TCM takes part in the Øresund EcoMobility project that is partly funded by the EU Interreg IV A-Øresund program. The core work lies in the creation of a Logistics and Sustainability Performance Index that should help companies in the Øresund Region to enhance both their environmental and logistic performance.The Logistics and Sustainability Performance Index is part of the European Union project ‘Ecomobility’. The index is supposed to evaluate the prerequisites for good logistics and the logistics performance as well as the impact and performance of sustainability initiatives in the Øresund Region. It follows the question ‘how can we contribute to a greener development in logistics?’. A generic questionnaire and a rating system from 1 – 5 will be created that companies can use to calculate the index. The index should function as a tool for companies and regions to benchmark from the ‘best in class’ and to identify points of improvements for their own performance. Also, it should enhance the green thinking in the Øresund Region and its cities.The findings of the study as well as the use of the index should be taught in a course for private and public entities that want to encourage and educate their employees in the relevant fields.

The Index

The index builds up and elaborates on the LPI (Logistics performance Index – World Bank) that is created every other year (so far 2007 and 2010) in order to evaluate the logistic performance in a country. Denmark and Sweden are both highly ranked (Sweden 2nd and Denmark 16th). Further, it would be interesting how Denmark and Sweden are able to get such high scores, whether ‘clusters of intelligence’ exist in the Øresund Region and whether the two countries gain profits from each other.

In order to fit the Logistics performance section the needs of the Øresund Region some adjustments have to be made. Measuring the customs performance for instance just makes limited sense in a region with most trading not running through customs; the ability to track and trace is Europe–wide on a high technological level und has no relevance (especially) to the Øresund Region.

Additionally to this, some factors should be added. ‘Building of Mental Bridges’ could be a field of interest in the Øresund Region, because trade between Denmark and Sweden contributes to the feeling of being close. Further, we want to explore whether or not a cluster of intelligence exists in the Øresund Region that creates competitive advantage for the local companies.

Furthermore, we face the question whether the performance of logistics should be measured in terms of the prerequisites in the region in order to make the performance of different companies in different regions comparable. A trucking company in a region with weaker prerequisites might perform as good as a company in the Øresund Region, i.e. the real performances of the companies are different.

The integration of sustainability factors into the logistics performance index is the major adjustment we propose. Sustainability performance should be divided into ‘the triple bottom line’ and additional ‘efficiency’ factors. The triple bottom line section includes indicators for environmental, social and economic sustainability (e.g. environmental reporting, GHG emission, land use, health and safety standards, building of mental bridges, talent promotion, profitability, long term planning); the efficiency section evaluates the processes within a company (e.g. empty running, load factor, fuel efficiency).

This approach ensures an extensive exploration of the topic, from internal (or organizational) and external aspects. The advantage of such a division lies in the comparability of results. Both an overall score and the scores of each category can be compared.The key issues we face here are to find indicators that are relevant, easy to use, useable for different industries and transparent and how factors should be weighted. Finding the right indicators will be ensured through extensive collaboration with different industry experts.

 

Link to the official EcoMobility homepage:

http://www.oresund.org/ecomobility