Pioneering Work In Sustainable City Logistics
Logistics industry experts, local authorities, and researchers have launched a video that highlights their work on real world pilots to improve the efficiency of the last stage of goods delivery to businesses and homes. This will help lower the number of vehicles in city centres and residential areas, reducing congestion and CO2 levels.
Produced through EU funded project LaMiLo (last mile logistics), the video highlights how the project is exploring solutions to improve deliveries to businesses, the public sector and consumers in cities across North West Europe (NWE). These include demonstrating the environmental, economic and social benefits of consolidating deliveries and using more environmentally friendly transport options, such as electric vehicles.
Ian Short, Chief Executive at the Institute for Sustainability in the UK and LaMiLo lead partner comments: “While most organisations extend their supply chains to large retailers, many do not focus on ‘last mile’ deliveries to homes or smaller shops. Finding solutions to manage the last mile of deliveries that work for businesses, consumers and the environment is increasingly important as the way we shop continues to evolve. With 60 per cent of home deliveries failing currently, the Institute has been working with partner organisations on a range of pilots to look at how the process can be streamlined.”
The video provides an overview of the practical pilots underway across NWE, including:
– a public sector run consolidation centre pilot in Brussels that is managing retailers’ goods for consolidated delivery using low emission vehicles and demonstrating how both private and public sector organisations can work together towards efficient and sustainable urban logistics
– the London Borough of Camden’s freight consolidation scheme – the first public sector led initiative of its kind in the capital involving several other borough councils to consolidate deliveries across over 250 council buildings
– a pilot in two locations in the Netherlands testing a potential solution to the issue of failed deliveries to consumers. This includes delivering goods at a convenient time and offering a service to collect valuable, recyclable waste on the return journey.
Also highlighted in the video is the work being done through the project to engage with private and public sector organisations, as well as end users, to understand their main constraints for change and help influence their behaviour to adopt more efficient and sustainable practices.
By measuring the environmental impacts of the pilots and sharing the learning, LaMiLo will be able to achieve more efficient and coordinated freight deliveries, which, in turn, will translate into fewer trucks on our roads, reduced costs and better air quality in other cities across NWE and beyond.
LaMiLo is an INTERREG NWE IVB programme project part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
To view the video through the LaMiLo knowledge hub, click here.
