George Panagakos

Green Corridors Basics

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the concept of ‘green corridors’ as a means to develop integrated, efficient and environmentally friendly transportation of freight between major hubs and by relative long distances. The basis of this material is work conducted in the context of the EU SuperGreen project, which aimed at advancing the green corridor concept through a benchmarking exercise involving Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The chapter discusses the available definitions of green corridors and identifies the characteristics that distinguish a green corridor from any other efficient surface transportation corridor. After providing examples of green corridor projects in Europe, it focuses on the KPIs that have been proposed by various projects for monitoring the performance of a freight corridor. Emphasis is given to the SuperGreen KPIs, covering the economic, technical, environmental, social and spatial planning aspects of freight logistics, as they have been scrutinized extensively by stakeholders in order to keep their number within practical and operable limits. In addition, the chapter presents the performance monitoring methodology that was developed by SuperGreen in an effort to close the gap of earlier works. The lessons learned from SuperGreen lead to a revised methodology suitable for monitoring the performance of a corridor.

Being Green on Sulphur: Targets, Measures and Side-Effects

Green House Gas (GHG) emissions are not the only emissions of concern to the international transport community. SOx emissions are non-GHG emissions that are caused by the presence of sulphur in the fuel. As the maximum percentage of sulphur in automotive and aviation fuels is strictly regulated in most countries around the world, much of the attention in recent years has focused on maritime transport. The attention mainly stems from the fact that in marine fuels the percentage of sulphur can be very high: it can be as high as 4.5 % in Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO), which is the fuel typically used in all deep-sea trades. Even though the amounts of SOx produced by ships are substantially lower than CO2, SOx emissions are highly undesirable as they cause acid rain and undesirable health effects in humans and animals. To mitigate these adverse environmental effects, the international shipping community has taken substantial policy measures. With the introduction of new limits for the content of sulphur in marine fuels in Northern European and North American sea areas, short-sea companies operating in these areas will face substantial additional cost. As of 1/1/2015, international regulations stipulate, among other things, a 0.1 % limit in the sulphur content of marine fuels, or equivalent measures limiting the percent of SOx emissions to the same amount. As low-sulphur fuel is substantially more expensive than HFO, there is little or no room within these companies current margins to absorb such additional cost, and thus significant price increases must be expected. Unlike its deep-sea counterpart, in short-sea shipping such a freight rate increase may induce shippers to use land-based alternatives (mainly road). A reverse shift of cargo would go against the EU policy to shift traffic from land to sea to reduce congestion, and might ultimately (under certain circumstances) increase the overall level of CO2 emissions along the entire supply chain. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the potential effect of sulphur regulations on the share of cargo transported by the waterborne mode vis-a-vis land-based alternatives.

Green Corridors in European Surface Freight Logistics

In the European Commission’s Freight Transport Logistics Action Plan of 2007, a number of short- to medium-term actions are presented that will help Europe address its current and future challenges, and ensure a competitive and sustainable freight transport system there. One action is the “Green transport corridors for freight”. A Green Corridor is characterized by a concentration of freight traffic between major hubs and by relatively long distances of transport. Green Corridors should in all ways be environmentally friendly, safe and efficient. Green technologies and smart utilization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), where available, may even improve those corridors. Where not available, new R&D may be required to further develop what is needed. Given the above policy goals, project “Super Green” has been launched. This is Coordination and Support Action co-funded by the European Commission in the context of the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, and coordinated by the National Technical University of Athens. The project involves 22 partners from 13 European countries. The purpose of this chapter is to address the key issues involved in the development of Green Corridors for European Freight Logistics, describe the Super Green project, and give an overview of main results to date.

Green Corridors and Network Design

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the relation between the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and the green corridor concept. First, the need is established for a corridor governance structure that enables the close cooperation among the numerous stakeholders from both the public and private sectors engaged in all corridor related issues ranging from network design to the provision of integrated logistical solutions. The governance scheme of the recently introduced TEN-T core network corridors seems to fulfil this requirement.

Green Corridors and Their Possible Impact on the European Supply Chain

The purpose of this chapter is to present the concept of green corridors and analyse their possible impact on the supply chain. The basis of this material is work conducted in the context of the EU SuperGreen project and therefore the geographical setting of the chapter is Europe. The general objective of the SuperGreen project has been to support the development of sustainable transport networks by fulfilling requirements covering environmental, technical, economic, social and spatial planning aspects. The chapter deals only with surface freight transport, including maritime transport, noting however that the quality of transport and logistics services is also affected by passenger transport competing for route capacity. Aviation is outside the scope of our analysis, as is the use of pipelines for liquid cargoes.

The Policy Context

The purpose of this chapter is to present the policy framework of the ‘green’ freight logistics, thus, setting the scene for the individual subjects of the following chapters. Its coverage is distinctly (albeit not exclusively) European, as it is mostly based on work undertaken under the SuperGreen project. The term ‘green’ is used in the sustainability context, meaning that it features economic and social dimensions in addition to the usual environmental one. The most important EU transport policy documents are reviewed and briefly presented by transportation mode. Horizontal documents covering all modes are reviewed first. The material spans a 15-year period, from the Sustainable Development Strategy of May 2001 to the Directive 2014/94/EU of October 2014 on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure.