IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i6p1727-d148918.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Energy Efficiency in Logistics: An Interactive Approach to Capacity Utilisation

Author

Listed:
  • Jessica Wehner

    (Department of Technology Management and Economics, Chalmers University of Technology, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden)

Abstract

Logistics operations are energy-consuming and impact the environment negatively. Improving energy efficiency in logistics is crucial for environmental sustainability and can be achieved by increasing the utilisation of capacity. This paper takes an interactive approach to capacity utilisation, to contribute to sustainable freight transport and logistics, by identifying its causes and mitigations. From literature, a conceptual framework was developed to highlight different system levels in the logistics system, in which the energy efficiency improvement potential can be found and that are summarised in the categories activities, actors, and areas. Through semi-structured interviews with representatives of nine companies, empirical data was collected to validate the framework of the causes of the unutilised capacity and proposed mitigations. The results suggest that activities, such as inflexibilities and limited information sharing as well as actors’ over-delivery of logistics services, incorrect price setting, and sales campaigns can cause unutilised capacity, and that problem areas include i.a. poor integration of reversed logistics and the last mile. The paper contributes by categorising causes of unutilised capacity and linking them to mitigations in a framework, providing a critical view towards fill rates, highlighting the need for a standardised approach to measure environmental impact that enables comparison between companies and underlining that costs are not an appropriate indicator for measuring environmental impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Jessica Wehner, 2018. "Energy Efficiency in Logistics: An Interactive Approach to Capacity Utilisation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-19, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:1727-:d:148918
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1727/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1727/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Beatrice Marchi & Simone Zanoni, 2017. "Supply Chain Management for Improved Energy Efficiency: Review and Opportunities," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-29, October.
    2. Sadok Turki & Stanislav Didukh & Christophe Sauvey & Nidhal Rezg, 2017. "Optimization and Analysis of a Manufacturing–Remanufacturing–Transport–Warehousing System within a Closed-Loop Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-20, April.
    3. Bram Kin & Tomas Ambra & Sara Verlinde & Cathy Macharis, 2018. "Tackling Fragmented Last Mile Deliveries to Nanostores by Utilizing Spare Transportation Capacity—A Simulation Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-15, February.
    4. Halldorsson, Arni & Aastrup, Jesper, 2003. "Quality criteria for qualitative inquiries in logistics," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 321-332, January.
    5. Piera Centobelli & Roberto Cerchione & Emilio Esposito, 2018. "Environmental Sustainability and Energy-Efficient Supply Chain Management: A Review of Research Trends and Proposed Guidelines," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-36, January.
    6. Liimatainen, Heikki & Pöllänen, Markus, 2010. "Trends of energy efficiency in Finnish road freight transport 1995-2009 and forecast to 2016," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 7676-7686, December.
    7. Guido Perboli & Stefano Musso & Mariangela Rosano & Roberto Tadei & Moritz Godel, 2017. "Synchro-Modality and Slow Steaming: New Business Perspectives in Freight Transportation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-24, October.
    8. Shiqing Zhang & Jianwei Wang & Wenlong Zheng, 2018. "Decomposition Analysis of Energy-Related CO 2 Emissions and Decoupling Status in China’s Logistics Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-21, April.
    9. Rob Konings & Hugo Priemus & Peter Nijkamp (ed.), 2008. "The Future of Intermodal Freight Transport," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3738.
    10. Baiyun Yuan & Bingmei Gu & Jin Guo & Liangjie Xia & Chunming Xu, 2018. "The Optimal Decisions for a Sustainable Supply Chain with Carbon Information Asymmetry under Cap-and-Trade," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-17, March.
