGRM, and the consequences of t
The ongoing climate changes pose a serious threat to both societies and ecosystems globally. Intensification of extreme weather, floods in combination with heat waves and droughts are some of the challenges that require adaptable and sustainable solutions. Nature-based solutions (NBS) have been identified as a powerful tool for creating resilient and sustainable cities by integrating natural proce
The European union and the Convention on biological diversity require 30% of all land to be protected by 2030, stressing the necessity for increased nature conservation. To meet the requirements different forms of protection are needed. Thus, nature conservation agreements (NCA) relevant for further exploration, as they are not used in as large of an extent as other nature conservation types. Thi
Regulations regarding management of dredged sediment from the maintenance of artificial ponds and other wetlands are ambiguous. Currently in Sweden, compliance with guidelines concerning pollutants is often prioritized over the climate impact associated with the transportation during disposal of these sediments. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the applicability of current guidelines to dre
Air pollution is a major environmental and health problem globally, with traffic emissions being a significant source of many pollutants. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ground-level ozone (O3) and coarse particles (PM10) in air changed during the covid-19 pandemic in Sweden, and whether the change varied between urban and rural areas and depen
Forestry in Fennoscandia is currently dominated by conventional rotation forestry, but an increased interest in continuous cover forestry (CCF) methods has been observed in both Finland and Sweden. The Finnish state-owned enterprise Metsähallitus has since a couple of years used CCF in 25% of their forests, and this paper aims to identify factors that could hinder or prove disadvantageous for Svea
This study presents a systematic overview and mapping of potential metrics for evaluating the impact of forest management on biodiversity in Swedish forestry. The primary approach involves quantitative Life Cycle Impact Assessments (LCIA) as part of Life Cycle Assessments (LCA). Given the increasing need to integrate the impact on biodiversity into complex value chains, the absence of a standardis
This study focuses on PFAS-pollution, specifically the pollution situation for four objects in Svedala municipality. Per- and Polyfluorinated Chemicals (PFAS) has been used widely since the 1950s and spread because of anthropogenic activities, due to their characteristics, such as dirt-, grease, and water repellent properties in cosmetics, textiles and fire extinguishers. PFAS has shown to be pers
The start-up company LEVTEK is launching a new ultralight electric utility vehicle called the LEVKART. The Levkart uses a combination of robotics and AI-technology to offer semi-autonomous or autonomous riding and usage. The purpose of the vehicle is to serve as an alternative to cargo bikes and electric scooters designed for easy usage and as a more sustainable option to fossil-based transport. T
Society's increased demand for wood has led to amplified extraction of forests, which has negatively affected the preservation of biological diversity. In Sweden, the world's fourth largest wood exporter, forest conservation legislation is based on freedom with responsibility, which means that forest owners are expected to take personal responsibility for the consideration of the forest
Drained peatlands in Sweden emit approximately 11 tons of carbon dioxide equivalents annually. Attempts to rewet to eliminate emissions have shown that the irreversible processes of peat oxidation in the form of peatland deposition makes it hard, since it instead greatly increases methane gas emissions. This study presents a literature review of the environmental consequences of peat and peatland
Carbon emissions from the transport sector are one of the main drivers of climate change, and electrified transportation is one attempt to reduce the sector’s climate impact. Levtek Sweden AB is a start-up company developing the Levkart, a lightweight and autonomous four wheeled vehicle. To aid Levtek in developing a sustainable vehicle, this thesis aims to investigate the environmental impact of
Mitigation of climate change as the main goal of the Paris Agreement aims to keep the global mean temperature at 1.5 Celsius. As of now daily global temperature are surpassing this threshold which indicates the urgency to reenact more work in limiting green house gas emissions and at the same time optimize sequestration of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere. One key instrument to sequester c
In May 2023, the EU adopted a crucial part of their updated climate policy, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). This thesis poses questions about how this novel legislation affects the EUs South-Eastern neighbours, the Western Balkans (WB). The relevance for applied climate change strategies lies in the policy-oriented approach to a new type of international climate policy. Previous res
Wildfires causes natural disturbances to ecosystems which can have potentially damaging results for ecosystem services and economic income from timber production. The post-fire management approach can be essential for the environmental work regarding the recovery of ecosystems and maintaining ecosystem services. The aim of this study was therefore to evaluate different post-fire management approac
Achieving a transport emission reduction in line with global reduction targets is considered as one of the greatest environmental challenges societies are facing today. As car use continues to increase, there is a need to better understand what influences individuals' choice of transportation and how to bring about behavioural change where fewer choose to travel by car. This study addresses th
Linear transportation infrastructure such as powerlines generate documented adverse effects on biodiversity. However, the potential of powerline corridors to constitute habitats, a dispersal corridor, or as potential to create value for biodiversity remains somewhat controversial. This case study investigates what the drivers and challenges are to create value for biodiversity combined with the p
