Better urban environments through sustainable city logistics
How can we create more vibrant and pleasant cities? Konstantina Katsela aims to create better urban environments by researching sustainable business models for city logistics. She is a lecturer in the Master's programme in Logistics and Transport and sees the need for knowledge growing with the expansion of urban areas.
Many goods are transported in our cities every day. These range from goods delivered to shops and consumers, to waste management and products in tradesmen's vehicles. The traditional transport methods have a number of negative impacts on the urban environment. In addition to increased greenhouse gas emissions, it also leads to poorer air quality, noise pollution and reduced attractiveness of the city. At the same time, the whole of society is affected when logistics and deliveries do not function properly. While many cities recognize the need for sustainability, solutions remain fragmented, as city logistics is an overlooked component of urban life.
Konstantina Katsela has analysed 14 European projects to understand how city logistics can become both environmentally friendly and economically sustainable.
"We can learn a lot from initiatives in different European cities. Many new projects that are launched do not manage to be sustainable in the long term. They often focus on the technical and operational aspects. More research is needed on economically sustainable business models for city logistics," she says.
Difficult to transfer business models
Many of the projects studied are small-scale initiatives that operate within a specific neighborhood or district for a limited time. The study includes two Swedish examples. One is SamCity in Malmö, a consolidation model with environmentally adapted vehicles for both municipal and private goods flows. The other is Stadsleveransen in Gothenburg, small electric vehicles for transporting parcels to and from shops and offices in the city centre. They were started with funding from Vinnova and the City of Gothenburg, but neither exists today.
"The business model often does not work when support ends or is withdrawn. One project that stands out is Älskade stad, which started in Stockholm. They have managed to transfer their service with small electric vehicles to other Swedish cities and even to Norway. That is an exceptional case " she says.
One problem Konstantina Katsela sees is that a business model that works in one place is difficult to transfer to other cities. She hopes that the use of AI and modern technology can help alleviate some of the problems in city logistics, including the creation of a knowledge pool with data from different projects that have been implemented.
"There is no perfect solution yet. It's important to learn from the mistakes that have been made, use that knowledge and then find committed stakeholders who can work together to improve city logistics."
More solutions needed
Konstantina Katsela is originally from Greece and has lived in Sweden for the past twelve years. It was during a visit to her home town of Thessaloniki that she decided to apply for a PhD in city logistics.
"The traffic in the city was chaotic. Nothing worked and I was so frustrated. I thought there must be a way to improve the situation and get all the trucks out of the city centre," she says.
As urban areas grow and we get more megacities, new and changing city logistics needs are constantly emerging.
" We need to focus more on addressing these problems. Sustainable city logistics isn’t just about technology and operations – it’s about creating systems that are socially, environmentally, and economically effective. The challenge is making them profitable so that they become the standard, not the exception. With limited space in cities, solving the equation of how to best use it is no easy task", she says.
In her role as assistant lecturer and teacher in the Masters in Logistics and Transport, she teaches the courses Sustainable Logistics, Retailing, Wholesailing and Logistics and City Logistics and Urban Freight Transport. In the courses, students have the opportunity to work with sustainable business models for city logistics.