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Purpose: The aim of the article is to determine the role of self-esteem in the sense of individual agency in terms of sustainable development and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting among professionals associated with accounting. Methodology/approach: The study is based on a critical analysis of the literature, the methods of analysis and logical construction, and the application of statistical tools. It utilizes statistical methods, including Pearson’s linear correlation and the t-Student test, for a detailed analysis of the relationship between self-esteem and social engagement in the context of sustainable development among individuals associated with accounting. Findings: The study results suggest a connection between the level of self-esteem and engagement in sustainable development. The conclusions can be utilized for designing training programs to develop sustainable development skills. Research limitations/implications: The simplified measurement method of variables and their broad context may not encompass the full range of factors that influence social engagement in sustainable development. Originality/value: The article expands knowledge of the factors that influence social engagement in sustainable development. Furthermore, it emphasizes the potential application of tools for enhancing self-esteem to increase social engagement, especially in the context of sustainable development and ESG.

Denna forskningsrapport studerar den socioekonomiska utvecklingen mellan 2002 och 2012 i sammanlagt 46 stadsområden i Eskilstuna och Västerås. Studien bidrar till en nyansering av boendesegregeringsdebatten genom att introducera en ny mellankategori (mezzo) av stadsområden. Med hänsyn tagen till välfärd och medborgarkapital kategoriseras stadsområdena som sämre ställda, mezzo och bättre ställda. Stadsområdenas kontext (sysselsättning, utanförskap och etnicitet), underliggande processer (gentrifiering och filtrering) och klassanalys lyfts fram för att förklara förändringar i stadsområdenas status.

I Eskilstuna har antalet bättre ställda stadsområden ökat med fyra, mezzo har ökat med två medan sämre ställda områden har minskat med två. I Västerås stad har antal bättre ställda stadsområden fördubblats, medan de sämre ställda områdena har minskat med nästan hälften och antalet mezzo-områden är oförändrat. Den överlag positiva utvecklingen till trots låter tillämpningen av ett rättviseperspektiv skönja vissa brister, som exempelvis socioekonomisk polarisering och statuscementering. Idag finns det färre stadsområden med billiga hyreslägenheter än tidigare.

Utmaningen för politiker och tjänstemän ligger i att både stödja sämre ställda stadsområden i deras utveckling mot mezzo-status och att undvika filtrering eftersom en sådan fördröjer och i värsta fall förhindrar en utveckling mot social hållbarhet. Därför bör största möjliga ekonomiska jämlikhet mellan samtliga stadsområden utgöra ytterligare ett villkor som den socialt hållbara staden måste uppfylla.

Against a background of decades of spatial class segregation in Sweden and elsewhere, and with the Swedish city as our empirical base, we demonst rate how classposition effects residents’ life chances defined here as health, security, participation, and education. By comparing the circumstances of affluent neighbourhoodsin both cities with those of disadvantaged neighbourhoods we elucidate important changes in a modern city’s class hierarchy like increased social polarization.We conclude, firstly, that those neighbourhoods that change class position do soslowly and are becoming predominantly middle class. Secondly, we show that thesituation in both cities’ low income neighbourhood category varies dramatically.Finally, and in contradiction with mainstream urban theory, we infer that growingsocial inequality is not always detrimental to the lives of residents in disadvantagedneighbourhoods

Föreliggande forskningsrapport är den andra rapporten om hållbar stadsdelsutveckling inom ramen för Samhällskontraktets samverkansområde hållbar samhällsutveckling (HSU). Studien bygger på intervjuer med tjänstemän och utförare som direkt eller indirekt har varit inblandade i utvecklingsprojekt i stadsdelen Bäckby i Västerås eller bostadsområdet Lagersberg i Eskilstuna. I fokus står de intervjuades uppfattning om framgångstro, kompetens, resurser, intressen och samverkansgrad. Delvis tar studien sin utgångspunkt i den första rapporten Stadsdelsutveckling i två kommuner: En analys av den socioekonomiska- och sociokulturella kontextens betydelse för social hållbarhet (MDH SiSS-rapport 2013:2), som dels presenterar en kartläggning av tidigare urbana satsningars erfarenheter och dels en analys av Bäckby och Lagersberg.

De intervjuade respondenterna har delats in i tjänstemän och utförare eftersom de verkar i olika operativa kontexter. Tjänstemännen har ett övergripande ansvar för att genomföra policy, medan utförarna är den sista länken i policyprocessen gentemot omgivande samhälle. Begreppet byråkrater används då vi syftar på både tjänstemän och utförare.

Den övergripande slutsatsen från studien är att tjänstemännens intresse och tillgång till resurser som pengar, tid, personal lokaler och utrustning är viktiga faktorer för framgångstro, medan utförarnas upplevda brist på resurser kan ha en negativ inverkan på kommunens förmåga att styra utvecklingen i berörda stadsområden.

