The sustainable development of urban logistics activities is a growing concerning issue in many cities. Driven by e-commerce and the COVID-19 pandemic, urban freight movement is an issue more relevant than ever for cities to address. A sustainable and high efficient freight logistics sector plays an essential role in maintaining the city’s competitive edge, economic growth, and quality of life. EcoLogistics promotes goods transport by prioritizing the urban development of health, safety, low emission, and people-centered. It also encourages circular and regional economies while limiting the negative impact of freight transport.
The EcoLogistics Indicator (ELI) system is a sustainable logistics performance measurement system designed for policymakers to make informed decisions to improve the logistics system’s efficiency without compromising social, economic, and environmental components. It is a tool for cities to understand their urban logistics performance status quo to comprehend the achievement of policy implementation and set targets that meet their vision and goals.
As cities around the globe are pushing for sustainable practices, a globally recognized comprehensive approach to evaluating the different facets of sustainable mobility systems is necessary. However, there is a profound lack of coordinated strategies in assessing the Ecologistics system. As such, we need to establish a methodological framework to evaluate sustainable urban logistics. The goal of the framework does not to become unique, “one-size-fits-all”, but show transferability and versatility to customize according to the various cities’ needs.
The EcoLogistics Indicator system serves as a self-assessment tool to evaluate the status quo of the city’s approach to managing sustainable urban logistics, with the potential of re-evaluation every two to three years to identify the progress, trends, and needs for city logistics. This is part of the process of planning for the short-, medium- and long-term strategies.
| Environmental sustainability （23 indicators) |
Social equity (16 indicators） |
Economic sustainability （3 indicators） |
Operational efficiency （33 indicators） |
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Linking stakeholder needs and challenges to the policy goals through the indicators.
Shipper Logistics service provider Receiver Society Government
1Cities interested in conducting the assessments are encouraged to study the Manual and form a Task Force for EcoLogistics comprising city staff 2Decide the goal of the study – collect baseline data to set policy targets for the city 3Data collection and compilation 4Self-assessment process 5Review policies, plans, and actions as part of the Sustainable Urban Logistics Plan or a similar policy document