Strategic responses to institutional forces pressuring sustainability practice adoption: Case-based evidence from inland port operations

This article investigates strategic responses of inland ports to institutional forces pressuring their adoption of sustainability practices. We postulate that even though inland port operators strive for economic viability, there are growing pressures from various stakeholders for continuous enhancement of their environmental and social sustainability practices. We apply institutional theory to classify the effects of these forces based on five institutional antecedents – cause, constituents, content, control, and context – and further expand our theoretical framework with resource dependence tenets to discuss the spectrum of strategic responses available to inland ports to deal with institutional forces. We examine our theoretical arguments with empirical evidence collected from four inland ports using a case study-based approach. We conclude that while inland ports have a strong disposition towards social sustainability, economic considerations are still most emphasized, and environmental issues are mostly regarded in compliance with the legally mandated minimum. The most important sources of institutional pressure are identified as cause, constituents, and control. In a further step, we present evidence of the inland ports’ potential strategic responses. The study also provides insights for managers and policy makers on strategic options as appropriate organizational responses to proliferating institutional pressures for sustainability practices adoption.     

Future advanced long-haul Evacuated Tube Transport (EET) system operated by TransRapid Maglev (TRM): a multidimensional examination of performance

This paper presents a multidimensional examination of the infrastructural, technical/technological, operational, economic, environmental, social, and policy performance of the future advanced Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT) system operated by TransRapid Maglev (TRM) (the ETT-TRM system). The examination implies analyzing, modeling, and estimating selected performance criteria using the case of the Trans-Atlantic passenger transport market currently served exclusively by the Air Passenger Transport (APT) system. The purpose is to assess the ETT-TRM system’s competitive capabilities compared to those of the current and future APT system and consequently its potential contribution to mitigating impacts of both systems on society and the environment – the sustainability of the transport sector - under given conditions.     

The private and social cost efficiency of port hinterland container distribution through a regional logistics system

Increasingly, the debate on freight transport and logistics involves the challenge of sustainable development. Key objectives of sustainable or “green” freight logistics systems are the mitigation of negative environmental and human health effects of distribution operations and the realization of a major modal shift in transport preferences, while at the same time achieving internal generalized cost efficiency and quality of services. Pursuing these goals requires the introduction of a range of measures. These measures call for private and public actors to take up various initiatives and adopt policies. Usually, it is more effective to combine different actions into an integrated package of measures than to introduce single instruments in isolation.This article explores the nexus between sustainability and port hinterland container logistics. In particular, the methodology and results of an empirical analysis based on applications of a network programming tool called the “interport model” are presented and discussed. The model enables an examination of all possible effects on inland container flows and their associated internal and external costs due to public and private initiatives in the field of port hinterland container logistics. The empirical analysis aims to evaluate the impact of a set of simultaneous policy options and operational measures on the competitiveness and sustainability of hinterland multimodal distribution of import and export containers handled at the seaports of the Campania region located in Southern Italy. The loading units can transit through the dry port facilities (the so called “interports”) located in the same region and/or through extra regional railway terminals, before reaching their ultimate inland destinations or the seaports. The integrated package of measures simulated by means of the model includes: (i) infrastructure policy, (ii) improvements of rail services, (iii) regulatory changes in terms of customs authorizations and procedures, (iv) removal of technical and legal barriers to fair and non-discriminatory competition in the market of rail traction between regional seaports and interports, (v) new business models integrating container logistics operations between seaports and interports, and (vi) social marginal cost charging of transport operations. Once this package of instruments is introduced, higher private and social cost efficiency of port hinterland container distribution through the investigated regional logistics system can be achieved. For instance, it has been estimated an annual saving of the order of about 12,660 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent emissions from transport corresponding to an external cost reduction of 0.27 million euros from the observed real life situation, whereas the estimated saving in terms of air pollution (CO, NO_x, PM, SO₂, VOC) from transport is approximately 220 tonnes per year corresponding to an external benefit of 1.31 million euros.The most immediate priority appears to be the customs and intermodal logistics integration of seaports and interports by means of full implementation of the “extended gateway” concept as a way to increase the rail share of modal split and improve the overall cost efficiency of the system. In addition, the simultaneous introduction of a social marginal cost charging policy can contribute to make the regional interports a viable solution to expand the hinterland reach of the regional seaport cluster.     

