DISCO Living Labs insights

The City of Copenhagen is one of the selected EU Mission 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030. To reach its climate objectives and deploy zero-emission logistic solutions, Copenhagen is taking an integrated approach through DISCO to ensure that the entire functional urban area benefits from the transition. The City recognises that its policies will affect local stakeholders, and will therefore work closely with industry sectors, citizens, and public authorities to ensure desirable outcomes for all.

The City of Ghent is a medium-sized medieval European city surrounded by an inner ring and outer ring (R4). In the historic centre, Ghent has a pedestrian area of 2 km². The municipality has incorporated many efforts to green the city including a modal shift as a cornerstone in Ghent’s SUMP 2014 and in 2019, a low-emission zone and a “Vision for the Use of Water in the City” which focuses on developing the use of waterways for freight transport. Ghent also aims to be climate neutral by 2050.

The City of Thessaloniki is one of the 100 EU Mission climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030. The City’s challenge is to become a zero-emission city by 2030, achieve optimised use of public space and overall enhanced citizens’ quality of life. Currently, in the historical centre, the main demand generators for last-mile transport are the commercial establishments and, more specifically, from fashion and HORECA.

The City of Helsinki is one of the 100 EU Mission 2030 climate-neutral and smart cities. Helsinki logistics operations are currently primarily led by private companies, but the city has an ambition to support the logistics field towards a new sustainable operational model in line with the action plan for city logistics, updated in 2020. In Helsinki, delivery trucks account for 22–26% of traffic emissions in the city. The overall share of vans used for last-mile logistics is unknown, but most vans are used for other purposes.

The Zaragoza Living Lab will enhance its last mile delivery thanks to an adapted Control Tower of multi stakeholder delivery management. It will boost local commerce via the integration and enhancement of the Citizen Card and the Volveremos groupon program, which provide an understanding of the transport and social behaviours. The Data Space will be utilised as a solid platform to create added value to the city by developing a vision and a work line within the City’s #DataLab team adapted to the guidelines of the Data Act initiative.

The Valencia Living Lab will implement a Supply Chain Hub (SCH), a flexible logistics facility in which several supply chains that serve the B2B/B2C last mile will be managed. In DISCO, AI will be used for the consolidation and regrouping of loads (multisector and multiproduct), unification of the distribution in a single fleet of zero-emission vehicles (100% electric designed to carry out an operationally efficient last mile distribution).

Barcelona, Valencia, and Zaragoza have established a well-connected cluster of cities belonging to the same country (Spain) to empower the positive effects of implementation, uptake, and replication potentials of sets of complementary measures on a larger scale and in various local conditions. All three cities have ambitious plans and sustainable goals and have therefore all been selected as part of the “100 EU Mission climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030”.

The City of Padua is a major centre for services, tourism, and culture, and is surrounded by a large, dynamic area that has experienced significant growth in recent years and, as such, is a significant generator of travel. The city is well connected with neighbouring cities in the Veneto Region, and with long-distance transport networks. It is one of the selected 100 EU “Mission climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030”.