    11. Piecyk, Maja I. & McKinnon, Alan C., 2010. "Forecasting the carbon footprint of road freight transport in 2020," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 31-42, November.
    12. Alan C. McKinnon, 2016. "Freight Transport Deceleration: Its Possible Contribution to the Decarbonisation of Logistics," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(4), pages 418-436, July.
    13. Amulya Gurtu & Cory Searcy & M.Y. Jaber, 2017. "Emissions from international transport in global supply chains," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 40(1), pages 53-74, January.
    14. Plambeck, Erica L., 2012. "Reducing greenhouse gas emissions through operations and supply chain management," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(S1), pages 64-74.
    15. Xiangshuo He & Jian Zhang, 2018. "Supplier Selection Study under the Respective of Low-Carbon Supply Chain: A Hybrid Evaluation Model Based on FA-DEA-AHP," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-17, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maria Björklund & Niklas Simm, 2019. "Roles and Perspectives When Estimating Energy and Environmental Potentials of Urban Consolidation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Lukas Hardi & Ulrich Wagner, 2019. "Grocery Delivery or Customer Pickup—Influences on Energy Consumption and CO 2 Emissions in Munich," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-20, January.
    3. Irina Harris & Diego Enrique Bermudez Bermejo & Thomas Crowther & James McDonald, 2024. "Factors Affecting Truck Payload in Recycling Operations: Towards Sustainable Solutions," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-19, November.
    4. Wang, Hui & Han, Jiaying & Su, Min & Wan, Shulin & Zhang, Zhenchao, 2021. "The relationship between freight transport and economic development: A case study of China," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    5. Melinda Timea Fülöp & Miklós Gubán & György Kovács & Mihály Avornicului, 2021. "Economic Development Based on a Mathematical Model: An Optimal Solution Method for the Fuel Supply of International Road Transport Activity," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-22, May.
    6. Tamás Bányai, 2018. "Real-Time Decision Making in First Mile and Last Mile Logistics: How Smart Scheduling Affects Energy Efficiency of Hyperconnected Supply Chain Solutions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-25, July.
    7. Valerio Gatta & Edoardo Marcucci & Marialisa Nigro & Sergio Maria Patella & Simone Serafini, 2018. "Public Transport-Based Crowdshipping for Sustainable City Logistics: Assessing Economic and Environmental Impacts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    8. Noorliza Karia, 2022. "Antecedents and Consequences of Environmental Capability towards Sustainability and Competitiveness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-16, September.
    9. Andrzej Jezierski & Cezary Mańkowski & Rafał Śpiewak, 2021. "Energy Savings Analysis in Logistics of a Wind Farm Repowering Process: A Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-23, September.
    10. Miroslav Stefanov, 2018. "Features of Compressed Natural Gas Physical Distribution: A Bulgarian Case Study," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-21, September.
    11. Li Zhou & Zhaochan Li & Ning Shi & Shaohua Liu & Ke Xiong, 2019. "Performance Analysis of Three Intelligent Algorithms on Route Selection of Fishbone Layout," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-17, February.
    12. Henry Ekwaro-Osire & Dennis Bode & Klaus-Dieter Thoben & Jan-Hendrik Ohlendorf, 2022. "Identification of Machine Learning Relevant Energy and Resource Manufacturing Efficiency Levers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-19, November.
    13. Tássia Faria de Assis & Victor Hugo Souza de Abreu & Mariane Gonzalez da Costa & Marcio de Almeida D’Agosto, 2022. "Methodology for Prioritizing Best Practices Applied to the Sustainable Last Mile—The Case of a Brazilian Parcel Delivery Service Company," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-24, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sadok Turki & Nidhal Rezg, 2018. "Impact of the Quality of Returned-Used Products on the Optimal Design of a Manufacturing/Remanufacturing System under Carbon Emissions Constraints," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-21, September.