A ‘sustainability window’ of urban form

With global environmental change and the rise of global megacities, environmental and social externalities of urban systems, and especially of urban form, become increasingly prevalent. The question of optimal urban form has been debated and investigated by different disciplines in numerous contexts, including those of transport costs, land consumption and congestion. Here we elucidate theoretically how urban form and the urban transport system systematically modifies sustainability concerns, such as greenhouse gas emissions, local air pollution and congestion. We illustrate our analytical considerations with empirical analysis. Denser urban form would almost unambiguously mitigate climate change, but it would also lead to undesired effects, such as a higher proportion of urban dwellers affected by air pollution. Our study presents a ‘sustainability window’ by highlighting trade-offs between these sustainability concerns as a function of urban form. Only a combination of transportation policies, infrastructure investments and progressive public finance enables the development of cities that perform well in several sustainability dimensions. We estimate that a residential population density between 50 and 150 persons/ha and a modal share of environmental modes above at least 50% corresponds to the sustainability window of urban form. The parameters of the sustainability window of urban form is subject to policy changes and technological progress.     

Measuring energy and environmental efficiency of transportation systems in China based on a parallel DEA approach

Because of China’s rapid economic development, its transportation system has become one of China’s high-energy-consumption and high-pollution-emission sectors. However, little research has been done which pays close attention to China’s transportation system, especially in terms of energy and environmental efficiency evaluation. In this paper, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is applied to measure the energy and environment performance of transportation systems in China with the goal of sustainable development. This paper treats transportation as a parallel system consisting of subsystems for passenger transportation and freight transportation, and extends a parallel DEA approach to evaluate the efficiency of each subsystem. An efficiency decomposition procedure is proposed to obtain the highest achievable subsystem efficiency. Our empirical study on 30 of mainland China’s provincial-level regions shows that most of them have a low efficiency in their transportation system and the two parallel subsystems. There are large efficiency differences between the passenger and freight transportation subsystems. In addition, unbalanced development has occurred in the three large areas of China, with the east having the highest efficiency, followed by central China and then west. Therefore, more measures should be taken to balance and coordinate the development between the three large areas and between the two subsystems within them. Our analysis approach gives data for determining effective measures.     

The sensitivity of optimal transport strategies to specification of objectives

This paper describes a method for devising transport strategies that makes iterative use of transport models to find the optimal levels of pre-defined transport measures. It gives the results from using this method in nine European cities. At the heart of the procedure lies the definition of objective functions which encapsulate policy-makers' objectives with respect to economic efficiency and sustainability. These objective functions include a number of significant parameters and the paper examines the sensitivity of the results to changes in the values of these parameters. The parameters concerned are: the level of shadow price used with regard to public sector financial surplus and deficit; the trade-off between the perspectives of the present generation and a future generation (of importance to issues of sustainability); the trade-off between internal benefits/costs and external (environmental) benefits/costs; and the level of user benefits that can be “value captured” in the sense of raising additional finance for transport policies. Full sets of results are given for these sensitivity tests, and a number of practical transport policy conclusions are made.     