Flödet i kommunikation och samverkan mellan politiker, tjänstemän, utförare och samhällsaktörer kan förbättras. Att öka denna samverkan skulle kunna underlätta en god socioekonomisk utveckling och minska utanförskapet i de två områdena. Bron mellan stadshuset och stadsdelarna kan stärkas, bland annat genom att representanter från föreningar och lokala näringar deltar i redan etablerade workshops och arbetsgruppsträffar. Särskilt bör kulturföreningar uppmärksammas. De är viktiga ur ett demokratiperspektiv och är beroende av kommunens stöd. Ett problem kan dock utgöras av att de byråkrater som samverkar i stor omfattning också är de som i större utsträckning anser att valda åtgärder har sämre förutsättningar att lyckas.

Denna forskningsrapport är en del i ett samverkansprojekt som tar sin utgångspunkt i redan genomförda eller pågående utvecklingsprojekt i stadsdelen Lagersberg i Eskilstuna och bostadsområdet Bäckby i Västerås. Inom ramen för Samhällskontraktet – en plattform för samverkan mellan Mälardalens högskola, Eskilstuna kommun och Västerås stad – har en kartläggning av ovannämnda satsningars erfarenheter och nyvunna kunskaper slutförts och presenteras i denna rapport.

Tidigare forskning och insikter från samverkan med berörda tjänstemän från båda kommunerna har legat till grund för en analysmodell. Modellen tar hänsyn till såväl kommunernas specifika samhällskontext som till andra faktorer som påverkar kommunernas genomförande av handlingsplaner.

Förutom modellen utvecklas i rapporten en matris som fångar stadsdelarnas olika positioner med avseende på deras socioekonomiska och sociokulturella utveckling. Matrisen kallas för SUND (Sustainable Underprivileged Neighbourhood Development) och mäter hur hållbar den sociala utvecklingen är i utsatta bostadsområden och/eller stadsdelar. Ett samband mellan hög grad av mångetnicitet och en god ekonomisk och/eller sociokulturell utveckling förklarar delvis varför samma åtgärd får olika genomslagskraft i olika stadsdelar. Områden som kännetecknas av relativ låg grad av mångetnicitet kännetecknas, å andra sidan, av lågt socialt kapital och stagnerad socioekonomisk utveckling.

Jämfört med andra områden som ingår i studien finns det fortfarande ett stort utrymme för Eskilstuna kommun att få till en god socioekonomisk och sociokulturell utveckling i området. Stadsdelen Bäckby bör vara mån om att bevara och på sikt förbättra en redan relativt god socioekonomisk utveckling och har utrymme för att ytterligare påverka den sociokulturella utvecklingen. Bäckbys utveckling över en tolvårsperiod (2000–2012) är relativt stabil i relation till Västerås stad, medan det socioekonomiska gapet mellan stadsdelen Lagersberg och Eskilstuna kommun växer under samma tidsperiod.

Utvecklingen i stadsdelen Hallunda/Norsborg visar att det finns stor potential för Västerås stad och Eskilstuna kommun att ändra det nuvarande läget i både Lagersberg och Bäckby. Båda kommunerna visar att utvecklingen i mångetniska stadsdelar och bostadsområden inte alltid behöver stödjas av en ny eller förnyad lagstiftning, eller andra nationella satsningar. Genom resultaten från egna utvärderingar och tillämpbara forskningsresultat är kommunerna fullt kapabla att välja ”rätt” åtgärder och insatser.

Den positiva socioekonomiska och sociokulturella utvecklingen i Lagersberg och Bäckby kan vara hållbar endast om stadsdelen och/eller bostadsområdet gagnas av den på lång sikt. Från ett hela-staden-perspektiv gynnas kommunen av att de boende är mer välutbildade, även om de flyttar till andra mer attraktiva områden, så länge det sker inom kommunens gränser. Från ett områdesperspektiv leder denna utflyttning däremot till en veritabel ”braindrain”, som kan minska områdets konkurrenskraft och öka områdets och de boendes utsatthet. Kommuner bör av detta skäl eftersträva att exempelvis nyutexaminerade studenter och företagare flyttar in eller bor kvar i områden som Lagersberg och Bäckby.

Participatory democracy emphasizes the importance of the public´s political participation. Citizen participation initiatives in Sweden include among others civic dialogues in the planning, citizen proposals and e-petitions.  While participatory democrats recognize the need for representative democracy they also see the possibility and benefits of more political involvement by the public than is currently practiced.The arguments in favor of enhancing citizen participation focus on its different benefits. Based on participatory democracy, deliberative democracy and social capital   Michel (2011) highlights four contributions of participation to elements of democracy: influence on decision-making, inclusion, skills and virtues, deliberation, and legitimacy. In this paper the design and practice of citizen involvement through citizen proposals in the municipality of Eskilstuna is studied.  The amount submitted proposals in Eskilstuna is growing. Still, this initiative for increased public participation in form of citizen proposals in Eskilstuna have some shortcomings regarding inclusiveness, deliberation and development civic skills.

