Road transport constitutes the highest proportion of overall transport emissions - emitting 76% of all EU’s transport GHG emissions in 2021, according to the European Environment Agency. While current literature indicates that urban logistics and freight transport is not a topic which sparks strong interest from local authorities in their planning strategies, the understanding of the impact (environmental, economic, societal) of how we transport goods is of key importance to achieve climate-neutral and smart cities across Europe and the world. Based on the current demand pathway, global freight is foreseen to triple between 2015 and 2050, with a major impact on cities where 70% of the world population is expected to live in 2050. For these reasons, it is crucial that local stakeholders, including municipalities and logistics players, get to grips with the subject of urban logistics and the challenge of reducing its environnemental impact.
DECARBOMILE aims to trigger an unprecedented improvement of the green last mile logistics in Europe, based on 5 pillars: (1) collaboration, (2) sustainable business models, (3) urban integration and space management optimisation,(4) regulation, and (5) digitalisation. The project global objective is to demonstrate the full potential of decarbonised last mile logistics and promote sustainable practices in the industry to reduce transport externalities. The three specific objectives are targeting technical, social and environmental aspects, and are achieved by developing innovative delivery vehicles, fostering collaborative processes among stakeholders and creating sustainable business models.
The solutions developed in DECARBOMILE include an innovative framework for collaboration through a digital platform, co-creation methodologies, ICT and IoT tools, as well as improved delivery methods such as (micro) urban consolidation centres, smart lockers, innovations on cargo bikes, and an electric barge for urban freight in inland waterways. The implementation of these solutions have been prepared from WPs 1 to 6, paving the way for the implementation phase of these more sustainable and optimised urban logistics schemes. WPs 7 and 8 (ongoing) are dedicated to the use cases implementation and the evaluation of the key performance indicators of each model in place. These solutions will be fully implemented in four living labs (in Logroño - Spain, Nantes -France, Hamburg - Germany and Istanbul - Türkiye), including 3 currently in testing phase. Four additional satellites cities (Tallinn - Estonia, Getafe - Spain, Ghent - Belgium and Sarajevo - Bosnia and Herzegovina) are involved at a smaller scale to either pre-test or study the replicability potential of the solutions in their local contexts. The European scale of the experimentations in eight different countries give the project a broad scope that puts DECARBOMILE as the trigger of an unprecedented improvement of the green last mile logistics in Europe.
