Sustainability intervention mechanisms for managing road freight transport externalities: A systematic literature review

With road freight transport continuing to dominate global freight transport operations, there is increasing pressure on the freight transport industry and its stakeholders to address concerns over its sustainability. This paper adopts a systematic review to examine the academic literature on road freight transport sustainability between 2001 and 2018. Using content and thematic analysis, the paper identifies and categorises sustainability intervention mechanisms providing useful insights on key research applications areas and continental distribution of sustainable road freight transport (SRFT) research. In addition to the six-overarching sustainability intervention mechanism themes identified: decoupling, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), modality, operations, policy, and other, future research can explore the effectiveness of different interventions mechanisms identified in this study to improve sustainable practices across different continents

Digital twins : a critical discussion on their potential for supporting policy‐making and planning in urban logistics

Poor logistics efficiency, due to low load factors caused by high demand fragmentation, will have relevant negative consequences for cities in terms of pollution, congestion and overall city liveability. Policy-makers should equip themselves with appropriate tools to perform reliable, comprehensive and timely analyses of urban logistics scenarios, also considering upcoming (i) technological changes, (ii) business model evolutions and (iii) spatial-temporal changes these innovations will produce. This paper discusses the Digital Twin (DT) concept, illustrating the role it might play and clarifying how to properly conceive it with respect to urban freight transport policy-making and planning. The main message is that without a sound theory and knowledge with respect to the relationships linking contextual reality and choice/behaviour, it is not possible to make sense of what happens in the real world. Therefore, the joint use of behavioural and simulation models should characterise a DT within a Living Lab approach so to stimulate effective, well-informed and participated planning processes, but also to forecast both behaviour and reactions to structural changes and policy measures implementations. Keywords: digital twins, urban freight, living lab, behavioural models, policy, planningpublishedVersio

Exploring Logistics-as-a-Service to integrate the consumer into urban freight

E-commerce established the consumer as a freight actor. This new reality in the e-commerce supply chain holds economic, social, and environmental opportunities. First, logistics service providers can capitalize on the willingness to pay of consumers with tailored logistics services. Second, consumers can be confronted with the correct costs of delivery options, raising awareness and influencing their choices\u27 sustainability. Third, policymakers can steer the consumer directly, nudging their behaviour to reach urban freight policy objectives. Until now, the lack of interaction between the logistics service provider and the consumer prevented exploiting these opportunities. In this paper, we look at passenger transport, specifically the concept of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), for inspiration on how to integrate the consumer into the logistics market. We propose conceptualizations for a Logistics-as-a-Service (LaaS) platform with different levels of integration and discuss the role of various stakeholders. We conclude with a suite of research questions that deserve attention to develop further the LaaS idea and its proof of concept for consumer logistics

Living labs managing the intra-organizational knowledge exchange process when transitioning from closed to open innovation

C

Contributions to sustainable urban transport : decision support for alternative mobility and logistics concepts

Increasing transport activities in cities are a substantial driver for congestion and pollution, influencing urban populations’ health and quality of life. These effects are consequences of ongoing urbanization in combination with rising individual demand for mobility, goods, and services. With the goal of increased environmental sustainability in urban areas, city authorities and politics aim for reduced traffic and minimized transport emissions. To support more efficient and sustainable urban transport, this cumulative dissertation focuses on alternative transport concepts. For this purpose, scientific methods and models of the interdisciplinary information systems domain combined with elements of operations research, transportation, and logistics are developed and investigated in multiple research contributions. Different transport concepts are examined in terms of optimization and acceptance to provide decision support for relevant stakeholders. In more detail, the overarching topic of urban transport in this dissertation is divided into the complexes urban mobility (part A) in terms of passenger transport and urban logistics (part B) with a focus on the delivery of goods and services. Within part A, approaches to carsharing optimization are presented at various planning levels. Furthermore, the user acceptance of ridepooling is investigated. Part B outlines several optimization models for alternative urban parcel and e-grocery delivery concepts by proposing different network structures and transport vehicles. Conducted surveys on intentional use of urban logistics concepts give valuable hints to providers and decision makers. The introduced approaches with their corresponding results provide target-oriented support to facilitate decision making based on quantitative data. Due to the continuous growth of urban transport, the relevance of decision support in this regard, but also the understanding of the key drivers for people to use certain services will further increase in the future. By providing decision support for urban mobility as well as urban logistics concepts, this dissertation contributes to enhanced economic, social, and environmental sustainability in urban areas

A meta-framework for sustainability assessment

This paper addresses the distinction between integrated assessment and sustainability assessment (SA), and, using a systemic approach, outlines how to move from integrated assessment to SA. The fundamental differences may be identified at three levels: ontological, methodological and epistemological. We present a novel methodological framework for SA, based on a literature meta-review of multi-scale and multi-purpose appraisal methodologies and related methods, models, and indicators. SA is considered as a structured procedure encompassing different field-specific analytical methods and models, depending on the specific application and decision context. External inputs to the methodology are the “values” to be considered in the analysis and the (political) boundaries defined for them, including also the sustainability framework in which the analysis is carried out . Internal elements of the methodology comprise the choice of the approach (e.g. “what-if” vs. “what-to”), the scenario settings and the possible analytical tools and indicators for the numerical analysis. Uncertainty quantification tools are then key elements of the assessment framework. We discuss the relevance of and challenges for the development of SA, with a specific focus on applicability in specific decision contexts, highlighted.JRC.H.8-Sustainability Assessmen