The world is experiencing an unparalleled growth in last-mile transport following the unprecedented growth of e-commerce. The steep curve is expected to continue in the years to come, fueled by a multitude of factors related to societal changes and technological advancements. This new e-commerce reality brings a number of challenges to urban and peri-urban ecosystems and puts immense pressure on courier companies for seamless servicing of higher volume home deliveries.
Against this backdrop, the Horizon Europe-funded GREEN-LOG project aims to accelerate systemic changes and create last-mile delivery ecosystems that are economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable.
GREEN-LOG will offer Logistics-as-a-Service platforms for interconnected city logistics, automated delivery concepts using autonomous vehicles and delivery droids, cargo-bike-based innovations for sustainable micro-consolidation, and multimodal parcel deliveries integrating public transportation. The solutions will be supported by networked city logistics dataspaces that supply dynamic services for proactive ecosystem optimisation while respecting the interests of stakeholders including consumers, businesses, and the city.
The GREEN-LOG approach provides a cutting-edge simulation environment for scenario building combining different solutions to enable the integration of last-mile delivery interventions with the highest possible impact on environmental sustainability and traffic reduction, also considering their financial viability.
The approach will be deployed and validated in five Urban Living Labs (LLs) covering EU regions with different Urban Logistics characteristics, and varying challenges:
- LL#1 Athens (Greece) | Multi-stakeholder collaborations for shared MCCs and optimized cargo-bike use
- LL#2 Barcelona (Spain) | Multimodal last-mile deliveries
- LL#3 Flanders (Gent, Leuven and Mechelen) | Last mile Urban Logistics as a Service
- LL#4 Oxfordshire (the UK) | Next generation last mile delivery integrating cargo-bikes and AVs
- LL#5 Ispra (Italy) | Next generation last mile delivery integrating delivery robots
These inclusive stakeholder Urban LLs will act as city platforms for nurturing social innovation, understanding of user needs, habits and preferences, co-designing, and deploying of last-mile delivery solutions while allowing the most effective exchange of ideas.
Three follower cities (Arad – Romania, Helsingborg – Sweden, Valga – Estonia) that experience rapid economic and social change and are highly interested in tailoring and replicating GREEN-LOG solutions will benefit from intensive transferability acceleration actions.
GREEN-LOG is co-funded by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), a funding body which was launched in 2021 to advance the European Green Deal through high-quality programme management.
Stay tuned for more developments towards an era of optimized zero emission last-mile logistics.