This thesis describes corporate greening in general, and specifically the environmental technology (ET) sector as a green sector. The thesis has also particular focus on production and products related aspects and the influence of the environmental profile of the ET sector on the environmental engagement of companies in the sector. The study is based on a questionnaire-based survey, online surveys and on semi-structured open-ended interviews. The organizations within the ET sector were identified using existing platforms within this sector: Sustainability Sweden and Swentec. The results show that not all companies and industry associations in the ET sector clearly distinguish between product and production related environmental aspects. Furthermore, the product related environmental profile, which constitutes the legitimacy for the sector, can influence companies’ environmental strategy, not only positively but also negatively. The results from the survey on Global Supersector Leaders 2009/2010 in Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) show that all companies are aware of production and product related environmental issues. Based on results from this survey a model of corporate environmental profile consisting of product and production oriented activities as well as initiatives that go beyond the core business operations is proposed. These initiatives can be divided into two groups: environmental education and environmental projects and sponsorship. This thesis proposes products and production related impacts and environmental activities as bases for defining corporate environmental profiles, corporate greening, and for defining ‘green’ and ‘green-green’ business as well as environmental leaders. The distinction between product and production related environmental initiatives as well as the other dimensions of the proposed model in this thesis can support companies in their communication of environmental performance and environmental activities.  Furthermore, ‘competitive advantage’, ‘environmental responsibility’ and ‘environmental leadership’ should motivate companies within the ET sector to be ‘vocal’ green-green firms.

Production and  product related environmental impacts of a company can form a basis for defining the corporate environmental profile,  as production and  product related environmental profiles,  as well as for defining environmental leaders. This distinction between production and  product related environmental issues  is particularly important when  considering the  environmental profile  within sectors   with   prominent  product  related  profiles,   such   as  the   environmental  technology  sector. Previous  research  has   shown  low   levels   of  awareness  of  the   production  and   product  related dimensions of the  environmental profile  among companies in the  environmental technology sector. Consideration of production and  product related environmental dimensions should also  be of great importance to companies in other  sectors.  This paper presents results from  a study into  description and  reporting of environmental issues  among 19 companies ranked as Global  Supersector Leaders in

2009/2010 by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI).

The  results show   that  all  of  these  companies are  aware   of  production and   product related environmental aspects.  There  are  also  examples, both  as  headings on  websites and  as  sections  in sustainability  reports,  where   companies structure  their   environmental  initiatives separately  with respect  to production (or their  own  operations) and  products. In addition, the  results show  that  the environmental profile  of a company may  also  include environmental engagement, with  or without links to the core business, in the local community or in society,  as initiatives to encourage responsible environmental behavior among employees, consumers and the public.  The paper ends with a proposed model  of corporate environmental profile.

Environmental business is defined by having environmental issues as key drivers for product development, production development and marketing. Ecotourism and environmental technology are commonly accepted as being environmental businesses as these sectors deliver environmentally preferable services and products. The aim of this paper is to compare aspects of greening, such as production and product related environmental aspects and environmental education in these two ‘eco–sectors’. The Swedish ecotourism label Nature’s Best and other national and regional Swedish initiatives to support the growth and export of environmentally technology are examined in relation to these aspects

Environmental business is defined by having environmental issues as key drivers for productdevelopment, production development and marketing. Environmental technology and cleantech are commonly accepted as being green businesses as these sectors deliver environmentally preferable products and services. The companies within these sectors deliver solutions that contribute to improving the environmental performance of their customers and to enhance the competitiveness of clients sectors and the economy as a whole (OECD, 2010). However, companies in these sectors may not necessarily set and implement environmental goals for their own activities and manufacturing processes. There are three main possible motivations for environmental technology companies to operate as ‘green-green’ businesses: i.e. to manufacture their environmentally superior products in an environmentally friendly manner: i) ‘competitive advantage’, ii) ‘environmental responsibility’ and iii) ‘environmental leadership.

Environmental technology sector (ETS) delivers environmentally preferably products. Little is known about whether these companies set environmental objectives relating to their own production processes. This paper presents results from an online survey on environmental work in enterprises listed by the Swedish Environmental Technology Council (Swentec). The survey found that only 21 % to 45 % of companies provide information about  environmental work on their website. This paper proposes environmental aspects in production and product as bases for corporate greening, as well as defining ‘green’ and ‘green-green’ business and concludes that companies within environmental industry should be expected to be green-green business.

Key words: Environmental technology sector, environmental goods and services, clean technology, ‘green’ business, ‘green-green’ business

In most business sectors environmental programs focus on direct, production-related environmental impacts. The design and development of products with reduced environmental impact is considered more difficult. The opposite applies in the environmental technology sector. The business model of environmental technology companies focuses on delivering solutions that contribute to improving the environmental performance of their customers. Products and services delivered by this sector have prominent environmental profiles. However, companies in this sector may not necessarily set and implement environmental goals for their own activities and manufacturing processes, and may not clearly distinguish between production and product related environmental aspects.

This thesis presents results of an online survey of environmental technology companies listed by the Swedish Environmental Technology Council (Swentec). The survey found that depending on the subsector, only between 21% and 45% of companies provide information about their environmental work on their website.

