These figures alone show that logistics is more than just transport and warehouses. Furthermore, logistics today can only flourish sustainably if the connection with industrial activities is strong enough. This means that the boundary between logistics and production is becoming less defined. This can be seen in the changing design of larger warehouses. For example the pure storage space is increasingly making way for added value activities with an increasingly industrial character, such as assembly, adding options or kitting. These types of activities are labour intensive, providing work for more than 30,000 people in more than 790 European distribution centres (EDCs) supplying at least five European countries. 

Aside from the obvious benefits of logistics for the economy, the social and ecological costs cannot be denied. Scarcity of land, increasing traffic congestion in the region and increased emissions of harmful gasses are a few examples of this. This means that a new challenge presents itself: sustainable logistics. Sustainability is generally defined as meeting present needs without mortgaging the needs of future generations.

 

Until now, companies had the goal of optimising their supply chains to be more efficient and more effective, without very much consideration of sustainability. Maximum efficiency in this is usually expressed in a minimal total logistical cost, or total supply chain cost. Effectiveness generally refers to the service level that is offered to the client, often expressed in terms of delivery frequency, delivery quantities, delivery times, etc. Performant supply chain management makes it possible to improve efficiency and effectiveness together, to a certain level. Beyond that level the company has to choose for efficiency or effectiveness, depending on its strategy.

 

More and more companies are starting to demand sustainable logistics. This means that the existing trade-off between effectiveness and efficiency must now be expanded to include sustainability as well. The result is that the space to optimize the three criteria at once becomes very tight. It is hard to imagine that a company can minimise its supply chain costs by making all its transport comodal, and simultaneously making more frequent deliveries in smaller quantities. Yet the opportunities are there: collaboration, consolidation, in other words bundling streams is the key word. Companies that are prepared to bundle their streams horizontally will succeed in improving all three of their supply chain demands at once.

 

To be able to offer the logistics sector as many opportunities as possible to develop towards sustainability without significantly increasing social impacts, the Flemish Logistics Institute has developed the “Extended Gateway® Flanders” concept. First of all, the Extended Gateway® Flanders concept responds to a trend that has already been apparent for some time. Sea and air ports are taking initiatives in the area they serve to increase their competitiveness. Hence the term Extended Gateway® Flanders.

The goal is also to place the (industrial) logistical activities in the correct location, which is the place where the minimal total logistical cost generates the least social impact. Originally conceived as being more a question of business economics, themes such as the environment, quality of life, mobility, regional planning and work activity are increasingly being linked to logistical development. By clustering logistical activity in carefully chosen regions, the flow of goods can be bundled and multimodality can be expanded sustainably. With the Extended Gateway® Flanders Flanders concept, gateways and hinterland find each other. The concept also offers enormous development opportunities both for the gateways as well as for the Flemish and, with expansion, European hinterland.

 

In this way, hinterland locations are expanded in terms of job opportunities and consolidated delivery of goods flows, while the gateway increases its attractiveness for these flows of goods by establishing them more deeply. Moreover, the gateway is able to reserve maximum space for those industrial and logistic activities that are more port related, such as basic chemical activities or processing large volumes. The ultimate goal of the Extended Gateway® Flanders is to lead the right investment in the right location through a structured, integrated approach. The concept that was originally concerned with business economics and logistics is gradually becoming a broad social project that concerns regional planning, mobility, a healthy labour market, environmental aspects and the optimal expansion and use of the infrastructure.

Not all activities need to be concentrated in the gateways. According to the total logistical cost ratio, this is actually not recommended. If the hinterland is selected, then clustering is recommended: logistical and industrial activities are bundled to be able to achieve optimal economies of scale. The focus is primarily on (a limited number of) favourable hotspots, regions that are particularly well suited to logistics. The cluster effects can then be further developed concretely to the level of business operations. In short, companies must be encouraged to bundle streams. At present the Extended Gateway® Flanders is being given a concrete form and is being increasingly used as a leading instrument for the further development of sustainable logistics in Flanders.

 

In this way Flanders will be able to further develop itself into a logistical port for Europe with maximum benefits and minimal costs. In this process, sustainability is not a cost, but an opportunity to get all parties onto the same wavelength and focus on one concept. The government creates the framework - the Extended Gateway® Flanders - in which the logistical players have every opportunity to reach high goals in the areas of cost efficiency, customer service and sustainability. In this way Flanders can maintain and expand its position as a top logistical region.