SENATOR has participated in the recent report by Forética entitled “Rethinking Our Cities: Towards a new model of sustainable urban development”.
Urban planning, the way in which urban space is distributed, is key to the way cities operate, and planning cities in a sustainable way can bring plenty of benefits. This is shown in the report “Rethinking our cities. Towards a new model of sustainable urban development”, published by Forética, the leading organisation in sustainability and corporate social responsibility with more than 200 members. Its mission is to integrate social, environmental and good governance aspects into the strategy and management of companies and organisations.
First, putting citizens’ needs at the centre and integrating a sustainability perspective into processes (sustainable urban planning) can help to address and adapt to the environmental, social and economic challenges that lie ahead in the medium term.
These environmental and social variables of course can improve the quality of life of citizens, improve public health and mitigate people’s vulnerability to other hazards, such as natural disasters.
Furthermore, appropriate macroeconomic policies and well-planned and managed urbanisation can help countries to accelerate their economic growth.
The report, presented in the framework of the business meeting ‘Building Sustainable Cities: Levers for Success’, is composed of a total of 25 companies and organisations, where Correos introduces SENATOR. This document identifies six levers for success on the path to sustainable urban development, together with the actions that need to be implemented through collaboration between the different stakeholders:
- Sustainable mobility initiatives
- Integration of green areas
- Greater ambition in the fight against climate change
- Energy efficiency measures
- Sustainable building and construction projects
- Solutions to promote citizens’ health
Sustainable mobility initiatives
Mobility is one of the fundamental and characteristic elements of urban environments, firstly because it is a key enabler of the economy: it facilitates the movement of people and goods in and out of the city.
Urban mobility is also related to many of the challenges present in cities: pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, health problems, noise, accident rates, etc. Therefore, a commitment to more sustainable mobility entails very relevant economic, social and environmental benefits for urban environments at a global level.
What solutions can companies propose?
According to the Forética report, some keys that could help to move towards more sustainable mobility are:
- Renewal of the vehicle fleet towards less emitting vehicles: hybrids, electric vehicles, natural gas vehicles, biofuels, renewable hydrogen, etc.
- Installation of electric vehicle charging points on company premises or at points of sale for use by employees or customers.
- Optimisation of logistics routes to reduce the number of kilometres travelled and, therefore, the emissions generated for goods transport, delivery vehicles, waste collection vehicles or other urban services, etc.
- Innovation in last-mile transport: use of electric vehicles, micro-mobility, bicycles, walking, etc.
- Collaboration with other companies in city centres for the use of micro-platforms for urban distribution.
Cities are making a clear commitment to move towards more sustainable mobility, says the report. This involves developing strategies and actions to move towards more sustainable, low-emission and safer modes of transport. SENATOR project is a demonstration of this commitment, coordinated by Correos and involving city councils such as Zaragoza and Dublin along with eight other organisations from five European countries.
SENATOR participates in the report as an action that seeks to help municipalities, or other territorial demarcations, to improve their planning and management of urban logistics, through a Control Tower that will be developed to optimise the flow of goods.
Thus, the project will work to develop a new urban logistics model that offers cities planning and logistics governance solutions, shared and low-emission distribution, and meets the needs of the on-demand economy, which allows products to be purchased through online platforms.
