Logistics and mobility

What is it:

An industrial park should be located close to the main arterial roads and to the main public transportation lines, but is not always the case: it happens that, as they require major free buildable areas, industrial parks are located in the suburbs of cities and they are not properly linked to the residential districts.

Cooperative solutions towards to better results:

• Joint fleet for employees to reach the park

  It is a common practice for companies across Europe to organise shuttle busses for their employees to reach the workplace. However, a shared service engaging several companies in the same park would allow a park fleet to operate in an efficient way.

  This would guarantee the transport service to their employees, while not being a burden on the companies accounts nor operating in an inefficient way.

• Joint car pooling

  The term “carpooling” refers to the arrangement between people to make a regular journey in a single vehicle, typically with each person taking turns to drive the others.

• Joint electric vehicles/H2 based fleet

  Battery electric vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles both offer convenient personal mobility with no tailpipe emissions. Their potential to reduce CO2 emissions depends on providing them with from low-carbon source.

  The economic impact is related both to a directly diminished cost for fuelling the vehicles, especially if the electricity is produced in-loco exploiting renewable energy sources, and potentially also to a smarter management of the park electric grid if they are integrated in smart grid.

  The environmental benefit is directly to the fact that they are characterised by zero tailpipe emissions immediately decreasing pollution in high population density areas. Electric vehicles are not yet extremely common in many EU countries, they could be marketing tool for companies to promote their brand, especially if it can be related to environmentally friendly policies.

Companies cooperation benefits:

This practice, if applied to an industrial park, has the following benefits:

• Reducing the expenses for the employees
• Reducing the number of cars and vehicles on the road
• Reducing the required parking spaces

Electric and H2 vehicles are still characterised by high capital cost and in this framework their purchase could take advantage of a cooperative solution: more than one company would participate to acquire them and successively employ them in a joint way.

This could also be a way to promote among company management operatives and employees and foster their further diffusion.

What is it:

Considering the current and foreseen uptake of electric and H2 based vehicles across Europe, the request for charging points is increasing. At the same time, it is one of the remaining barriers to a wider diffusion of non-fossil fuel-based transportation.

Moreover, one of the most frequent paths in everyday transfers is the home-work-home route and having the opportunity to charge the vehicle while working would represent a strong benefit for employees.

Companies cooperation benefits:

Sharing such installation would be both a way to dampen the costs and a mechanism to integrate the vehicles in a park smart grid, allowing additional flexibility to the internal grid.

Additionally, it would be an incentive for the employee to consider the possibility of purchasing an electric or H2 based vehicle, thus supporting the transition to such kind of mobility.

What is it:

The possibility of incorporating in the industrial park, a block dedicated to office buildings strongly depends on the manufacturing activities related to each company and its size.

However, it is not uncommon for the manufacturing building(s) to be physically detached from the office one(s) for many different reasons (e.g. sometimes for the well-being of employees in the case of noisy/hazardous production).

In this case, the possibility to foresee a shared building for the office may be present, advantages are summarised below.

Companies cooperation benefits:

Benefits from the implementation of this solution are:

• Possibility to invest in high energy efficient spaces: a building dedicated to offices can benefit from consolidated and cross-cutting technologies currently adopted in the residential buildings.
• Lowered operative costs: in this category can be included the cost related to electricity, water, heating and cooling, internet, etc. which often present a part linked to the consumption (which can be lowered thanks to the efficiency of the building) and a fixed fee (which could be diminished if negotiated in a joint way). Moreover, costs related to the administrative office and reception one could be shared.
• Increased flexibility in space utilisation: it is common in commercial office buildings that each different company leases a floor.