Prof. Joris Beckers from the University of Antwerp presented GREEN-LOG at the inaugural European edition of the Urbanism Next Conference, held in Amsterdam from October 9-11, 2024.

GREEN-LOG introduced its cutting-edge decarbonising solutions for urban logistics during “The Last Mile Challenge: Innovating Urban Freight Deliveries” session. This 90-minute panel discussion brought together representatives from several EU-funded projects—DISCO, GREEN-LOG, UNCHAIN, and URBANE—sharing their experiences and lessons learned in co-creating sustainable solutions with businesses and cities to achieve zero-emission freight transport.

Urbanism Next Europe 2024, organised with Urbanism Next at the University of Oregon, TU Delft, TNO, and AMS, is the first live European edition of this U.S.-based conference series, designed to foster collaboration between practitioners and academics across disciplines for real-world impact.

More information about the conference can be found here.

“Driving systemic change through Soci(et)al Engagement for real impact” was the focal topic of the Open Living Lab Days 2024 Conference, which is a flagship annual event organized by the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL). The event took place on 25-27 September 2024 in Timisoara, Romania.

The GREEN-LOG project was represented at the conference by two research-in-progress papers presented by partners from Halmstad University.

The first paper, delivered by Melania Mihalcea, focused on using co-creative filmmaking as a method for integrating user perspectives in living lab environments. This approach, rooted in the experiences of establishing urban living labs within the GREEN-LOG project, particularly highlights the Oxfordshire case study.

The second paper, presented by Gregor Cerinšek, explored a design ethnographic approach to staging and evaluating co-creation processes in GREEN-LOG Urban Living Labs. This approach involves evaluators actively participating in co-creation from the outset, fostering iterative feedback loops that enhance both the living lab processes and future interventions. The conference proceedings, including both GREEN-LOG open-access articles, are available on the official conference website.

CIVITAS Forum 2024

The CIVITAS Forum is a dynamic, multi-day conference and the flagship event of the CIVITAS Initiative. Since its first edition in 2003, the Forum has provided an ideal platform to hear from cities, people, and projects that are driving innovation in smart, inclusive, and sustainable mobility. It also serves as a hub for exchanging ideas and connecting with urban mobility changemakers from across Europe.

This year, the event takes place in the beautiful city of Parma, Italy, from 1-3 October 2024. The Forum brings together city representatives, policymakers, practitioners, planners, academics, and mobility enthusiasts.

GREEN-LOG is proud to be among the participants of this important sustainable urban mobility event showcasing the project and its innovative solutions at the “Urban Logistics” Thematic Corner of the exhibition alongside other EU projects in the field.

More information about the CIVITAS Forum 2024 is available here.

Read more about the event here.

 

10 September 2024 – REBEL Living Lab Day

Halmstad University hosted the launch of the new Swedish Living Lab Competence Network in collaboration with the City of Helsingborg and the local government of Halland County (Region Halland). The network includes higher education institutions, governmental authorities, civil society organisations, and industry partners. The event focused on exploring Living Labs as future concepts for learning, co-design, and experimentation activities. The GREEN-LOG project was one of three EU-funded projects showcased during the launch event.

 

Read more about the event here.

 

11 September 2024 – Halmstad University Innovation Conference

The GREEN-LOG project was presented at the Halmstad University Innovation Conference by Dr. Gregor Cerinšek. This annual event, held every September, showcases projects where Halmstad University is represented. This year’s theme was “Ripples on Water,” emphasising collaboration, with ample opportunities for networking.

 

Read more about the event here.

 

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.

Our partner Ioannis Karakikes from the University of the Aegean (UAEGEAN) presented GREEN-LOG Athens Living Lab use cases at the 7th Conference on Sustainable Mobility 2024. This international event took place on 4-6 September 2024 at Plastira’s Lake, Karditsa, Greece.

The paper titled “Integrating a White-Label Scheme Service for a Shared Micro Consolidation Center in Athens, Greece” and co-authored by UAEGEAN and MOBY, aims to explore and analyse the integration and impact of a white-label scheme in the operation of a shared micro consolidation center in an urban setting, specifically in the center of Athens, Greece. The paper is planned to be published in CSUM proceedings in early 2025.

More information about the conference is available at https://csum.civ.uth.gr/

On 3 September 2024, GREEN-LOG held its first review meeting in Brussels hosted by the project coordinator Netcompany-Intrasoft.

The project partners presented the achievements of the significant work implemented in the first 18 months and discussed the challenges faced and the next steps that will be done.

We thank all the GREEN-LOG partners for their dedication & great work and look forward in the next period with enthusiasm ready to keep working hard towards more sustainable last-mile logistics!

GREEN-LOG partner ASC SMSA represented by Mr. Panagiotis Kanellopoulos gave a lecture under the topic “ACS last mile: Innovation perspectives and challenges” at the 3^rd Summer School of Digital Supply Chain and Logistics Management. As a part of the ASC SMSA presentation, the GREEN-LOG project and its Athens Living Lab were showcased and explained to students & professionals.

Organised by the Hellenic Institute of Transport (CERTH/HIT) and the Laboratory of Supply Chain Management (LASCM/AUTH), the summer school was held in Thessaloniki, Greece, from 1st July to 5th July 2024.

More information about the summer school is available at https://dsclm.imet.gr/

The GREEN-LOG project was presented at the University of Wolverhampton Festival of Research and Innovation, which welcomed visitors from around the world over three days of events (16th – 18th July, 2024). Along with many other successful international projects at the University, GREEN-LOG was explained to staff, students, local businesses and the public with demonstrations and a keynote lecture by Prof Panagiotis Georgakis.

Continued growth in online shopping and increasing demands for lower exhaust emissions and reduced traffic congestion make sustainable last-mile deliveries crucial for legislators, retailers, logistics firms and consumers.

GREEN-LOG is developing and testing a novel Logistics as a Service marketplace (LaaS) making use of real-time big data to link demand (e.g., urban freight shipments, on-demand requirements from consumers and local business) and supply (i.e. sustainable logistics services operators, operators of consolidation centers and delivery lockers etc.) in order to improve the sustainability of city logistics. The system is using state-of-the-art AI to model and predict delivery volumes over time and location. The system will be trialled in Living Lab areas across Europe and the UK, working in partnership with local retailers and national logistics companies.

The LaaS marketplace integrates dynamic pricing mechanisms which will provide the means for shippers and receivers of goods to adjust logistics services according to their preferences and local policy influences. Consumers (including business users) will be incentivised through variable pricing mechanisms to adjust their delivery preferences while considering sustainability goals. The result will be a real-time dynamic demand management system able to optimise deliveries, reducing empty loads and mitigating delivery peaks, optimally managing road transport and alleviating congestion and traffic.

The Festival of Research and Innovation features a dynamic programme of activities annually, including keynote speeches, interactive workshops, panel discussions, and poster presentations. Attendees have the opportunity to engage with researchers, learn about cutting-edge developments in various fields, and explore the impact of the University’s research on society and industry. This year’s Festival showcased interdisciplinary projects which dealt with Net Zero, Smart Cities and advances in EV technologies, accompanied by 40 PhD research posters and the Green IT Conference.

More information about the event is available at https://bit.ly/3yHXMzJ. 

GREEN-LOG has been prominently featured in Logistics & Management, a leading Greek magazine specializing in logistics and the related markets. The article, authored by our partners Ioannis Avgerinos and Dimitris Zissis from the Athens University of Economics and Business, introduces the GREEN-LOG project and outlines the innovative work to be carried out at the Athens Living Lab.

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