Evaluating choice of traction option for a sustainable Indian Railways

The transport sector is a major contributor of carbon emissions in India. As railways are the most environment-friendly mode of transport we look at the spearheading role of Indian Railway (IR) in bringing about the modal shift from road and airways to rail with a holistic perspective considering India’s development stage and resource situation. India being an emerging economy, faces many other social and developmental challenges, which have to be incorporated in assessing the viability of the solutions. In order to assess the total impact of the transportation sector a ‘wells to wheels’ approach needs to be adopted to quantify the emissions from the production to distribution and final usages alongside its impact to the competing societal goals utilizing the same resources. This study focuses on evaluating IR’s critical policy decision towards providing efficient transport i.e. the choice of traction. It is inferred that until such time the fuel mix of power production in India remains the same, i.e. coal dominated and there is a shortage of electricity in the country, the accumulated carbon footprints of running electric locos will be higher. There should be a judicious mix of both the tractions to achieve a balance in environmental efficacy, sustainability and equity.     

Decouple transport CO2 emissions from China’s economic expansion: A temporal-spatial analysis

China’s transport industry is energy intensive and high-polluting. While with the surging urbanization and the development of service industry, China’s economic relies more and more on the transport sector. Therefore, exploring the relationship between transport energy-related carbon emission (TECE) and economic development is crucial to the realization of China’s “Post Paris” mitigation target. The paper carries out a decoupling research between TECE and Gross domestic product (GDP) at both national level and province level based on Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition analysis with the extended Kaya identity and Tapio decoupling model. The model quantifies eight factors’ effects on the relationship with focusing on external macro socio-economic related factors (i.e., spatial pattern, urbanization, per capita service industry output value, reciprocal of the service industry’s share of GDP, and demographic variable) successfully. The key conclusions are indicated as follows: (1) the national decoupling status was extensive coupling during 2004–2010 and then weak decoupling during 2010–2016. The progress can be attributed to the decline of energy intensity. (2) Per capita service output was always the prominent factor to promote carbon emissions growth in different time periods and provinces with inhibiting the advancement of decoupling process, followed by urbanization. (3) Scenario analysis shows that with the continuous growth of traffic demand and the promotion of urbanization, improving energy efficiency has become the key link to realize the decoupling between China’s TECE and its economy.     

Fuel demand,road transport pollution emissions and residents’ health losses in the transitional China

In recent years, China’s rapid economic growth resulted in serious air pollution, which caused substantial losses to economic development and residents’ health. In particular, the road transport sector has been blamed to be one of the major emitters. During the past decades, fluctuation in the international oil prices has imposed significant impacts on the China’s road transport sector. Therefore, inspired by Li and Zhou (2005), we propose an assumption that China’s provincial economies are independent “economic entities”. Based on this assumption, we investigate the China’s road transport fuel (i.e., gasoline and diesel) demand system by using the panel data of all 31 Chinese provinces except Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. To connect the fuel demand system and the air pollution emissions, we propose the concept of pollution emissions elasticities to estimate the air pollution emissions from the road transport sector, and residents’ health losses by a simplified approach consisting of air pollution concentrations and health loss assessment models under different scenarios based on real-world oil price fluctuations. Our framework, to the best of our knowledge, is the first attempt to address the transmission mechanism between the fuel demand system in road transport sector and residents’ health losses in the transitional China.     

Sustainable Transport in the European Union: A Review of the Past Research and Future Ideas

Abstract

This paper presents a review of the research on the sustainability of transport systems carried out over the last 15 years for the European Union (EU), identifies some missing gaps and elaborates on the prospective future ideas. The general concept of sustainable development and definitions of sustainability of transport systems and their operationalization are discussed. These are followed by the general review of the research on the sustainable transport systems funded by the EU 4th, 5th and 6th Framework Programs. Consequently, refinement of existing and/or developing an innovative system for monitoring sustainability of transport systems in the EU based on the indicator system(s) of performances is suggested as a prospective research idea.     