Environmental impacts of a company may be product and/or production related. The survey found that these dimensions are treated differently, and are not always clearly differentiated in environmental tools and guidelines, such as the ISO 14000 series, the Reporting Guidelines for UK Business, the GRI and The Swedish Annual Accounts (ÅRL). There are also differences in the ways that information about production and product related environmental impacts are considered within the environmental technology industry. Some companies clearly distinguish between product and activity related environmental issues, while others are unclear about the distinction between their products and their activities in environmental policies and management. While some companies in the sector limit the environmental information they disseminate to the environmental benefits of their products, others explicitly articulate that the predominantly product related environmental profiles in the sector drive them to additionally minimise environmental impacts of their own activities.

This thesis proposes environmental aspects of products and production as bases for corporate environmental profiles, corporate greening, and for defining ‘green’ and ‘green-green’ business, and concludes that companies within the environmental industry should be expected to be green-green business. This thesis concludes that companies within the environmental technology sector should increase their use of both production and product related environmental profile information in their presentations on their own websites and at platforms such as Swentec. Furthermore, the thesis shows that the use of the term ‘process’ within environmental technology sector to describe both the companies’ own operations and their products can create ambiguities in understanding. Companies that deliver ‘processes’ as products should avoid ambiguity by describing their own operations with terms such as ‘production processes’, ‘production’, ‘manufacturing process’, ‘operation’ or ‘activity’.

The Environmental technology (ET) sector delivers environmentally preferably products. Little is known about whether companies in the ET sector set environmental objectives relating to their own production processes. This paper presents results from an online survey on environmental work in enterprises listed by the Swedish Environmental Technology Council (Swentec). The survey found that depending on the specific subsector, only between 21% and 45% of companies provide information about their environmental work on their website. This paper proposes environmental aspects of production and products as bases for corporate greening and for de fining‘green’and‘green-green’business and identifies three main motivations for the companies within ET sector to operate as ‘green-green’businesses:‘competitiveadvantage’, ‘environmental responsibility’ and ‘environmental leadership’.

The quality label for ecotourism Nature’s Best was developed during 2001 and launched in 2002. Since launching, this innovative labelling system has become increasingly popular within the tourism industry and is now one of the leading ecotourism labels in Sweden. It is therefore interesting to study the factors behind the success of the label and analyse why the label has become attractive to the consumers and the tours operators. Conscientious efforts and partnerships at all levels, government support, an easily navigated and attractive web site with tours search functions, an integrated approach and multiple benefits for all parties involved with and affected by the ecotourism are some of main factors that have contributed to the successful development and spreading of the label.

99 procent wszyskich szwedzkich firm to male przedsiebiorstwa, a cztery z dziesieciu zatrudnionych w sektorze prywatnym osob pracuje w malych spolkach (MSP). Male i srednie firmy maja kluczowe znaczenie dla ochrony srodowiska i zrownowazonego rozwoju. Zgodnie z Nutek, Szwedzka Agencja Wzrostu Ekonomicznego i Regionalnego, jedno z trzech przedsiebiorstw (31%) jest aktywnie zaangazowane  w ustalanie i osiaganie celow srodowiskowych.  W pracy nad srodowiskiem moze byc wykorzystywany szereg roznorodnych narzedzin. Nalezy dodac, ze 43 % malych przedsiebiorstw, ktore podejmuja aktywnie prace srodowiskowa, nie stosuje w tym celu zadnego konkretnego srodka. Wiekszosc narzedzi uzywanych do ustalania i osiagania celow srodowiskowych prze MSP to ogolne srodki pracy srodowiskowej; tylko nieliczne sposrod nich sa przystosowane do uzycia w malych przedsiebiorstwach. ISO 14001 jest najbardziej powszechnym narzedziem pracy srodowiskowej malych przedsiebiorstw.W Szwecji dostepnych jest jednak kilka instrumentow, ktore byly stoworzone, aby pomoc malym przedsiebiorstwom w pracy nad kwestiami srodowiska i zrownowazonego rozwoju. Jednym z nich jest znak jakosci dla ekosturystyki – Nature’s Best (To co najlepsze w naturze/dla natury). Znak przyjeto w 2001 roku, a wdrozono w roko 2002. Od poczatku, ten innowacyjny system snakowanie stal  sie popularny w przemysle turystycznym i jest obenie jednym z wazniejszych znakow ekosturystyki w  Szwecji.

In both policy and research, civic engagement and citizen participation are concepts commonly used as important dimensions of social sustainability. However, as migration is a global phenomenon of huge magnitude and complexity, citizen participation is incomplete without considering the political and ethical concerns about immigrants being citizens or non-citizens, or 'the others'. Although research on citizen participation has been a frequent topic in local government studies in Sweden, the inclusiveness and exclusiveness of terms used in the context of local political engagement, which are addressed in this article, has not received attention. This article examines the Swedish case by analyzing information provided by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and by websites of all 290 municipalities as well terms used in selected research publications on local participation. Additionally, this article studies the effectiveness of municipal websites in providing information to their residents about how they can participate in local democracy. The results show that the term citizen is commonly and incorrectly used both by local authorities and the Association. The article concludes that the term citizen is a social construction of exclusiveness and the use of the term citizen should be avoided in political and civic engagement except for the limited topics that require formal citizenship.