    2. Xiao-Ying Bao & Lei Zhang, 2018. "Green Procurement Relationships Development under Carbon Emissions Regulations: A Bi-Level Programming Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-14, October.
    3. Peng Wu & Yixi Yin & Shiying Li & Yulong Huang, 2018. "Low-Carbon Supply Chain Management Considering Free Emission Allowance and Abatement Cost Sharing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-18, June.
    4. Rafael Tordecilla-Madera & Andrés Polo & Adrián Cañón, 2018. "Vehicles Allocation for Fruit Distribution Considering CO 2 Emissions and Decisions on Subcontracting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-21, July.
    5. Haiyun, Cui & Zhixiong, Huang & Yüksel, Serhat & Dinçer, Hasan, 2021. "Analysis of the innovation strategies for green supply chain management in the energy industry using the QFD-based hybrid interval valued intuitionistic fuzzy decision approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    6. Holden, R. & Xu, B. & Greening, P. & Piecyk, M. & Dadhich, P., 2016. "Towards a common measure of greenhouse gas related logistics activity using data envelopment analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 105-119.
    7. Ozen, Murat & Tuydes-Yaman, Hediye, 2013. "Evaluation of emission cost of inefficiency in road freight transportation in Turkey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 625-636.
    8. Helena Forslund & Maria Björklund, 2022. "Toward Circular Supply Chains for Flat Glass: Challenges of Transforming to More Energy-Efficient Solutions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-16, October.
    9. Suchitra Pattnaik & Mitali Madhusmita Nayak & Stefano Abbate & Piera Centobelli, 2021. "Recent Trends in Sustainable Inventory Models: A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-20, October.
    10. Dexiang Yang & Lei Zhang & Ying Wu & Sidai Guo & Hua Zhang & Lijian Xiao, 2018. "A Sustainability Analysis on Retailer’s Sales Effort in A Closed-Loop Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, December.
    11. Maria Björklund & Niklas Simm, 2019. "Roles and Perspectives When Estimating Energy and Environmental Potentials of Urban Consolidation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-17, December.
    12. Anchal Gupta & Rajesh Kumar Singh & Sachin Kr Mangla, 2022. "Evaluation of logistics providers for sustainable service quality: Analytics based decision making framework," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 315(2), pages 1617-1664, August.
    13. Qiang Han & Yuyan Wang, 2018. "Decision and Coordination in a Low-Carbon E-Supply Chain Considering the Manufacturer’s Carbon Emission Reduction Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-23, May.
    14. Baiyun Yuan & Bingmei Gu & Jin Guo & Liangjie Xia & Chunming Xu, 2018. "The Optimal Decisions for a Sustainable Supply Chain with Carbon Information Asymmetry under Cap-and-Trade," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-17, March.
    15. Joakim Haraldsson & Maria T. Johansson, 2019. "Energy Efficiency in the Supply Chains of the Aluminium Industry: The Cases of Five Products Made in Sweden," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-25, January.
    16. Tong Shu & Chunfen Huang & Shou Chen & Shouyang Wang & Kin Keung Lai, 2018. "Trade-Old-for-Remanufactured Closed-Loop Supply Chains with Carbon Tax and Government Subsidies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-25, October.
    17. Sears, Sean & Moataz, Mohamed & Ferguson, Mark & Razavi, Saiedeh & Páez, Antonio, 2022. "Perceived barriers to the movement of goods in Canada: A grounded theory investigation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 27-45.
    18. Panagiotis Trivellas & Georgios Malindretos & Panagiotis Reklitis, 2020. "Implications of Green Logistics Management on Sustainable Business and Supply Chain Performance: Evidence from a Survey in the Greek Agri-Food Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-29, December.
    19. Yi-Kuei Lin & Cheng-Fu Huang & Yi-Chieh Liao, 2019. "Reliability of a stochastic intermodal logistics network under spoilage and time considerations," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 277(1), pages 95-118, June.
    20. Juan Guillermo Urzúa-Morales & Juan Pedro Sepulveda-Rojas & Miguel Alfaro & Guillermo Fuertes & Rodrigo Ternero & Manuel Vargas, 2020. "Logistic Modeling of the Last Mile: Case Study Santiago, Chile," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:1727-:d:148918. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.