Why Last-Mile Deliveries Must Go Green

While e-commerce deliveries often dominate headlines around emissions and traffic, public home service deliveries—such as elderly care, meal provision, and health-related transport—have quietly become a hidden source of environmental strain in many European cities.

These services are vital. They ensure that vulnerable citizens, including the elderly, people with disabilities, and those with chronic health conditions, receive the daily support they need. However, there’s a growing problem: how these services are delivered.

In most cities today:

• Social services rely on fossil-fueled, outdated vehicles
• Routes are inefficiently planned, resulting in unnecessary travel time and fuel consumption
• Deliveries happen individually, without coordination between service providers or municipalities
• Vehicles often remain underutilized, moving small loads at a high environmental cost

The cumulative effect is significant:

• High CO₂ emissions per trip, multiplied across hundreds of daily journeys
• Air and noise pollution in residential neighborhoods
• Increased traffic congestion, even during off-peak hours
• Disconnection between city centers and surrounding rural or suburban areas, making it harder to plan collective, low-emission alternatives

At a time when cities are investing in bike lanes, electric buses, and climate action plans, the service vehicles that care for our most vulnerable are being left out of the transition. This contradiction poses a sustainability challenge—and an opportunity.