Production and product related environmental impacts are treated differently, and are not always clearly differentiated in different environmental tools and guidelines. The companies within environmental technology are not always aware of these dimensions in information about their environmental engagement. Companies within this sector should increase their use of both product and production related environmental profile information in their presentation at their own websites and at platforms such as Swentec. The paper reveals confusion in the use of the term ‘process’ for both the companies’ own production processes and for companies’ products. Companies which deliver ’processes’ as their products should in order to avoid obscurity  describe  companies’ own operations with  terms  such as ‘production process’, ‘production’ ‘manufacturing process’, ‘operation’ or ‘activity’.

Environmental technology companies operate according to a business model in which they deliver solutions to improve the environmental performance of their customers. Little is known about whether these companies set and implement environmental objectives relating to their own activities and products. This paper presents results from a questionnaire-based survey on implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda in Swedish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the environmental technologies and services sector (ETS). The survey found that a large majority of the companies that responded (83 %) actively set environmental objectives and that nearly half of these companies set environmental objectives both for company processes and for their products. A quarter of the companies set environmental goals that only relate to their products and a quarter  only set environmental goals for the company processes. ISO 14000 is the most commonly applied tool for setting these goals, although 31 % of companies do not use any particular tool for this. The results show a significant increase in environmentally active companies compared to a survey conducted four years previously. We conclude that initiatives to encourage growth of the ETS sector should include environmental management issues among SMEs in this sector.

In the corporate quest for sustainable development, production- and product-related environmental impacts of a company can form a basis for de fining the corporate environmental profile, as well as for de fining environmental leaders. Awareness of the production- and productrelated dimensions of the environmental profile varied among companies. This paper studied descriptions and reporting of environmental issues among 19 companies ranked as Global Supersector Leaders in 2009/2010 by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). The results show that all of these companies are aware of production- and product-related environmental aspects. There are also examples, both as headings on websites and as sections in sustainability reports, where companies structure their environmental initiatives separately with respect to production (or their own operations) and the product. The paper ends with a proposed modelof corporate environmental profile.

To tackle the sustainable global goals, especially reducing the CO2 emission (SDG 13) and transition towards sustainable cities (SDG 11, Target 11.6) there are many different initiatives around the world that build more environment friendly housing. For example, the EU has a goal that all buildings should operate at net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Passive houses and passive plus buildings are important initiatives in this direction. The public’s perspectives, engagement, and willingness to live and adopt within an urban eco-village are essential for these concepts to take place. 

The suggested paper presents an urban eco-village in Sweden. This eco-village consists of two multi story buildings constructed out of wood with total of 30 apartments that are near the center of a medium-sized city. The sustainability vision of the project includes several innovative ideas, such as electric car-pools, gardening on balconies, passive house design, and sustainable construction materials. The project was delayed due to the Corona crisis; the moving-in date is planned for April 2021. 

The paper is based on individual interviews that focus on environmental willingness and engagement. The householders’ motives for deciding to move into the village and their expectation on living in the eco-village were also studied. The initial interviews were carried out in November 2019, with 41 respondents from households who declared their interest in moving into the eco-village. The interviews covered the following areas; energy, transport, occupancy, and motives for living in the eco-village. The follow up interviews with persons moving in will be carried out in March 2021. These interviews will study the influence of COVID-19 on willingness to participate in environmentally sustainable programs, for example using the car-pool. 

The results of the initial interview show that halve of households (21) feel positively about the car-pool system, while the other households are hesitating or not interested.  Similarly, the big majority of households (28) are willing to use shared laundry facilities, while only 13 households prefer to have their own laundry machines. The results also show that the two main reasons that people want to move to the eco-village are to reduce their own environmental impact and the location of the eco-village. 

The upcoming interviews will assess the question if challenges due to the pandemic (such as social distancing) can be in conflict with some aspects of a sustainable lifestyle (e.g. lack of access to a personal car and washing machine). Furthermore, traditional eco-villages are often characterized by detachment from mainstream.  The urban eco-village studied is more integrated with mainstream and therefore has more potential for propagating its ideas due to high visibility and links to the larger social setting.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the web-based environmental innovation processes in

the waste-to-energy field, conducted within the Remowe project in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Poland and Lithuania. The goal of this paper is to discuss lessons learnt from the experiences of these innovation processes in practice and to report experiences from a pilot projects where RPM Screening  was employed to enhance the  innovation work for waste-to-energy in the Remowe project.

