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Med bakgrund av de stora miljöproblem världen står inför börjar det bli uppenbart för allt fler att det krävs stora strukturella förändringar för att styra världen i en mer hållbar riktning. Hur vi hanterar vår ekonomi behöver förändras för att på ett bättre sätt integreras med upprätthållandet av jordens system. Flera av de stora internationella organisationerna och ledare för många av världens länder hoppas på att vi genom hållbar tillväxt ska lyckas styra om vår produktion och konsumtion till mer miljövänliga former och på så sätt lösa klimatkrisen samtidigt som vi utvecklar världsekonomin. I denna studie undersöks hur svenska kommuner arbetar med hållbar tillväxt och om deras arbete bidrar till att nå hållbar utveckling. Data från alla 290 kommuner har undersökts och därefter har resultatet kategoriserats genom Swedish Standards Institutes (SIS) ledningssystem för hållbar utveckling. Därefter har resultatet analyserats genom olika teorier kopplade till hållbar utveckling. Av alla Sveriges kommuner är det enbart 27 procent som har en medvetenhet om begreppet. 11 procent har integrerat begreppet och har målsättningar kopplade till det. Genom SIS växer en bild fram där mål som rör miljö och klimatfrågor har en väldigt låg utbredning. Istället blir det tydligt att det är mål kopplade till näringsliv och lokal ekonomi som har både högst spridning och prioritet. De svenska kommunernas arbete med hållbar tillväxt bidrar inte till uppfyllandet av hållbar utveckling och frågan är om hållbar tillväxt som paradigm hjälper eller stjälper. Kanske är det dags att slopa tillväxt som begrepp helt och hållet och istället tala om det samhälle och de värden vi vill se i framtiden bortom ekonomisk tillväxt., Given the great environmental problems the world is facing, it is becoming increasingly apparent that structural changes on a bigger scale are needed to steer the world in a more sustainable direction. How we manage our economy needs to be changed in order to better integrate with the maintenance of the earth’s systems. Several of the large international organizations and leaders of many of the world’s countries hope that we through sustainable growth will be able to steer our production and consumption to more environmentally friendly forms and thus solve the climate crisis while developing the world economy. This study examines how Swedish municipalities work with sustainable growth and whether their work contributes to achieving sustainable development. Data from all 290 municipalities have been investigated and the results has been categorized through the Swedish Standards Institutes (SIS) management system for sustainable development. Subsequently, the results have been analysed through various theories linked to sustainable development. Of all the Swedish municipalities, only 27 percent have an awareness of the concept. 11 percent have integrated the concept and have goals related to it. Through SIS it becomes apparent that goals concerning environment and climate issues have a very low prevalence. Instead it becomes clear that it is goals related to business and local economy that have both the highest dispersion and priority. The Swedish municipalities' work on sustainable growth does not contribute to the fulfilment of sustainable development and the bigger question raised is whether sustainable growth as a paradigm helps or not. Perhaps it is time to abandon growth as a concept entirely and instead talk about the society and the values we want to see in the future beyond economic growth., 20190607

Med bakgrund av de stora miljöproblem världen står inför börjar det bli uppenbart för allt fler att det krävs stora strukturella förändringar för att styra världen i en mer hållbar riktning. Hur vi hanterar vår ekonomi behöver förändras för att på ett bättre sätt integreras med upprätthållandet av jordens system. Flera av de stora internationella organisationerna och ledare för många av världens länder hoppas på att vi genom hållbar tillväxt ska lyckas styra om vår produktion och konsumtion till mer miljövänliga former och på så sätt lösa klimatkrisen samtidigt som vi utvecklar världsekonomin. I denna studie undersöks hur svenska kommuner arbetar med hållbar tillväxt och om deras arbete bidrar till att nå hållbar utveckling. Data från alla 290 kommuner har undersökts och därefter har resultatet kategoriserats genom Swedish Standards Institutes (SIS) ledningssystem för hållbar utveckling. Därefter har resultatet analyserats genom olika teorier kopplade till hållbar utveckling. Av alla Sveriges kommuner är det enbart 27 procent som har en medvetenhet om begreppet. 11 procent har integrerat begreppet och har målsättningar kopplade till det. Genom SIS växer en bild fram där mål som rör miljö och klimatfrågor har en väldigt låg utbredning. Istället blir det tydligt att det är mål kopplade till näringsliv och lokal ekonomi som har både högst spridning och prioritet. De svenska kommunernas arbete med hållbar tillväxt bidrar inte till uppfyllandet av hållbar utveckling och frågan är om hållbar tillväxt som paradigm hjälper eller stjälper. Kanske är det dags att slopa tillväxt som begrepp helt och hållet och istället tala om det samhälle och de värden vi vill se i framtiden bortom ekonomisk tillväxt., Given the great environmental problems the world is facing, it is becoming increasingly apparent that structural changes on a bigger scale are needed to steer the world in a more sustainable direction. How we manage our economy needs to be changed in order to better integrate with the maintenance of the earth’s systems. Several of the large international organizations and leaders of many of the world’s countries hope that we through sustainable growth will be able to steer our production and consumption to more environmentally friendly forms and thus solve the climate crisis while developing the world economy. This study examines how Swedish municipalities work with sustainable growth and whether their work contributes to achieving sustainable development. Data from all 290 municipalities have been investigated and the results has been categorized through the Swedish Standards Institutes (SIS) management system for sustainable development. Subsequently, the results have been analysed through various theories linked to sustainable development. Of all the Swedish municipalities, only 27 percent have an awareness of the concept. 11 percent have integrated the concept and have goals related to it. Through SIS it becomes apparent that goals concerning environment and climate issues have a very low prevalence. Instead it becomes clear that it is goals related to business and local economy that have both the highest dispersion and priority. The Swedish municipalities' work on sustainable growth does not contribute to the fulfilment of sustainable development and the bigger question raised is whether sustainable growth as a paradigm helps or not. Perhaps it is time to abandon growth as a concept entirely and instead talk about the society and the values we want to see in the future beyond economic growth., 20190607

