Sustainable logistics
Sustainable logistics at Mobilise
With the Sustainable logistics team we go back to the core of sustainability. Indeed to make logistics sustainable and future-proof, you need to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Our research targets the three main concepts of the above definition set by the Club of Rome: the current needs, the compromising aspect and the future needs.
The current needs in logistics are set by todays practice and related best practices. To capture these current needs, the Sustainable Logistics Group is working on a daily basis together with the industry, policy and NGO's. We incorporate business as usal and evolving knowledge from academic literature into innovating projects like:
- the Ecozone with Bpost in which the delivery of the future is tested.
- the living lab environment of the Brussels Construction Consolidation Center
- the digital twin environments for synchromodal transport of the PILL and Dispatch projects
- the European project MIMIC in which construction logistics is researched
- or the European project Cairgobike in which the right ecosystem for cargobikes is created.
This list represents well some of the key logistics domains of the group: e-commerce, last mile logistics, construction logistics and inter- and synchro-modal transport.
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Tools & methods
Freight transport is generating externalities (like air pollution, CO2, accidents, congestion, etc.) with related compromising effects. Mobilise uses the External Cost Calculator to calculate and monetarize the sustainibility impact of logistics activities. The calculator has been used for many actors like Nike, Colruyt, Port of Brussels or AB Inbev, and it forms the basis for the Lean & Green (Star) evaluations and the Logistics Sustainability Index ©. The calculator creates awareness, which leads to sustainable choices. One of such choices is avoiding transport activities. Mobilise is researching transport demand (circular logistics, reverse logistics, short supply chains), bundling (consolidation centers) and reducing driven kilometers thanks to vehicle routing improvements. Next, comes act & shift. Transport should be allocated to the most sustainable transport modes. Mobilise is a leading expert in the field of intermodal and synchromodal transport. SYMBIT is a tri-modal agent-based transport model allowing to research the potential and impact of sychromodal supply chains. Lastly, you can anticipate new technologies. Mobilise is researching electric and autonomous logistics solutions.
By simulating the future, Mobilise wants to generate insights to enable sustainable decision making. Mobilise is able to perform sustainability assessment of future or hypothetical situations thanks to its inhouse simulation model TRABAM. This agent-based transport model for Belgium calculates both internal and external transport costs. Additionally, decision making considers the stakeholders involved and their criteria to prevent future friction and protest. The group is developing and applying user behavior and elicitation methods and Multi-Actor-Multi-Criteria Analysis (MAMCA©) to support sustainable decision making.
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Ongoing projects
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Completed projects
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Results
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