Webinar highlights: Mixed use of urban space for city logistics

Thursday, April 10th, 2025

On 9 April 2025, ALICE and POLIS co-hosted a joint webinar as part of their ongoing series exploring innovative solution towards more sustainable urban logistics. Titled “Mixed Use of Urban Space for City Logistics”, the session focused on how dynamic and multiple use of existing urban areas, and how sharing space between logistics operations and other activities can improve efficiency, sustainability and liveability in cities, drawing on insights from the EU-funded projects DISCO and UNCHAIN, and a good practice from Amazon in Paris.

As cities face increasing freight flows and competing demands for limited space, the webinar presented practical strategies for integrating logistics functions into the urban context, without compromising public accessibility, heritage, or quality of life.

Highlights from the webinar

Urban logistics in Thessaloniki: adaptive reuse of exhibition spaces
Vasilis Giannoudis (CERTH) presented the DISCO project’s Living Lab in Thessaloniki, demonstrating how underutilised premises at the TIF-HELEXPO exhibition centre were repurposed for logistics operations. In partnership with ACS Courier and the municipality, the pilot project relocated inner-city deliveries to a more strategic location on the outskirts of the city. Enabled by the upgraded Wear&M&O platform, a digital tool akin to an “Airbnb for urban logistics space”, the initiative optimised use of existing infrastructure and reduced traffic congestion in the historic centre.

Key takeaways:

Multifunctional use of buildings is possible with minimal retrofitting.

Digital tools, including blockchain-enabled smart contracts, facilitated site selection and booking.
Improved operational efficiency reduced pavement encroachment and illegal parking, enhancing public space.

Florence and the UNCHAIN project: smart management of a heritage city
Alessandra Barbieri from the City of Florence shared how the municipality is addressing freight challenges in a UNESCO-protected urban environment. Through the UNCHAIN project, Florence is piloting a new Sustainable Urban Logistics Plan based on stakeholder collaboration and integrated into wider mobility, climate, and energy strategies.

Florence is testing:

Dynamic curbside and loading zone management via a smart city control room.
A dedicated mobile application, Informabilità Firenze, to inform citizens and operators on mobility and logistics conditions in real time.
Policies aligned with the city’s Climate City Contract, including Low Emission Zones and Green Shield road pricing to manage freight flows in a sustainable way.

Paris case study: repurposing bus depots for last-mile delivery
Joy Pasquet (Amazon Logistics) presented an innovative public-private partnership in Paris, where underused RATP bus depots are now shared as logistics micro-hubs. This arrangement supports zero-emission last-mile delivery by cargo bikes and push carts, reducing road congestion and noise pollution.

This approach has demonstrated:

Efficient time-based sharing of space between public transport and logistics.
Potential for replication in other cities facing real estate constraints.
The importance of regulatory support to enable flexible and low-impact logistics operations.

The Q&A session, moderated by Marion Cottet (ALICE), highlighted common challenges and enablers in the three cities:

Strategic location and adaptive reuse of existing infrastructure are key to urban logistics efficiency.
Cross-sector cooperation is essential, especially between municipalities, real estate owners, and operators.
Digital platforms play an essential role in dynamic space management and data exchange.

This webinar is part of a broader dialogue on how to better integrate freight and passenger transport to support sustainable urban mobility. The next webinar in the POLIS – ALICE series will take place on 23 May 2025 and will focus on combined freight and passenger transport solutions.

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