by Walther Ploos van Amstel
Many cities aim to be fully circular by 2050. That sounds like a promise. But anyone who looks honestly at what is actually happening sees mostly well-intentioned projects that deliver little in practice. Worm hotels in neighborhood gardens. A timber auction of felled city trees. Discounts on shoe repairs via local city passes. Inspiring, yes, …
Every day, hundreds of sofas, armchairs, and chairs are left out on the streets of Dutch cities. Sometimes properly reported to the municipality, often just abandoned on the pavement. The end of a product that has served its purpose for an average of seven to seventeen years, and that, in most cases, goes straight to …
Scope 3 emissions are indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across a company’s value chain and typically account for the largest share of corporate carbon footprints. Yet they remain the least consistently reported. In their recent longitudinal study, Bauer et al. (2026) examine how Scope 3 reporting has developed among 469 global logistics companies between 2020 …
The supply chain is often described as the invisible backbone of the global economy. As long as goods circulate, trucks roll, and ships dock, no one pays much attention. But as recent years have shown, when a link breaks, the world notices immediately. For decades, logistics has been a reactive industry, fixing problems after they …
In mid-2026, the Netherlands will implement a truck toll system for all motorways, several national roads (N-roads), and certain local roads near major cities. The toll will affect all trucks over 3.5 tons, regardless of whether they have a Dutch or foreign license plate. A key part of this policy is the revenue recycling scheme, …
The city is the new battleground for food retailers. This playing field is constantly expanding due to population growth and the increasing number of workers, students, and tourists in urban areas. These consumers are a diverse group with different consumption patterns compared to traditional families who do their grocery shopping weekly. Cities are characterized by …
The Netherlands, with a less than 50% collection rate, does not meet European standards for e-waste; there is too little waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) returned by consumers and businesses. Besides better collection and processing of e-waste, reducing use by limiting consumption, extending product lifespan, reuse, and repair is essential for a circular …
The logistics sector must be net zero by 2050. But all measures proposed will create an uneven playing field with selective access to logistics capabilities, people, money, data, and energy. So how will transport companies survive? I was asked to lecture on sustainability for a group of CEOs from European transport companies. I hyperventilated. What …
We are living on a finite planet. Mankind is overstepping planetary boundaries, however. In 2021, worldwide consumption exceeded the yearly bio-capacity of the Earth (what we call the overshoot day) on the 29th of July. The situation is far worse for industrialized countries: In 2022, Belgium reached that overshoot day on the 26th of March. …
Land-use planning and policymaking are central to how communities manage their economic activity and the social and environmental impacts these activities produce. Because of this central role, enhancing land-use practices better to incorporate the needs and impacts of freight activity has a strong potential to improve the efficiency of their associated supply chains. A research …