Methods

The paper is based on a foresight methodology RPM Screening which consists of distributed

generation, mutual  commenting,  iterative  revision,  multi-criteria  evaluation  and  portfolio analysis of innovation ideas. The portfolio analysis builds on the Robust Portfolio Modelling. Results

The results show that the web platform was a convenient   and user-friendly tool for both

generation and evaluation of innovation ideas within all of five regions. However, there are some problems to get higher participatory, especially in the case of evaluation of ideas.                All the innovation processes, as a part of a Remowe project, consists of the same main steps. Regional differences in implementation of these steps can be identiefied, such as differences in the preparation of innovation process, in simulation of innovation generation and in  the design of the workshop.

Main conclusions

The paper provides the description and comparison of the regional innovation processes

conducted  in  different  countries.  The  web  platform  and  RPM  Screening  used  in  these innovation processes were suitable tools.  Projects such Remowe, with the aim of innovation generation should also include further work on implementation of selected innovations.

Economic actors and entrepreneurs are the central agents of change in the process of transformation needed to solve environmental challenges. The growing recognition of environmental issues has provided entrepreneurs with new opportunities, resulting in the emergence of ecopreneurs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the character of ecopreneurship in the environmental technology sector, with focus on environmental responsibility and environmental leadership at both the company and sector level. The survey of companies and representatives of branch organisations in four environmental technology subsectors: Waste Management & Recycling, Bioenergy Fuels, Wind Energy Technology and Solar Energy Technology is based on telephone and personal interviews as well as on environmentally related information and statements on the websites. The literature review shows that there are different approaches to categorizing ecopreneurs and sustainability entrepreneurs. A key dimension is the value and motives of entrepreneurs, with dichotomy between opportunistic ecopreneurs, and those driven more by nonprofit value. Environmental technology and cleantech are commonly accepted as being green businesses as these sectors deliver environmental preferable products and services.  According to the results there is a strong awareness about this environmental friendly profile within subsectors of environmental technology industry, both within branch organizations and within companies. However, this awareness does not always lead to a broader, green-green view of the environmental leadership. In many cases the branch organizations and the companies within environmental technology sector represent a more opportunistic approach towards environmental issues. Only one of branch organizations addresses environmental impacts of members.

The use of waste for energy purposes becomes increasingly interesting both with respect to waste management and for the energy systems. The decisions on alternative uses of waste for energy are mainly influenced by different policies, waste management, energy supply and use, as well as technologies. Two important issues, namely, a clear priority of waste prevention in waste management within EU and the growing concern for food losses and food waste at global and at national level, shall be carefully considered and addressed. This paper proposes scenarios for waste to energy systems with focus on Sweden and with a broader EU approach is applied: Biofuels Sweden, Electric vehicles and Bioenergy Europe. As baseline for the scenario development inventory of waste-to-energy related policies and goals on international, national, regional and local level as well as inventory of existing scenarios and reports with future trends is made. A low waste availability level is recommended to be included in sensitivity analysis for scenarios.

The use of waste for energy purposes becomes increasingly interesting with respect to waste management and the energy systems. The decisions on alternative uses of waste for energy are mainly influenced by different policies, waste management, energy supply and use, as well as technologies. Two important issues, namely, a clear priority of waste prevention in waste management within EU and the growing concern for food losses and food waste at global and national level, shall be carefully considered and addressed. This paper proposes policy based scenarios for waste-to-energy systems with a focus on Sweden and with a broader EU approach. As baseline for the scenario development an inventory of waste-to-energy related policies and goals on international, national, regional and local level as well as inventory of existing scenarios and reports with future trends is made. The main substitute for fossil fuels and the possibilities for renewable energy export are basic elements that define scenarios. Biofuels and electricity are identified as main substitutes for the fossil fuels. A low waste availability level is recommended to be included in sensitivity analysis for scenarios. This paper assumes relative decoupling in Low Waste scenario in 2030, and absolute decoupling first in 2050.

 Energy recovery from waste becomes increasingly interesting both with respect to waste management and for the sustainable energy supply. The REMOWE (Regional Mobilizing of Sustainable Waste-to-Energy Production) project, seeks to facilitate the implementation of sustainable systems for waste-to-energy in the project regions. Based on investigations done within the REMOWE project this paper discusses increased waste-to-energy utilization in Poland with focus on a comparison with the current state in Sweden. There are big differences between Sweden and Poland, and between Lower Silesia Voivodship in Poland and Västmanland County in Sweden. The REMOWE project through its outputs and discussions during meetings support transfer of technology, knowledge and best practice. Procedural justice and early involvement of public can increase social acceptance and successful implementation of projects regarding incineration, biogas production and separate collection of biodegradable waste.

Energy recovery from waste treatment is of great significance for the waste management and sustainable energy supply. Sweden has proposed an ambitious vision of zero net greenhouse gases emissions by 2050, which makes most possible use of resources that the waste represents necessary. This paper is to study how the waste-to-energy (WtE) can interact with other forms of renewable energy to affect the energy supply and demand in Sweden. Based on an assumption of waste generation-treatment balance in 2050 with two cases, power preference and motor fuels preference, are investigated under diverse WtE scenarios. The results indicate that WtE production can contribute to the primary energy supply by 38 to 186 TWh, amounting to 6% to 47% of the total. The power production can be ranged from 7 to 35 TWh and motor fuels from 2 to 34 TWh through under different WtE scenarios. Furthermore, the final mitigation of CO2 emission is estimated to be from 1 to 12 Mt in 2050 compared to base year of 2010, really depending on which WtE scenario is considered.

