Category «Research»

Sustainable food supply chains: is shortening the answer? Maybe!

Short food supply chains (SFSCs) are increasingly getting attention in food systems research, owing to their rising popularity among consumers, producers, and policy-makers in the last few decades. Written with the aim to identify research gaps for the Horizon Europe research and innovation program, a new literature review provides a state of play of the definition …

German research: don’t blame webstores for city congestion

Delivery vans stopping everywhere, waiting trucks, and more and more traffic in the city. Will the continuing growth of online commerce lead to congestion in cities? MRU, a consulting firm specializing in the courier, express, and parcel logistics industry, did research on behalf of the German E-Commerce and Mail Order Association (Bundesverbandes E-Commerce und Versandhandel …

Air quality in Europe is improving

Better air quality has led to a significant reduction of premature deaths over the past decade in Europe. However, the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) latest official data show that almost all Europeans still suffer from air pollution, leading to about 400,000 premature deaths across the European continent.

Delivery drones: sustainable or not?

Drone technology is evolving at a fast pace and has increasing potential to compete with more traditional alternatives in a number of sectors beyond retail and delivery. Drone technology has uncertain potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from e-commerce and the logistics industry and concerns over increased noise pollution and threats to wildlife.

Research: the dark side of city logistics in developing countries

Despite an increase in academic research about city logistics in recent years, the topic of city logistics in cities in developing countries, where some of the world’s biggest metropolitan areas are located, is seldom addressed. A new article by Marei and Savy aims to appraise the unevenness of logistics development throughout the world, by comparing …

Alice presents roadmap to Physical Internet

In response to the Paris Agreement, more governments, associations, and businesses are setting bold climate targets. As set out in the European Green Deal, Europe aims to be the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. This will be achieved with a two-step approach designed to reduce CO2 emissions by 50%, if not 55%, by 2030. The …

Research: safe use of cargo bikes in city logistics

The Dutch Top Sector Logistics follows the developments of cargo bikes as a sustainable logistics alternative in city logistcs. Currently, in most countries, there is very little legislation on the design of cargo bikes in general, let alone freight cargo bikes. There is a lack of standards, so manufacturers develop cargo bikes according to their …

Amsterdam: real-time image recognition for waste collection

Keeping the streets clean in a dynamic urban environment is one of the major challenges facing the Amsterdam City Council. Amsterdam Business School researcher Maarten Sukel developed a system that can recognize waste bags and other unwanted objects lying around in the street. This system can spot the object in real-time and is based on machine …