News
13 Jan 2025

Meet GreenTurn, CodeZERO’s sister project

CodeZERO’s sister project, GreenTurn, focuses on incentivising and promoting sustainable delivery choices among online shoppers by providing sound and transparent information on e-commerce footprints as well as co-creating zero-emission logistics solutions for e-commerce. A ‘sister project’ refers to a related initiative funded under the same EU program, sharing aligned objectives and target audiences within a common thematic focus.

These projects are designed to complement each other by sharing insights, methodologies, and outcomes. Sister projects collaborate to identify shared opportunities, avoid duplicating efforts, and optimise resources, ultimately working together to maximise their collective impact.

Project Consortium

The GreenTurn project started in August 2024 and is being carried out by a consortium including the following partners: Łukasiewicz – Poznan Institute of Technology, University of Groningen, University of Antwerp, Chalmers University of Technology, City of Poznań, Logika, Bax Company, University of the Aegean, Econsult, Fundación Zaragoza Ciudad del Conocimiento, InPost, LogPOINT, Alice, City of Zaragoza.

How to convince e-commerce customers to make sustainable choices?

The project will commence with social research conducted in five European cities (GreenTurn’s pilot sites): Athens, Lyon, Zaragoza, Vienna, and Poznań. Researchers will explore online shoppers’ habits and their expectations for sustainable delivery. The study aims to assess the importance of emissivity in delivery choices, whether customers would consider returning a package if feasible, and what conditions could reduce the number of returns.

Project Coordinator Bartosz Kożuch, Logistics R&D Projects Specialist at Łukasiewicz – Poznań Institute of Technology, explains that the project will analyse both customers’ stated preferences and their actual choices in online shops. Based on the outcomes of the qualitative and quantitative research, followed by a series of workshops and brainstorming sessions with e-commerce stakeholders, a set of improved incentive systems that encourage low-carbon delivery options and reduce returns will be developed.

Green delivery

One phase of the project involves co-developing (together with logistic service providers, retailers, customers, public authorities and other actors representing the e-commerce value chain) a catalogue of zero-emission delivery methods—from using electric vehicles (such as delivery vans and e-cargo bikes) to implementing micro-hubs. The catalogue will feature technology prototypes and organizational solutions that will be then tested by throughout the 5 pilots, envisioned to take place in: Athens, Lyon, Poznań, Vienna, Austria; and Zaragoza, Spain.The pilots are complementary, cover different parts of Europe, as well as tackle the most relevant e-commerce markets (fresh produce, food & beverages, fashion/clothing, re-commerce, consumer electronics) and business models (B2B, B2C, C2C, G2B2C).

As part of GreenTurn, researchers also plan to develop a tool for measuring the carbon footprint of e-commerce logistics in selected European countries. This tool will align with European Union policy objectives and existing international standards. Enhancing the quality and availability of ecological footprint data will empower city authorities to incorporate this information into transport and social policy planning.

Overall, GreenTurn aims to drive innovation in sustainable logistics while helping consumers make environmentally responsible choices by:

  • consolidating knowledge on effective zero-emission delivery and return options, along with successful behavioral interventions that encourage greener choices;
  • developing methods to measure the environmental impact of e-commerce deliveries and returns;
  • providing scalable and replicable processes for retailers and logistics service providers to offer transparent information on environmental footprints;
  • scaling and promoting the adoption of zero-emission delivery and return options, alongside digital communication practices with consumers;
  • supporting public authorities in shaping policies and regulations that encourage sustainable e-commerce deliveries and returns.