A dynamic model of a regional energy system has been developed to support sustainable waste treatmentwith greenhouse gases (GHG) mitigation, addressing the possibility for development towardsa regional fossil fuel-free society between 2011 and 2030. The model is based on conventional mixedinteger linear programming (MILP) techniques to minimize the total cost of regional energy systems. TheCO2 emission component in the developed model includes both fossil and biogenic origins whenconsidering waste, fossil fuels and other renewable sources for energy production. A case study for thecounty of Västmanland in central Sweden is performed to demonstrate the applicability of the developedMILP model in five distinct scenarios. The results show significant potential for mitigating CO2 emissionby gradually replacing fossil fuels with different renewable energy sources. The MILP model can be usefulfor providing strategies for treating wastes sustainably and mitigating GHG emissions in a regionalenergy system, which can function as decision bases for formulating GHG reduction policies andassessing the associated economic implications.

Arbetet som ligger till grund för den här rapporten har gjorts inom Samverkansprojektet vilket är ett forskningsprojekt som initierats som en del av Samhällskontraktet (SK) och dess delprocess Hållbar samhällsutveckling (HSU). Både SK och HSU är organisatoriska samverkansytor för Västerås stad, Eskilstuna kommun, Region Västmanland, Landstinget Sörmland och Mälardalens högskola.

Samverkansprojektet har pågått i tre år, mellan 2015 och 2017, i det gränsland som etablerats mellan akademin, våra offentliga samarbetsparter och invånarna, vilket förklarar titeln på rapporten. Vårt konkreta mål med forskningsprojektet har varit att ”utveckla modeller/begrepp som gör det lättare för våra intressenter att förstå de organisatoriska problem de står inför vad gäller att lösa samhällsproblemen de ansvarar för”.

För att nå målet har flera mindre studier men också andra aktiviteter genomförts. Våra resultat har successivt växt fram och de har också spritts, och fortsätter spridas, på kon­ferenser, seminarier och olika typer av möten likväl som i både akademiska och populära skrifter.

Våra resultat och erfarenheter presenteras även i denna rapports åtta bidrag, där vi med hjälp av skiftande perspektiv, modeller och begrepp resonerar kring hur samverkan bättre kan förstås och förbättras. Varje kapitel avslutas med rubriken ”Läs mer” där den som vill fördjupa sig i det som tagits upp ges tips om vidare läsning. Rapporten sätter punkt för forskningsprojektet genom att formulera lättillgängliga texter som bygger på olika delar av vårt forskande och samverkande arbete.

Formen har vi valt för att bidra till ett gemensamt reflekterande hos dig och dem som du vill prata om samverkan med. Istället för färdiga svar, som man ofta hittar som resultat eller slutsatser i mer traditionella rapporter, vill vi att rapporten ska fungera som ett stöd till ett gemensamt utforskande och konstruktionen av gemensamma svar. Att undra tillsammans över problem med hjälp av det vi tar upp i den här rapporten, innebär en jämställd process där var och en bidrar med sitt perspektiv. Rapporten kan på detta sätt ses som ett verktyg för dig som arbetar med samverkan, kanske främst i offentlig sektor.

This report discusses potential future systems for waste-to-energy production in the Baltic Sea Region, and especially for the project REMOWE partner regions, the County of Västmanland in Sweden, Northern Savo in Finland, Lower Silesia in Poland, western part of Lithuania and Estonia.

The waste-to-energy systems planned for in the partner regions are combustion of municipal solid waste (MSW) and solid recovered fuels from household and industry as well as anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge and agriculture waste.

The potential future waste-to-energy systems in the partner regions include increased utilization of available waste resources. Examples of resources possible to use are straw that could be used for ethanol production and biowaste from households and manure that could be used for biogas production. If the utilization in all partner regions would reach the same level as already exists in the County of Västmanland it would correspond to an increased energy supply of 3 TWh/year which corresponds to about 2.5 % of the total energy use in the partner regions year 2008.

An important aspect of future anaerobic processes for biogas production is the possibility to use the residue. West Lithuanian biogas production residue is planned to be dewatered up to 90 % of dry matter to make future utilization options possible.

Pre-processing is necessary to be able to use the residue from digestion of solid waste as fertilizer. The pre-processing should include crushing, removal of metals, wood and plastics, and pulping. Without pre-processing it is possible to combust the residues with energy utilisation. Results from an investigation of the residues from biogas production tests using substrates from the project partner regions show a remaining energy potential of the digestate corresponding to 17 to 50% of the biogas energy. A combination of digestate combustion and fertilizer use could be a possibility.

