Sustainability assessment of retail logistics solutions using external costs analysis: a case-study for the city of Antwerp

Abstract

Purpose: Policy implementation in the logistics sector might drive unexpected side-effects which sometimes undermine the performance of key economic activities of logistics operators, especially in areas such as transport service, sustainability of operations, etc. Especially for the latter, there is a lack of understanding how the sustainability performance if retail logistics solutions is impacted on by policy implementation and, in turn, by operators' responsive measures. This paper conducts a sustainability analysis of concrete innovative and already tested retail logistics solutions addressing the research question "what are the effects of retail logistics solutions on total costs and sustainability performance?" Methods: The analysis relies on the development and application of an indicator-based framework based on the key sustainability components (economy, environment, society) and enriched by the addition of the transport component. The framework assesses three different scenarios together with a business-as-is one: Urban Consolidation Centre, Tethering and Shared Bus accompanied with a Strengths-Weaknesses analysis. Data are provided by an international food retailer operating within the city of Antwerp, Belgium, but conclusions can be generalized due to wider applicability of measures and solutions examined. Results: External costs analysis shows that higher degree of internalization is achieved in the line-haul transport. Within an urban context, the measures that do not require significant initial investment and broad interventions are assessed as the most sustainable in our analysis. Tethering is the solution that indicates the highest sustainability score. Conclusions: The impact of innovative and already tested solutions relies on a variety of factors: organizational, urban context, type of goods transported, engagement of stakeholders, etc.. In any case, innovation is crucial for urban retail logistics impacting on transport service, society, economy and environment. Any new retail business model should be designed with respect to cost efficiency and through a socially acceptable transition path.

A Systematic Literature Review of Green and Sustainable Logistics: Bibliometric Analysis, Research Trend and Knowledge Taxonomy

“…Khan et al [56] modeled the impact of G&SL performance on the countries' economic development and macro-level social and environmental indicators. Papoutsis et al [57] and Solomon et al [58] both maintained that logistics sustainability is closely related to operational efficiency and social acceptance from an economic and environmental perspective. Through the expert scoring, Morana and Gonzalez-Feliu [59] identified the most prominent factors affecting the sustainability of urban logistics are monetary saving, services quality, and customers' satisfaction rate (economic), pollution emissions and congestions (environmental), and the number of employment created/destroyed (social).…”

Integrating Simulation-Based Optimization for Lean Logistics: A Case Study

“…This proposed method could be applicable to other manufacturing systems to implement production-logistics collaboration. In this way, Papoutsis et al [23] conducted a sustainability analysis of concrete innovative and already tested retail logistics solutions addressing the research question "what are the effects of retail logistics solutions on total costs and sustainability performance?" For the analysis, they developed and applied an indicator-based framework based on the key sustainability components (economy, environment, society) and enriched by the addition of the transport component.…”

“…According to the literary review carried out, it was found that there are different investigations in relation to logistic processes, although some authors have used simulation models in their investigations. These do not focus on the systematic optimization of logistics costs, so: Ugarte [4] focused on evaluating environmental impacts in logistics processes; Guo et al [22] explored if there is an adequate allocation of resources between production and logistics systems; Papoutsis [23] investigated the key factors affecting retail logistics solutions in total costs and sustainability performance; Tamás [26] conducted research to improve the programming of batches that will occur in intermittent production systems.…”

Topical collection on the role of planning towards sustainable urban mobility

“…Papoutsis et al [5] compare scenarios of retail business on data of one retail company in Antwerp. The results of the analysis bear witness of the complexity of retail logistics within an urban planning context and of the fact that sustainability of logistics, in terms of economic and environmental concerns, goes hand in hand with operational effectiveness and social uptake.…”