The EU funded ‘EcoHubs’ research and development project has successfully delivered a number of proven ICT tools which can increase capacity at ports and terminals, as well as lead to significant reductions in carbon footprint.
Designed to support ‘Resource Efficient Europe’, the flagship initiative of the Europe 2020 Strategy, EcoHubs has, for the last 30 months, researched and developed the tools required for sustainable freight transport and logistics networks as part of a smart, safe, environmentally friendly and inclusive EU economy.
Adria Kombi, a leading combined transport operator in Slovenia, is deploying the container interfacing and consolidation system tool in conjunction with the EcoHubs truck appointment and unit reporting status services system at the Port of Koper and estimates that when fully-implemented, this will lead to a 20% increase in capacity.
This increase requires no additional physical infrastructure investment and an improvement of throughput by 15%, equating to an anticipated US$2-2.6 million in turnover.
As part of its efforts to provide a complete CO2 footprint measuring system which can calculate and declare the energy consumption and GHG emissions of transport services, EcoHubs has also developed the intermodal terminal eco-efficiency calculator (ITEC) tool.
To demonstrate the robustness and effectiveness of the ITEC tool, Jernhusen in Stockholm had the opportunity to obtain a measurement of the CO2 footprint of Stockholm Årsta Kombiterminal, the Green Urban Hub, before and after the transformation of the terminal.
The data highlighted that Jernhusen has reduced the footprint by more than half by 56%. On an annual basis, this equates to approximately 55 car trips around the Earth.
