Environment - LIFE by Theme

Eco-delivery carries hope to Europe’s choking cities

Eco-friendly, zero-pollution
electric vehicles used
to ferry goods
(photo: LIFE05 ENV/IT/000870).

The urban goods delivery cycle has been one of the principal sources of pollution and energy consumption in cities. Nevertheless, most efforts by European cities to tackle traffic congestion and its related noise and air pollution have paid little attention to this aspect of the problem.

This LIFE project sought to address this specific issue in the ancient city of Lucca in Tuscany, northern Italy. The city is famous for its historic centre surrounded by Renaissance-era walls which have remained intact as the city has expanded outside them. In its centre, the rectangular grid of the old Roman street plan has also been preserved. However, the thousands of different modern commercial activities carried out in the city, all requiring goods delivery links, are putting significant strain on this heritage.

In recent years, the city has already invested significant resources trying to reduce the environmental and social impact of traffic pollution. Building on these efforts, the local authority applied for and received LIFE funding to develop a new model for a more environmentally friendly goods-distribution process. It developed a particularly innovative way of keeping polluting delivery vehicles out of the city centre.

The project’s approach was to establish a goods transport hub just outside the city centre area. Conventional diesel transport delivered all those goods destined for businesses located in the centre to the hub. A fleet of eco-friendly, zero-pollution electric vehicles based at the hub then ferried the goods onward to their final city-centre destination. A similar system brought out goods travelling the opposite way. The result was a dramatic fall in all types of pollution and a reduction in the number of circulating vehicles.

Success depended not simply upon establishing the hub – the Centre of Eco-Friendly Freight Distribution – but also achieving the cooperation of the wide range of actors involved in the logistics process so that a new distribution chain could be successfully implemented. This meant regulators, technology experts and transport operators working together to achieve a groundbreaking new system.

A sophisticated IT system was established at the hub to coordinate needs of suppliers and customers. Terminals were installed on board the distribution vehicles. By optimizing loads on the project eco-fleet and by careful planning of routes, the system was able to reduce numbers of required vehicles as well as keeping the traditional polluting vehicles out the area altogether.

From the small-scale pilot project, calculations have been made of the potential environmental benefits of the full-scale implementation of the distribution methodology. Based on a reduction of 1/3-2/3 of the non-ecological freight vehicles circulating within the historical centre, these include, amongst others:

This pilot project has proved the system viable and economically sound and has already encouraged the Ministry of Environment to grant the funds needed to implement a full-scale system this year (2009). Cities elsewhere in Italy and across Europe have a new example to follow.

European Commission

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Urban environment & quality of life: LIFEnews features 2009

Eco-delivery carries hope to Europe’s choking cities