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This exploratory study aims to analyze the CR reporting by eleven largest forest products companies in North America. Both annual reports and sustainability reports produced in year 2006 by eleven largest forest products companies in North America were chosen for this very study. To ensure the comparability of the results, the study adopts the similar variables in operationalizations by Routto (2008), who studied the CR reporting of European forest products companies. The methodology applied in the study is content analysis. Mean, T-test and One-way Anova analysis were used in data analysis. Though all the three pillars of CR (economic, environmental, and social) were covered in their CR reporting, the North American companies seem to give more weight to Social Focus, followed by Economic Focus and Environmental Focus respectively, whereas the largest European companies considered Environmental Focus as the most important area, Social Focus the second, whereas Economic Focus was least emphasized. A number of notable differences and similarities between the European companies and the North American companies towards CR reporting were also identified. For example, the North American companies obviously seek for more efforts to co-operate with interest groups and business partners to ensure responsible actions than the European companies. The European companies emphasize energy consumption more frequently than the North American companies. Neither the European companies nor the North American companies perceived environmental welfare at the expense of corporate profits an important element concerning Economic Focus. It would be interesting to note that neither the European companies nor the North American companies considered shareholders, NGOs and forest owners as primary target audience groups in their CR reporting, since the communication benefits were not frequently mentioned for these stakeholder groups. The study also observes some variation of CR practices within a common industrial and cultural environment. The results suggest that the US companies seem to particularly emphasize a number of issues more than the Canadian companies, namely: 1) Business behavior, 2) Social principles & guidelines, 3) Internal communication, 4) Social focus, 5) External communication, and 6) Audience. No significant difference was found concerning Social & ethical accounting and Economic focus between the US companies and the Canadian companies. Sector of Integrated forest products placed notably much more weight on Social & ethical accounting than Sectors of Consumer products and Sector of Pulp & paper & packaging in this study, whereas no other significant difference was indicated by the pair-wise comparison of means between Sector and the nine summative variables respectively. In addition, sustainability reports seem to have much clear focus on environmental-related issues than annual reports, whereas issues concerning Social Focus and External Communication received more attention in annual reports than in sustainability reports. No further significant difference was suggested between Type of report and the nine summative variables in this study. In short, the comparison between the reports by North American companies and those by the European companies showed some regional variations in CR reporting. These regional characteristics include 1) the emphasis on Social Focus by North American companies, and Environmental Focus by European companies, 2) the emphasis on partnership by North American companies, and workplace safety by European companies, 3) the emphasis on employees’ benefits by North American companies, and customers’ benefits by European companies, 4) the emphasis on commitment of top management to CR by North American companies, and existence of CR policy statements by European companies, 5) the emphasis on recycled raw materials by North American companies, and energy consumption by European companies, and 6) the emphasis on profitability by North American companies, and investing to socially/environmentally responsible targets by European companies. Such differences could also be argued to be related to the different institutional arrangements in the regions. The comparison between different sectors suggests that, Sector of Integrated forest products emphasized Social & Ethical Accounting more than Sector of Consumer products and Sector of Pulp & paper & packaging, whereas Sector of Consumer products paid more attention to Economic Focus issues than the other two sectors. The results also suggests that, sustainability reports emphasized Environmental Focus more than annual reports, whereas annual reports clearly focused on Social Focus and External Communication more than sustainability reports.

Need for higher productivity motivates and forces farmers to adapt new technological solutions. Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have enabled several solutions to increase efficiency specially in field operations in terms of assisted or automatic steering, yield monitoring and precision farming. Accuracy of raw GNSS-data is poor and not suitable for any field operation. Methods to minimize error caused by different sources are in conclusive role to adapt positioning solutions to agriculture and to field operations. Aim of this study was to compare different GNSS correction methods by means of static and dynamic measurements. Results of the measurements occurred that high precision is achievable. Ground Based Augmentation Systems (GBAS) were more precise (RTK base station, AgriVRS and Centerpoint RTX) than Space Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) (Omnistar G2 and Egnos). RMS values in 8 hour static measurements were between 0.004 and 0.406 m. Autonomic positioning RMS value was 1.014 m. In dynamic measurements scale was from 1.610 m to 0.015 m. Correction methods performed better in relative positioning than in repeating same position in subsequent days. Automatic steering is possible with every correction method. When using paid license corrections accuracy rises. Accuracy should be chosen by need of the field work, for example seeding needs higher accuracy than broadcasting of fertilizer. Due to Northern location of Finland SBAS are not available everywhere. Correction sent from satellite can be blocked for example by tree line. Also radio signal is hard to utilise in data transfer due to scattered field structure. Finland has excellent cellular network. Corrections loaded via cellular to receiver were available in test sites most practically.

