The Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and the University of Amsterdam have a total of 80 college buildings in Amsterdam, all of these buildings need to be supplied with goods almost daily. The educational institutes joined forces with Deudekom and PostNL and created a logistics hub just outside of Amsterdam. The hub prevents large delivery trucks from driving into the city. Instead, the big trucks deliver their goods to the hub, which are then transported to their final destination by clean, electric vehicles. The use of this hub is an outcome of a study on improving the sustainability of purchasing.
The two universities have a tremendous amount of products and services delivered. They work with 16,000 suppliers. These suppliers make 90,000 delivery trips which translate to 2.8 million driven kilometers every year. For your imagination, that is equivalent to circling the earth 70 times. This enormous number of deliveries is a major burden on the environment and adds to congestion in the city.
Read more about this project here.