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http://dx.doi.org/10.4491/eer.2016.124

Environmental impact assessment for city logistics distribution systems  

Guo, Jidong (Department of Economics and Management, Institute of Disaster Prevention Science and Technology)
Ma, Shugang (Business School, Hebei University of Economics and Business)
Publication Information
Environmental Engineering Research / v.22, no.4, 2017 , pp. 363-368 More about this Journal
Abstract
The external diseconomy is hampering sustainable development of the city logistics sector. Burdens on urban environment imposed by the city logistics industry have been put in the spotlight. Based on the principle of Life Cycle Analysis, the comprehensive environment impact for city logistics systems is measured. Firstly, with the city logistics service chain as a whole, its business processes and their interactions with environment are analyzed. In total four types of major environment impact categories are determined. Secondly, case study is made on three city logistics operators located in Jing-Jin-Ji region of China with different business modes, respectively self-operation mode, joint distribution mode and the $3^{rd}$ Party Logistics or 3PL mode. Through analysis of energy consumption and emissions for various business processes, their comprehensive environmental impact values are finally obtained. Thirdly, horizontally comparative analysis is carried out to these three modes of the urban logistics distribution systems. Results show the advantages of the 3PL and the joint distribution modes in developing greener urban logistics distribution. Future research avenues and policy suggestions are proposed finally.
Keywords
Environmental impact; Joint distribution; Life cycle analysis; Urban logistics distribution; 3PL;
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