Ilmastonmuutoksen aiheuttamien riskien hallinta on nyt ja tulevaisuudessa tärkeää. Tämä tutkielma keskittyy antamaan tietoa päätöksenteon tueksi ilmastonmuutoksen aiheuttamien hydrometeorologisten riskien hallintaan, joita ilmastonmuutos aiheuttaa vedenlaadussa Puruvedellä. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on arvioida jatkuvapeitteisen metsän kasvatuksen (CCF) ja suojavyöhykkeiden soveltuvuutta luontopohjaisiksi ratkaisuiksi (NBS), joilla saadaan pidettyä järven vedenlaatu nykyisellään tai parantamaan sitä. Tutkimuskysymys on: ”Onko taloudellisesti järkevää käyttää jatkuvapeitteistä metsän kasvatusta ja suojavyöhykkeitä ravinnekuormituksen vähentämiseen tutkimusalueella, jotta vedenlaatu alueella säilyy vähintään nykyisellä tasolla” Aiempi tutkimus on osoittanut jatkuvapeitteisen metsänkasvatuksen olevan taloudellisesti varteenotettava vaihtoehto kasvattaa metsää. Lisäksi tutkimus on osoittanut, että CCF ja suojavyöhykkeillä voidaan vähentää vesistöihin kohdistuvaa ravinnekuormitusta metsämailta. Näistä NBS:istä aiheutuvia kustannuksia ja hyötyjä arvioidaan tutkielmassa kustannus-hyötyanalyysin keinoin, jossa tarkoituksena on laskea projektista johtuvat hyödyt ja kustannukset ja verrata näiden nettonykyarvoa. Mikäli projektista seuraava yhteiskunnan nettohyöty on positiivinen, tulisi projektia suositella. Tutkimusalueen virkistysarvo arvioitiin käyttämällä hyödyksi Luonnonvarakeskuksen aiempia arvottamistutkimuksia. Virkistysarvoja verrattiin NBS:stä aiheutuviin taloudellisiin menetyksiin metsänomistajille. Kustannukset saatiin hyödyntämällä kokoluokka-rakenteista metsän optimointimallia. Tavoitteena oli selvittää, mikä on metsästä saatava maksimoitu tuotto metsänomistajille ja verrata sitä optimointitulokseen, jossa päätehakkuu on rajoitettu. Tämän lisäksi suojavyöhykkeillä olevan metsän maksimoitu arvo laskettiin, josta saadaan suoraan metsänomistajille aiheutuva menetys, koska alueet poistuvat kokonaan metsätalouden piiristä. Jatkuvapeitteinen metsänkasvatus oli kummassakin tapauksessa taloudellisesti optimaalinen tapa kasvattaa metsää. Tämän lisäksi arvioitu yhteiskunnan nettohyöty projektista on positiivinen, joten NBS:iä voidaan tältä perusteelta suositella keinoiksi vedenlaadun säilyttämiseksi tutkimusalueella. Tutkimuksen tuloksiin on kuitenkin suhtauduttava varauksella, koska analyysiä tehtäessä tutkimusalueen ravinteiden huuhtoutumismallit ovat vielä tekeillä, joiden valmistuttua tarkempi tieto NBS:ien vaikutuksista on saatavilla.

Anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations have raised alarmingly high in the atmosphere during the last century and there is an urgent need for cost-effective climate policies to tackle climate crisis. European Union’s Emission Trading System (EU ETS) is the major market instrument for decreasing the emitted greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively in the European Union. In addition, EU member states apply complementary and partly overlapping policies with EU ETS. Such demand-reducing policies do not affect the total amount of emissions at the EU level when the emission cap is binding because of the observed “waterbed effect”. However, the effectiveness of overlapping demand-reducing policies has changed due to the implemented Market Stability Reserve, which absorbs allowances from the market while endogenizing the emission cap. Furthermore, market agents can unilaterally cancel emission allowances from the market to tighten the emission cap. Previously Finnish Government committed to phase-out coal by 2029 in order to decarbonize the national energy system. However, there is no full certainty regarding to what extent does the Finnish coal ban reduce total emission at the EU level. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to quantify the cumulative impact of Finnish coal ban and its effectiveness to reduce emission at the EU level. This thesis determines how many allowances shall be unilaterally cancelled at different years to guarantee that the coal ban has a full effect on the total emissions at the EU level. A scenario analysis is conducted through model simulations to showcase how the effectiveness of coal ban could be maximized while minimizing the costs related to unilateral cancellation. This thesis contributes to the limited literature on unilateral cancellations as an instrument to strengthen the effectiveness of overlapping demand-reducing policies within the EU ETS. The results show that the unilateral cancellation is more cost-effective when implemented after the MSR has stopped absorbing allowances from the market because until then, the unilateral cancellation policies are rather low in cost-effectiveness. In addition, earlier the coal phase-out policies are implemented the higher is the effectiveness of the coal ban due to the higher synergies between Market Stability Reserve and demand-reducing policies.

This study aims to find out if differentiation of the features of the 4P of the product milk can create value to customers in a particular customer segment. Creating value is in the core in every company´s actions. Customers buy products and services that create value to them and are willing to pay from the value they get. The more the product creates value, the more the customers are willing to pay. This study focused on the customer segment of young women with academic background who live in the capital region. Milk is a bulk product consumed widely in Finland. The product also has significant role in the nutritional history of the country and has a big role in Finnish nutritional recommendations. However the consumption of milk has decreased over the years. The theoretical background of this study is based on the following theories: marketing strategy and the 4P, customer value and differentiation. These theories formed the theoretical framework which gave the focus to the empirical experiment. The approach of the study was qualitative because qualitative research aims to understand the phenomenon it studies and the approach is more suitable for analysing verbal data. Qualitative research wants to get a deeper understanding and it gives room for individual´s thoughts and experience. The study was executed and a group interview using theme interview methods. For the study chosen features of the 4P of the product milk were differentiated and group interview focused on them. The differentiated features were the following. For product organic milk and milk with added protein, for price milk with a lower price, for place online shopping and for promotion advertising milk on social media. The findings of this study were that in some cases differentiation of the features if the 4P of the product milk can create value for customers but in most cases it does not. The focus group felt that the most valuable differentiated feature of the 4P was organically produced milk and other factors that supported the well-being of the production animals and the environment. If a company selling or producing milk tries to create value to its customers through differentiation of the features of the 4P, it needs to consider carefully which features to focus on.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a popular organism in the production of biofuels, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. This is thanks to a good understanding of its metabolism, GRAS status and the ease of modification. Traditionally its genetic modification has been based on the use of selectable markers. Modifying multi gene pathways has required a sequential process consisting of multiple single gene disruptions together with marker recycling. Additionally, many industrial S. cerevisiae strains are polyploid and lack the same tools for their modification as laboratory strains. In this study we sought to develop CRISPR/Cas9 based genetic engineering method for the modification of industrial S. cerevisiae strains. The CRISPR/Cas9 system is based on the adaptive immunity system of bacteria. It makes use of the Cas9 endonuclease which produces double stranded DNA brake to any location determined by a gRNA molecule. This causes the activation of DNA repair mechanisms which can be utilized to for the genomic integration of a template DNA. This makes transformation events much more likely and thus enables producing multiple modifications at once and removes the need for the of use selectable markers. In our approach Cas9 and gRNA were transformed into the cell in a plasmid together with a separate template DNA molecule. We used this method to remove lyp1, ura3 and can1 genes from diploid and polyploid industrial S. cerevisiae strains multiple genes at a time. Simultaneously we evaluated the effect of the NHEJ repair mechanism on CRISPR/Cas9 by repeating the tests with a deletion strain missing the ku70 gene required by NHEJ. Finally the method was used for the metabolic engineering by integrating the five gene violacein metabolic pathway into two loci in a single transformation event. This study demonstrated the CRISPR/Cas9 method is well suited for the modification of industrial S. cerevisiae strains and is capable of modifying up to three loci at a time in a polyploid yeast strain.

The objectives of the study were to assess the efficiency of transient expression of sgRNA/Cas9 construct in Petunia V26, where sgRNA targeted a cytosine deaminase gene (CodA) that converts 5-fluorocytosine into the toxic compound 5-fluorouracil. Disrupting CodA by transient expression of sgRNA/Cas9 introduced a conditional negative selection system that allowed plants with mutated CodA to regenerate on media containing 5-fluorocytosine. The single transcriptional unit vector pMOH2 was designed to carry two amplified sgRNAs guiding Cas9 targeting at HinfI cutting sites. The expression vector was transformed into Petunia V26 using Agrobacterium tumefaciens (pGV2260). Successful mutations were detected on 62.5 mg/L 5-fluorocytosine. Large numbers of in vitro shoots were regenerated from the transformed leaves on a modified MS-media containing 1 mg/L zeatin. The study revealed that transient expression of the sgRNA/Cas9 construct is efficient and can be used to target other genes in Petunia V26. pMOH2 targeted its sites successfully, and proved that CodA can be used as a conditional negative selection marker to detect cells with an edited genome.

Cronobacter spp. are opportunistic human pathogens. They can cause infections in infants and illness in older children and adults. There is also a high case fatality rate. Cronobacter spp. are found in dried foods, such as powdered infant formulas and Cronobacter spp. have caused serious cases of infection in worldwide. Therefore, Cronobacter spp. should not be present in powdered infant formulas that reach consumers. Cronobacter do not survive heat treatment. It is therefore likely that Cronobacter will migrate to the product from the environment or from heat-sensitive nutrients added after pasteurization. The data for the study was collected from the production control systems of the powder plants. Data was used for the period 2018-2020. Two powder plants, Plant A and Plant B were compared. Cronobacter results of environmental were compared with different climate variables using regression analysis, for example. Statistical analysis was performed with Minitab software. It was investigated whether the positive Cronobacter results were related to the microbiological results in the products. One subject of the review was whether seasonal variability was present in Cronobacter environmental samples. It was also examined whether explanatory factors were found for the Cronobacter results of individual targets. Based on the results of the study, there was no clear relationship between positive environmental sample results and weather conditions. Seasonal variation is also unrelated to environmental sample results. There was no statistical association between positive Cronobacter environmental results and microbiological results of the products. When examining the sampling targets, most of the positive results were found in the floor sampling targets. Based on the results, it would be a good idea to consider whether it is necessary to make changes in the hygiene areas or tighten the hygiene requirements. The use of additional shoe covers should be on option, for example. The prevention of Cronobacter in the environment is particularly important. Possible contamination of the products poses not only health risks but also financial damage. Rejection of production batches due to Cronobacter contamination can be economically significant.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly important topic in forest industries, and other global companies, in recent years. Globalisation, faster information delivery and demand for sustainable development have set new challenges for global companies in their business operations. Also the importance of stakeholder relations, and pressure to become more transparent has increased in the forest industries. Three dimensions of corporate responsibility economic, environmental and social, are often included in the concept of CSR. Global companies mostly claim that these dimensions are equally important. This study analyses CSR in forest industry and has focus on reporting and implementation of social responsibility in three international companies. These case-companies are Stora Enso, SCA and Sappi, and they have different geographical base, product portfolios and therefore present interesting differences about forest industry strategy and CSR. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has created the most known and used reporting framework in CSR reporting. GRI Guidelines have made CSR reporting a uniform function, which can also be measured between companies and different sectors. GRI Guidelines have also made it possible to record and control CSR data in the companies. In recent years the use of GRI Guidelines has increased substantially. Typically CSR reporting on economic and environmental responsibility have been systematic in the global companies and often driven by legistlation and other regulations. However the social responsibility has been less regulated and more difficult to compare. Therefore it has previously been often less focused in the CSR reporting of the global companies. The implementation and use of GRI Guidelines have also increased dialogue on social responsibility issues and stakeholder management in global companies. This study analyses the use of GRI´s framework in the forest industry companies´ CSR reporting. This is a qualitative study and the disclosure of data is empricially analysed using content analysis. Content analysis has been selected as a method for this study because it makes it possible to use different sources of information. The data of this study consists of existing academic literature of CSR, sustainability reports of thecase-companies during 2005-2009, and the semi-structured interviews with company representatives. Different sources provide the possibility to look at specific subject from more than one viewpoint. The results of the study show that all case-companies have relatively common themes in their CSR disclosure, and the differences rise mainly from their product-portfolios, and geographic base. Social impacts to local communities, in the CSR of the companies, were mainly dominated by issues concerning creating wealth to the society and impacting communities through creation of work. The comparability of the CSR reporting, and especially social indicators increased significally from 2007 onwards in all case-companies. Even though the companies claim that three dimensions of CSR economic, environmental and social are equally important economic issues and profit improvement still seem to drive most of the operations in the global companies. Many issues that are covered by laws and regulations are still essentially presented as social responsibility in CSR. However often the unwelcome issues in companies like closing operations are covered just briefly, and without adequate explanation. To make social responsibility equally important in the CSR it would demand more emphasis from all the case-companies. A lot of emphasis should be put especially on the detail and extensiveness of the social reponsibility content in the CSR.

Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on tutkia asiakkaiden havaintoja palvelun laatuun ja yrityksen imagoon liittyen. Laatuun ja imagoon liittyvät näkökohdat liittyvät tutkimuksessa Metso konsernin OneMetso konseptiin. Tutkimuksen kohteena olevat asiakasyritykset edustavat sellu- ja paperiteollisuutta sekä voimantuotantoa. Käsitteistöltään tutkimus perustuu laatua ja yrityksen imagoa käsittelevään kirjallisuuteen. Kirjallisuuskatsaus esittelee laatuun ja erityisesti palveluiden laatuun liittyviä erityispiirteitä. Olemassa oleva palveluiden laatua koskeva kirjallisuus perustuu pitkälti yritysten ja yksityishenkilöiden väliseen suhteeseen ja teoreettiselta pohjaltaan SERVQUAL tai Nordic model malleihin. Edellä mainittujen mallien ulottuvuuksia on hyödynnetty myös tässä tutkimuksessa, mutta painotus on yritysten välisessä (B2B) asiayhteydessä. Tämän alan tutkimuksia on tehty viime vuosikymmenenä. Tutkimuksen tulokset perustuvat kyselytutkimukseen joka on tehty Metson sellu- ja paperi sekä voimantuotannon asiakkaille. Kyselyn on tehnyt puhelinhaastatteluihin erikoistunut yritys. Kyselytutkimuksen vastaukset on tässä tutkimuksessa tilastollisesti analysoitu käyttäen ei-parametrista testausmenetelmää. Perustuen vastausten jakaumaan käytetty testausmenetelmä kaikille kysymyksille oli riippumattomien näytteiden Mann-Whitneyn U testi. Tilastollisen testauksen tuloksien perusteella nollahypoteesi hylätään kahdessa asiakkaille esitetyssä kysymyksessä kaikkiaan neljästätoista. Automation ja Power segmenttien asiakkaiden havainnot ovat yhteneviä useimmissa laatuun liittyvistä kysymyksistä. Saadut tulokset tukevat Metson One Metso konseptia. Jatkotutkimuksen aiheena toimisi keskittyminen yrityksen nykyisiin muuttuneisiin segmentteihin syventäen samallamkyselyn laatunäkökohtia.