Using Procurement Power to Accelerate Sustainable City Logistics: Lessons from Change Agents in The Netherlands

Abstract

The role of large procurers (receivers) in improving city logistics is gaining increased attention among scientists and professionals. Knowledge, guidance, and agreements in this field have led to more willingness, ability, and opportunities among receivers to contribute to efficient and zero-emission city logistics when buying goods and services. Change agents play a vital role by initiating, managing, and implementing the change towards more sustainable processes within organisations. The experiences of change agents in The Netherlands show that the number of initiatives in which governments, universities, businesses, and health care institutions (jointly) use their procurement power to accelerate sustainable city logistics is growing. However, the development towards realisation and scaling in practice is going slowly. For this research, we asked change agents in The Netherlands to discuss together the circumstances and actions that support progress towards sustainable city logistics using the buying power of large (clusters of) organisations in cities. Qualitative data has been collected in three workshops, covering 10 initiatives in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, and Nijmegen. A list of twelve lessons has been derived and compared with the existing literature. Their experiences confirmed that change is supported by knowledge networks, objectives that motivate stakeholders, a strategic vision, a baseline measurement, social pressure, monitoring and communicating progress, market dialogue, and a broad set of measures. The research also provides new recommendations for change agents. They are advised to form a ‘seed-group’, involve a high-ranking ambassador, and actively promote knowledge sharing among peers to increase involvement. Lastly, it has become clear that knowledge on financial feasibility is scarce. This is because every business case is made-to-measure and is barely quantified from the perspective of receivers.