In the Global Mining Initiative, the mining industry came together to understand the industry's role inthe transition to sustainable development and to ensure its long-term contribution. The industry hassince then come a long way and improved its sustainable development performance in many areas. Buthow far has the industry been considering environmental (“strong”) sustainability in its approach? Andhow does this compare to companies in other sectors and leading organizations such as the UnitedNations, World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Global Reporting Initiative?This paper presents results from a literature review, looking at how far the mining industry hasconsidered environmental sustainability in its approach. It explores, if the current efforts of the largestmining companies are aligned with the efforts of companies from other industry sectors, as well as theposition of leading organizations.We conclude that the mining industry is not setting on the wrong sustainability paradigm at this stage,but is at risk of falling behind societal expectations on climate change and the leaders from other industrieson natural capital considerations. The industry can improve by considering the Paris Agreementin its approach to climate change, considering natural capital as an industry, e.g. through working withthe Natural Capital Coalition and more broadly by pro-actively thinking about what the consequences of“strong sustainability” would mean for their business models.

Despite the increasing popularity of the concept of entrepreneurship for sustainable development in both academia and policy making, there is no agreement on how this process should unfold and which objectives it should pursue. Perceived tensions between the paradigms of sustainability and economic development as well as alack of shared definitions and assumptions lead to ambiguous understandings of the idea of sustainable entrepreneurship. This thesis uses the theoretical framework of ecological economics to investigate a leading discourse within the field of sustainable entrepreneurship and aims toclarify the underlying assumptions and implications of the current discourse. The analysed discourse is created by SEED, a global UN partnership which promotes entrepreneurship for sustainable development with a focus on African countries. The discourse analysis is conducted according to four analytical elements as defined by Dryzek (1997: 2013). The theoretical reflection of the discourse through the lensof ecological economics and its strong sustainability paradigm functions as a foundation for the conceptualisation of strong sustainable entrepreneurship from which implications for the current sustainable entrepreneurship discourse are derived.

Despite the increasing popularity of the concept of entrepreneurship for sustainable development in both academia and policy making, there is no agreement on how this process should unfold and which objectives it should pursue. Perceived tensions between the paradigms of sustainability and economic development as well as alack of shared definitions and assumptions lead to ambiguous understandings of the idea of sustainable entrepreneurship. This thesis uses the theoretical framework of ecological economics to investigate a leading discourse within the field of sustainable entrepreneurship and aims toclarify the underlying assumptions and implications of the current discourse. The analysed discourse is created by SEED, a global UN partnership which promotes entrepreneurship for sustainable development with a focus on African countries. The discourse analysis is conducted according to four analytical elements as defined by Dryzek (1997: 2013). The theoretical reflection of the discourse through the lensof ecological economics and its strong sustainability paradigm functions as a foundation for the conceptualisation of strong sustainable entrepreneurship from which implications for the current sustainable entrepreneurship discourse are derived.

In contrast to conventional approaches the conceptualisation of sustainability as fair bequest makes it possible to consider a finite time horizon. Valuation is necessary to determine whether the bequest package that is passed on from one generation to the next is fair. Acknowledging the merits as well as the limitations of economic price theory, this paper differentiates between three classes of valuables: the essential, the useful and the unique. It is argued that a fair bequest package should contain items from each of the classes. Because the three classes are incommensurable, fairness of the bequest cannot be expressed by a single figure like a non-declining total value of the package. We then discuss which methods are appropriate for describing a bequest package with respect to its fairness.