LANCS Initiative
| industrial collaborators: | Through workshops and dissemination |
| academic collaborators: | Lancaster, Nottingham, Cardiff, Southampton |
| initiated : | 2009/05/20 |
| last updated: | 2009/06/09 |
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Green Logistics
Producing and distributing goods needs to be done in a fashion that is economically viable, yet also takes better account of environmental and social factors. This goal poses a considerable challenge to the nation and the world. The Green Logistics theme aims to build innovative OR models and methodologies to meet this challenge. It will support new ways of working and new objectives, leading to new environmentally friendly processes. As a primary example, OR-driven changes to logistics management can make an important contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Waste Management and Reverse Logistics
New regulations and policies regarding household waste are designed to discourage waste production and encourage reuse and recycling. These increased requirements need careful management to avoid the waste collection process itself becoming inefficient and overly complex. The transport of hazardous waste needs to take account of risks to populations as well as meeting economic objectives. Reverse logistics aims to rethink and redesign production processes so as to increase the usage of recycled materials.
Computerised Vehicle Routing and Scheduling
New data-intensive sources of information on road networks and traffic conditions have the potential to help carriers avoid congestion and to produce routes that are both economic and less polluting. Effective exploitation of such data is a challenge that will drive the development of new OR methods.
Airline and Airport Management
Integrated management, supported by advanced OR methods, offers the possibility of many savings in both monetary and environmental costs. For example, integrating the management of airport gates with the scheduling of takeoffs, hence delaying engine start-up until needed, could lead to planes spending less time in queues with engines running. This has very obvious environmental implications in terms of fuel burn and emissions.related resources:
| LANCS Initiative | |
| Healthcare | |
| » | Green Logistics |
| Transport | |
| Building the theory for the practice | |