Sustainable Solutions for SCM

7 SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS IN URBAN LOGISTICS

In recent years, urban logistics has been one of the most dynamically developing areas of logistics activity. Considerations concerning urban logistics and its various aspects have been carried out for more than a dozen years in the countries of Western Europe and the USA, and there has been an increasing interest in Poland, too. The interest in urban logistics is primarily due to the spatial growth of cities, the increase in population density, the increasing number of institutions and companies, and the emerging problems related to the provision of appropriate standards of living for the inhabitants as well as the maintenance of the functionality of cities. Although the issues of urban logistics and its various aspects have been explored for several years, the concept of urban logistics is variously defined and interpreted. One definition states that these are all actions that optimise the flow of goods, people and information within the social system of the city. Another definition points to freight transport, including storage, supplies of water, gas, electricity and heat, telecommunication network organisation, individual, urban and suburban passenger transport, waste transportation, up to the development of transport links in agglomeration with regional, national or even global logistics system. Here, it might be worth quoting two definitions. The first concerns the city itself. According to the definition given by the European Charter for the Safeguarding of Human Rights in the City adopting the stance of the European Chapter of Local Autonomy, “a city is a shared space belonging to its community which has the right to be ensured conditions for political, social and ecological fulfilment, while assuming the duty of solidarity”. The latter defines city logistics as “the general processes of formation/ creation of flows of people, goods and information within the logistics system of the city, in accordance with the needs and objectives of the development of the city, with respect to the protection of the environment, taking into account the fact that the city is a social organisation (sic.) whose primary objective is to satisfy the needs of its users”. [14] The essence of city logistics is to optimise all logistics acts and activities, in particular transport, especially in the aspect of creating mobility, in urban areas supported by modern information systems and other new technologies, taking into account the concept of sustainable development. Its interests include a wide variety of systems for the transportation of goods and people, public logistics terminals, cargo control, underground transport systems and modern information and telematics systems. The primary objective of its activities, in addition to the aspects of optimisation and reduction of costs and negative environmental effects, is to raise the quality of life of city inhabitants. To define it as briefly as possible, city logistics covers logistics systems located in urban areas, while its purpose is to appropriately organise the activities of all participants operating in the city so as to reduce the global operational costs and increase customer satisfaction, where customers are the inhabitants of cities. In addition, city logistics is the prerequisite for further processes of opening cities to the diffusion of innovation or the functioning of the cities in the network. In recent years more and more attention has been paid to environmental and ecological issues in areas of diverse human activities. Some arguments have been raised

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