Identifying Governance Relationships Between Intermodal Terminals and Logistics Platforms

Abstract

Governance theory examines different ways of managing resources and relationships in order to achieve a desired outcome. This paper applies governance theory to intermodal terminals and logistics platforms, extending previous work on ownership to include different operational models. An inductive methodology is used to derive a typology of governance relationships from an analysis of the transport and logistics literature. The classification developed in this paper explores different kinds of integration that can help support growth of intermodal transport services. The understanding of transport governance is extended via three key relationships: first, between the logistics platform and the site tenants (therefore, encouraging consolidation and efficiencies that can boost rail services at the site); second, between the terminal operator and rail service provision (which can aid service planning and train loading factors); and third, between the inland site (either terminal, logistics platform or both) and port(s), (thus enabling better planning and efficiency of port rail shuttles).     

An environmental economic analysis of the new rail link to European main port Rotterdam

After a long policy debate it has been decided to built in the near future a new rail link (Betuwe line) in the Netherlands to handle the rapidly increasing volume of goods to be transported from Rotterdam harbour to the centre of Europe. This study analyses its economic and environmental aspects and compares rail transport with road transport and transport on inland waterways. It is shown that transport by water will compete strongly with transport on the new railway and that water transport is attractive economically and environmentally.     

公路项目经济性与可持续性的相关探讨

文章针对我国目前公路建设项目前期论证中经济性分析存在的不足,将公路项目按照其不同的经济属性进行了较细致的划分,并在此基础上对公路项目的经济性与可持续性进行了详细论述,得出了项目的可持续性分析应成为公路建设项目经济性分析前提的结论。     

Using multiple hybrid spatial design network analysis to predict longitudinal effect of a major city centre redevelopment on pedestrian flows

Transportation - Predicting how changes to the urban environment layout will affect the spatial distribution of pedestrian flows is important for environmental, social and economic sustainability....     

How can the maritime industry meet Sustainable Development Goals? An analysis of sustainability reports from the social entrepreneurship perspective

Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) are a comprehensive agenda agreed upon globally that aims to stimulate actions towards economic, environmental and social sustainability. Being one of the key stakeholders, the international maritime industry plays an important role in contributing to global sustainability. By applying the concept of social entrepreneurship (SE), this study aims to examine (1) the basic and extended responsibilities (SDG 1–SDG 16) and (2) the potential collaborations within the value chain (SDG 17) concerning SDG implementation in maritime industry. To achieve these, we conduct a content analysis of sustainability reports published by container shipping liners and terminal operators from 2016 to 2019. More specifically, manual text classification is adopted to categorise the text content of sustainability reports based on 17 SDGs, and automatic text mining is employed to further identify the key roles of maritime industry related to each SDG. A unified framework is proposed, which points to varied motives and levels of comprehensiveness of the sustainability efforts by the maritime industry. This framework reveals the theoretic process of maritime industry's transitional involvement in sustainability from the SE perspective. It also creates managerial implications regarding the resource allocation strategies by maritime industry in meeting SDGs.     

Examining transport futures with scenario analysis and MCA

Climate change is a global problem and across the world the transport sector is finding it difficult to break projected increases in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions; there are very few contexts where deep reductions in transport CO₂ emissions are being made. A number of research studies are now examining the potential for future lower CO₂ emissions in the transport sector. This paper develops this work to consider some of the wider sustainability impacts (economic, social and local environmental) as well as the lower CO₂ transport impacts of different policy trajectories. Hence the central argument made is for an integrated approach to transport policy making over the longer term - incorporating scenario analysis and multi-criteria assessment (MCA) - to help assess likely progress against a range of objectives.The analysis is based on work carried out in Oxfordshire, UK. Different packages of measures are selected and two scenarios developed which satisfy lower CO₂ aspirations, one of which also provides wider positive sustainability impacts. A simulation model has been produced to help explore the strategic policy choices and tensions evident for decision-makers involved in local transport planning. The paper argues for a ‘strategic conversation’ (Van der Heijden, 1996) at the sub-regional and city level, based upon future scenario analysis and MCA, discussing the priorities for intervention. Such an approach will help us examine the scale of change and trade-offs required in moving towards sustainable transport futures.     

