The Horizon Europe GREEN-LOG project consortium is excited to announce the successful completion of its first 18-month phase, achieving a key milestone in the project’s life course. The consortium has released the first version of its technical tools & services and finalised the demonstration plan for five urban Living Labs, which are in charge of designing, testing and validating these solutions.
GREEN-LOG aims to transform last-mile delivery by implementing economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable logistics practices. The project brings together 30 partners using cutting-edge technology to develop and deploy real-world solutions across diverse urban logistics environments. The five Living Labs – Athens (Greece), Barcelona (Spain), Flanders (Belgium), Oxfordshire (UK), and Ispra (Italy) – will serve as the primary test sites for these innovations.
Blueprints for Sustainable Last-Mile Solutions
By analysing the urban contexts and mobility patterns in these cities and areas, GREEN-LOG identified key factors impacting urban freight and service demands, such as city layout, population density, infrastructure, regulatory frameworks, and technological readiness. The project’s co-creative and collaborative approach, involving local governments, research institutions, and logistics professionals, led to the creation of practical and scalable logistics solutions tailored to each city’s needs.
These efforts culminated in the development of comprehensive blueprints specifying and providing innovations that will be integrated and deployed in each demonstration case providing environmental sustainability and improving urban living standards.
Innovative Delivery Methods and Deployment
During project’s first 18 months, GREEN-LOG released an alpha version of tools designed to optimise last-mile deliveries. The key developments (alpha version) include:
- GREEN-LOG data space for managing project and Living Labs data;
- AI algorithms to predict logistics demand for various scenarios;
- Optimisation models for scheduling daily deliveries via Micro-Consolidation Centres (MCCs);
- Simulation platforms for evaluating long-term planning and what-if scenarios.
These innovations are expected to reduce congestion, exhaust emissions, and response times, significantly enhancing the sustainability of last-mile delivery.
Real-Time and Connected Services
Last-mile logistics face ongoing challenges due to real-time disruptions. In this vein, GREEN-LOG has developed services and a user-friendly interface that balance the needs of logistics providers, clients, and local authorities. These services are designed to bridge the gap between demand and supply by incorporating a dynamic pricing framework and nudging mechanisms. These mechanisms reward clients with credits while providing logistics providers with advanced toolsets aimed at optimising their operational efficiency. The key innovations introduced include:
- GREEN-LOG Logistic-as-a-Service (LaaS) Marketplace;
- A flexible and modular collection of Software Development Kits (SDKs) integrated into Bring your own Device (BYOD) for on-line real-time tracking;
- Nowcasting and forecasting services for near-now and short-term transport demand and traffic pattern predictions;
- A toolset for reactive routing of transport requests to reduce travel time.
The first version of the services was successfully delivered in June 2024.
Living Labs Demonstration Planning
Each Living Lab is developing customised solutions tailored to its urban ecosystem, guided by a shared set of high-quality pilot implementation standards. A roadmap for the first trials, set to begin in Q4 2024 in a controlled environment, is already in place, involving consortium partners and external stakeholders. After these trials, an evaluation will refine the solutions for the final round of real-life testing.
Additionally, the project will involve three follower cities experiencing rapid economic and social change – Arad, Helsingborg, and Valga – that will test the transferability of GREEN-LOG’s innovations.
The outcomes of these trials will be assessed for their economic, environmental, and social impacts, setting the stage for broader adoption.
The relevant project deliverables will be available on our website upon their approval by the European Commission.
Go to the respective Press Release.