Hydrothermal carbonization, HTC, is a process that could be of interest to use for treating digestate in order both to utilize the energy left after biogas production but also for sanitation of the digestate. In this process heat is released and coal is produced. This process could also be of interest for waste-to-energy conversion of waste which is usually not usable for other biological process like e.g. biogas production, for example sharp leaved rush, straw or leaves from gardening etc. Initial tests on pulp and paper waste show promising results.

Among the possible processes for increasing the output of biogas from anaerobic digestion using ultrasound technology for thickening of surplus waste water sludge can be mentioned. It allows increasing the biogas production up to 30 % and reducing the amount of organic substances in the digested sewage sludge by up to 25 %. Another area of possible improvement is the mixing in the digester. The mixing is important for distribution of microorganisms and nutrition, inoculation of fresh feed, homogenizing of the material and for the removal of end products of the metabolism. Studies of the digester for biowaste in the County of Västmanland indicate that about 30 % of digester volume can have dead and stagnant zones.

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Waste-to-energy utilisation could also be possible to realise by further development and introduction of new processes and concepts. An option for solving the problem of old sewage sludge could be to use it in a gasifier to convert it to energy rich gases. Microbiological conversion of waste can be further developed to produce several different products, such as heat, power, fuels and chemicals, the development of so-called biorefineries. Also the biorefinery‘s water management can be renewed in order to remove toxic substances, minimize environmental impacts and produce pure, clean water. Finnoflag Oy has developed a technology that converts waste materials into e.g. fuels, chemicals, plastic and rubber via low-energy routes. The Finnoflag technology is based on the PMEU (Portable Microbe Enrichment Unit) which is a new innovative instrument for use in the microbe detection process and that is designed to create an optimal growth environment for microbes.

For fibrous and well-structured biowaste dry digestion could be a good option for biogas production. Several different configurations have been tested in Germany. The garage digestion method has the advantage that an extensive pre- treatment of substrate is not necessary and no pumps or stirrers, which can be destroyed by disturbing materials, are involved. However, the efficiency of garage digesters is low compared to other digestion methods due to lack of effective substrate turbation. More research work is needed to improve the efficiency. Tests of five existing dry digestion processes show that the Tower-digester is the most suitable dry digestion method for household waste. Among the reviewed plants the Dranco-tower digester showed the best efficiency in reference to biogas potential. The plant design is robust enough to handle substrates like household waste with fractions of disturbing materials. The mixing in the reactor is based on the force of gravity and the used pumps are powerful and very resistant.

Pyrolysis is a process of interest for converting wood based waste into energy products such as gas, bio-oil and/or solid fuel/carbon. This has been identified as a process suitable for a new business model with a franchise based model, offering an earning opportunity for small size entrepreneurs.

Possible improvement of existing and new waste-to-energy systems also includes increasing the overall efficiency of the utilization of waste resources by integration of several processes. A study on integrating pellets production from the residues from straw-based ethanol production with an existing combined heat and power plant shows that the total production cost can be reduced by the integration.

Possible development of waste-to-energy systems for the partner regions could be the following:

 Estonian - biogas production using the organic waste, use of the digestate as fertilizer on demand or combustion for power and heat production, recycling plants for paper, plastics and other recyclable wastes and combustion for power and heat production after recycling

 North Savo, Finland- the same options as for Estonia is of interest. Added to this is the potential for power and heat production from large amount of wood waste. Also the possibility for pellet production from wood waste could be of interest.

 Western Lithuania- the same system as mentioned for Finland is also of interest for western Lithuania.

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 Lower Silesia, Poland- also for Lower Silesia high amounts of organic wastes is suitable to use for biogas production in anaerobic digestion. Recovered derived fuel (RDF) is already used as fuel for power and heat production. There are also some attempts to involve combustion of residual mixed waste in 1-2 of the most densely populated areas.

 County of Västmanland, Sweden- Here a system for separate collection of the biowaste from households, digestion of the fraction together with ley crop silage from regional farmers to produce biogas and use of the digestate from the digestion process as fertilizer at farmland already exists and a new power and heat plant using recovered derived fuels is under construction. Further waste- to-energy plants for production of bioethanol from straw and biogas from agricultural waste could be possible.

The potential future waste-to-energy systems are not only dependent on available technologies for waste-to-energy conversion but also on the development within the waste and energy areas including also economic and political aspects. There is a growing interest for waste prevention in waste management within the EU, and growing concern about food losses and food waste at global and national levels. During past decades the waste amounts have steadily increased with economic growth but due to waste prevention actions a decoupling of the waste amount and economic growth is foreseen. This has to be considered in development of future waste-to-energy systems. Further, policies and goals concerning fossil fuel free transportation systems and low carbon energy systems is of importance.

Analysis of combined previous proposed scenarios for energy demand and use development and waste amount development for waste-to-energy in Sweden 2010 to 2050 shows that the contribution of waste-to-energy to the total energy supply in 2050 varies from 6 to 47 % depending on the scenarios combined. The lowest contribution occur for scenarios with low waste amounts combined with energy scenarios with low changes in energy demand while the highest contribution occurs for scenarios with high amount of waste combined with energy scenarios with large decrease in energy demand.