Social Impacts of Transport: Literature Review and the State of the Practice of Transport Appraisal in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom

Abstract

Transport appraisals in European countries increasingly address three dimensions of sustainability—economic, ecological and social. However, social impacts of transport have been underexposed in (ex‐ante) transport project appraisal, at least in the Netherlands. Firstly, this article presents a theoretical framework describing the relationships between determinants of social impacts of transport; it also provides a definition and categorization of those impacts. Secondly, the article reviews the state of the practice of national transport project appraisal in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The article shows that social impacts of transport investments can take on many forms and their levels of importance may vary widely, in project appraisal. The UK transport appraisal guidance includes a spectrum of social impacts through quantitative and qualitative assessments that is broader than the Dutch appraisal guidance. However, it does not cover the full range as identified in the literature. This holds, in particular, for the temporary impacts of transport investments, health impacts, social cohesion, the distribution and accumulation of impacts across population groups and social justice. All in all, it can be concluded that there is a long way to go before social impacts of transport projects are completely included in appraisals, in a way that allows us to compare them to economic and ecological effects.     

A comparison of the sustainability of public and private transportation systems: Study of the Greater Toronto Area

A macroscopic assessment of the impacts of private and public transportation systems on the sustainability of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is undertaken from economic, environmental and social perspectives. The methodology draws upon the urban metabolism and sustainability indicators approaches to assessing urban sustainability, but compares modes in terms of passenger-kms. In assessing the economic sustainability of a city, transportation should be recognized as a product, a driver and a cost. In 1993, the traded costs of automobile use in the GTA were approximately balanced by the value of the automobile parts and assembly industry. But local transit costs 1/3 to 1/6 of the auto costs per person-km, in traded dollars, mainly because local labour is the primary cost.Public transportation is more sustainable from an environmental perspective. Automobile emissions are a major contributor to air pollution, which is a serious contemporary environmental health problem in Toronto. Public transportation modes are less energy intensive (including indirect energy consumption) and produce CO₂ at an order of magnitude lower, although these benefits are partially undermined by under-utilization of transit capacity and the source of electricity generation.The social benefits of automobile use are likely more significant than costs in determining GTA residents' preferential mode choice. The speed and access of auto use provide important economic benefits, e.g. relating to employment and product choice. Nevertheless, offsetting the service attributes of private transportation are large social costs in terms of accidents. The costs of automobile insurance provide one tangible measure of such negative impacts.In order to improve the sustainability of the GTA, innovative approaches are required for improving the performance level of public transportation or substantially reducing the need for the service level provided by automobiles. Efforts such as greater integration of bicycles with public transit, or construction of light-rail systems in wide roadways, might be considered. But to be sustainable overall, a transportation system has to be flexible and adaptable and so must combine a mixture of modes.     

Energy consumption in China’s logistics industry: A decomposition analysis using the LMDI approach

The logistics industry plays a critical role in boosting China’s economic development, although at significant externality costs. Using the 1980–2010 data, we examine the historical evolution of energy consumption in China’s logistics industry. The logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method was used to analyze the key factors that drove the chronicle changes in logistics energy consumption in China. Changes in energy consumption of China’s logistics industry are attributed to growth in logistics activity, modal shift in freight transportation, increases in transport intensity, and overall improvements in energy intensity: (1) China’s logistics industry enjoyed fast growth with an average annual growth rate of 9.65% from 1980 to 2010. Increase in logistics activity has been the major force driving up logistics energy consumption (accounting for 48.8% of logistics energy increase); (2) Logistics energy consumption increased by 22.91 times, averaging at 11.9% growth per year. Fuel consumption in highway transportation has become more dominant in logistics energy consumption; (3) While changes in logistics activities, transportation modes and transport intensity pushed up logistics energy consumptions, improvements in energy intensity helped significantly to curb the energy rise in China’s logistics industry.