Nearly one third of Edmonton’s green house gas emissions are from transportation. Last mile solutions for urban freight growth, increasing e-commerce activity, and the growing customer demands for faster deliveries have put tremendous pressure on retailers and delivery service companies to transport goods to customers. This pressure is compounded by the challenges of conducting last-mile deliveries in congested major urban centres, curbside competition, lagging freight and goods movement planning, and rising land costs.

With funding from the CitiesIPCC Legacy Research Grant Program, this research investigated opportunities for efficiencies in urban freight, opportunities to decarbonize urban freight, and the role of utilities in enabling electrification of both urban freight vehicles as well as passenger vehicles.

The researchers created a map of relevant stakeholders, and completed outreach to identify partnership opportunities that would best address the challenges of the city. The research and partnership building exercise supported the Urban Deliveries Solutions Initiative (UDSI) that the Pembina Institute is spearheading. The UDSI is a pan-Canadian initiative that brings together Canadian businesses and organizations from the delivery services and retail ecosystem to showcase environmental leadership, propose policy solutions, and share best practices in urban freight.

Read the study and report that the Pembina Institute completed in Ontario in 2019: Delivering Last-Mile Solutions: A feasibility analysis of microhubs & cyclelogistics in the GTHA 

RESEARCHERS

• Vincent Morales, Technical & Policy Analyst

• Binnu Jeyakumar, Program Director

• Janelle Lee, Analyst