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Urban Freight Lab

Research Keyword: Zero-Emissions Zones

Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) City Climate Innovation Challenge

Led by the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), the City Climate Innovation Challenge supports a national cohort of cities advancing climate goals through zero-emissions delivery (ZED) strategies that reduce freight emissions and improve air quality.

The Urban Freight Lab is a core technical and research partner, leading the project’s research and policy efforts with Cityfi. Our role includes developing a national outcomes and evaluation framework, analyzing and designing policy and business models, supporting pilot deployments, and evaluating results. This work will culminate in a national ZED Business and Policy Model Toolkit, a practical resource that cities across the U.S. can use to replicate and scale effective zero-emissions delivery solutions.

Background

The City Climate Innovation Challenge is a program to help cities across the country incorporate innovation to achieve climate goals related to specific priority topics. In January 2024, LACI announced the cities joining our anchor partners of Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Santa Monica. They are Louisville, KY; Miami-Dade County, FL; New York City, NY; Oakland, CA; Portland, OR; and Washington D.C. LACI and partners like the Urban Freight Lab and Cityfi, will help these cities to develop solutions accelerating the move to zero emissions delivery, reducing emissions from predominantly dirty, diesel trucks moving goods from first mile to last mile–which predominantly impact low income, disadvantaged communities.

In budget period 1, the project will develop an outcomes and evaluation framework for community-centered ZED pilots; analyze and map ideal charging sites in two or more select cities to lay the groundwork for integrated ZED pilots and charging infrastructure deployment; develop public and private sector business model options and policy designs specific to goods movement incentives, pricing and enforcement; and deploy community-driven ZED pilots and charging infrastructure in two or more cities to test business and policy models.

In budget period 2, the team will deploy community-driven ZED pilots and charging infrastructure in two or more cities to test business and policy models; analyze pilots with focus on business model and policy performance; and produce a Zero Emission Delivery Business and Policy Model Platform for cities across the country to utilize in adapting and replicating best practices for scaling zero emission delivery solutions.

Urban Freight Lab Scope of Work

Task 1 – Create a bench of innovation partners that will deploy in two or more cohort cities to test pilot efficacy and administration

Task 2 – Develop an outcomes and evaluation framework for community-centered charging and ZED pilots

Task 3 – Summarize policy, business model, and operating model landscape for ZED

Deliverable: Create a detailed research report on the state of zero emission delivery in the U.S.

Task 5 – Develop policy designs and interventions specific to incentives, pricing and enforcement

Task 6 – Public and private business model ideation

Task 7 – Develop zero emission delivery policy pilot and charging infrastructure deployment plans for two or more ZED City Challenge cities to test policies, business models, and charging infrastructure.

Deliverable: Document pilot plans for ZED City Challenge cities

Task 12 – Analyze pilot, business model, and policy performance and document effectiveness

Task 13 – Produce ZED Business and Policy Model Platform Toolkit

Zero-Emission Zones: Turning Ideas into Action

C40 Cities, a consortium of cities worldwide with the collective goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, introduced an initiative in 2017 to create “Zero Emission Areas.” These areas, or zones, would be closed off to fossil fuel-burning vehicles and serve as a testbed for scaling up zero-emission regulation. Seattle, along with U.S. counterparts Austin, Texas and Los Angeles, CA, is a signatory to the Zero Emission Area Programme and as such, is obligated to create such an area by 2030.

Zero Emission Zones (ZEZ) can introduce obstacles to the urban freight and logistics industry. Though large delivery companies like Amazon, UPS, and FedEx are introducing electric vehicles (EVs), parcel and package delivery are not the only service included in the complex sector of urban freight. EVs are not yet widely available on the market and the high capital costs of introducing EVs into a company’s fleet can act as a barrier. However, there are strategies being tested and explored to reduce emissions including but not limited to zero emission curb zones, parcel lockers, e-cargo bikes, pricing strategies at the curb and at the point of sale (e.g. taxes and fees), consolidation centers, and other strategies. Additionally, many of these zones are being envisioned in areas with a focus on improving equity outcomes and across neighborhoods of different characteristics. However, no guidance exists for cities about how to approach the selection of these areas or tactics co-developed with the private sector.

Research Objectives

  • Develop a framework for evaluating geographic locations, existing policy tools, and key learning objectives or measures of success based on two different neighborhood typologies
  • Incorporate private sector stakeholders into the design process

Tasks

  • Task 1: Define the characteristics and goals of a zero-emission delivery zone
  • Task 2: Perform literature and policy scan on existing tools to push deliveries towards zero emission (industry and consumer-side)
  • Task 3: Identify 2 different neighborhood typologies in Seattle for analysis and define the study area boundaries
    • One neighborhood should meet existing definitions of a Justice 40 or equity focus area community as defined by City of Seattle (e.g. Georgetown)
    • One neighborhood should represent high-density demand for e-commerce and congestion (define?) (e.g. Capital Hill, South Lake Union)
  • Task 4: Collect publicly-available baseline data on neighborhood characteristics collect data (land use, types of businesses, demographics of residents)
  • Task 5: Develop potential scenarios, tactics, and metrics that reflect the unique characteristics of the chosen neighborhoods/typologies
    • The team will leverage existing relationships to perform private sector outreach, based on interviews: understand their priorities, reactions to scenarios under development.
  • Task 6: Recommendations and framework
    • How do you choose the site / site selection criteria and methodology
    • Tactics based on neighborhood typology characteristics- using policies available right now or with limited policy effort
    • Equity-Community metrics- How does the makeup of the zone/neighborhood impact tactics + metrics?
    • Key metrics- What are you trying to test and how will you measure?
    • Tools to accelerate the implementation of zero-emission deliveries.

Deliverable

Create a framework for zero emission zone design and case study of two different neighborhoods in Seattle.