Sustainable Logistics and Economic Development
Summary
Sustainable logistics integrates environmental stewardship into the planning, operation and optimisation of supply chains, transportation networks and warehousing systems. By embedding low-carbon technologies, circular-economy principles and real-time digital monitoring, it seeks to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, minimise resource consumption and improve resilience to disruptions. Efficient freight movement and last-mile delivery foster economic growth by lowering transaction costs, enhancing market access and stimulating trade. Policy measures such as fuel‐efficiency standards, carbon pricing and green infrastructure investment have accelerated the adoption of electric vehicles, intermodal transport corridors and smart routing algorithms. In turn, these innovations bolster competitiveness, support regional development and contribute to equitable livelihoods, demonstrating that economic progress and environmental protection can be mutually reinforcing when logistics systems are designed with sustainability at their core.
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Sustainable Logistics and Economic Development publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in sustainable logistics and economic development across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Logistics Performance Index (LPI): An aggregate indicator measuring a country’s trade logistics efficiency across dimensions such as customs, infrastructure, international shipments, logistics quality, tracking and timeliness.
Data envelopment analysis (DEA): A non-parametric efficiency-measurement technique that compares multiple inputs and outputs to identify best practice performance among peer units.
Carbon emissions efficiency: A metric expressing the economic output or service level delivered per unit of carbon dioxide emitted by logistics activities.
Panel regression analysis: A statistical method that estimates relationships by exploiting data variation across entities and over time while controlling for unobserved, time-invariant factors.
References
- Evaluation of Green Logistics Efficiency in Jiangxi Province Based on Three-Stage DEA from the Perspective of High-Quality Development. Sustainability (2022).
- The trilemma of innovation, logistics performance, and environmental quality in 25 topmost logistics countries: A quantile regression evidence. Journal of Cleaner Production (2021).
- The relationship between logistics performance and carbon emissions: an empirical investigation on Balkan countries. International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management (2020).
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