Responding to the grand challenge of our time: Introducing the SMART Project
The convergence of crises that we face as a global society, with its grand challenge of how to achieve social progress for all while staying within the planetary boundaries, emphasises the importance of discussing the role of the market actors (businesses, investors, consumers and the public sector in its many roles as market actor).
With many difficult questions ahead, there is one thing we know for sure: the ‘business as usual’ path market actors in aggregate are on is not an option for sustainability; it is a very certain path towards a very uncertain future. A fundamental transition away from ‘business as usual’ and onto a sustainable path is necessary. Such a fundamental transition requires sustainable market actors.
The paper presents the ongoing research project Sustainable Market Actors for Responsible Trade (SMART) -project (SMART). SMART analyses the regulatory complexity within which European market actors operate, both the private sector and the public sector in its many market roles. With a focus especially on international supply chains of products sold in Europe, the aim is to find out what prevents and what promotes a shift towards sustainable development. Transport and logistics is a highly relevant and often ignored aspect of this, and the Helsinki conference is therefore a valuable contribution.
Beate Sjåfjell
Beate Sjåfjell is Professor Dr. Juris at the University of Oslo, Faculty of Law; Adjunct Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Faculty of Economics; and head of the Oslo Faculty’s Research Group Companies, Markets and Sustainability as well as several international networks and projects, including the H2020-funded international research project Sustainable Market Actors for Responsible Trade (SMART), see http://www.smart.uio.no/. Beate’s publications include the edited volumes The Greening of European Business Under EU Law (Routledge, 2015, co-editor Anja Wiesbrock) and Company Law and Sustainability (Cambridge University Press, 2015, co-editor: Benjamin Richardson), Sustainable Public Procurement under EU Law (Cambridge University Press, 2016, co-editor Anja Wiesbrock). Much of Beate’s work is available at ssrn.com/author=375947.
Sustainability as a legal challenge – some lessons from the mining sector
Sustainability in corporate governance is a legal challenge. Clearly, for example environmental legislation sets minimum standards for the enterprises and still many companies need voluntary self-regulation to go further on the path to sustainability. Can regulation really guide companies to sustainability? What is the role of self-regulation in law? How to promote in general sustainability as a part of corporate governance? Although it is not possible to give an exhausting answer, some lessons from the mining sector can be learnt.
Sustainable mining is an objective as well as a tool for balancing economic, social, and environmental considerations. While there is no single component that in itself provides a definitive argument for or against sustainable mining, the earlier research has revealed some that have proven valuable in the process of balancing the different dimensions of sustainability. This hermeneutic process can be described using the sustainable development circle. In the centre of this circle is public participation for identifying the different components and balancing the different aspects of sustainability. (Kokko et al. 2015).
I present some examples based on among others empirical studies and add some new consideration to strengthen the role of regulation on the way to sustainability.
Kai Kokko
Dr. Kai Kokko is professor of environmental law at the University of Helsinki. Professor Kokko’s expertise involves several special tasks in the areas of European and national environmental law and environmental policy and regulation. His main research themes have been linked to 1) the theory and methods of environmental law, 2) environmental basic rights, 3) regulation concerning the use of natural resources including everyman’s rights, forestry law and mining law, 4) nature protection regulation or in general biodiversity law, 5) climate change regulation concerning the Climate Act, emission trading and carbon sinks, and 6) EU environmental policy and regulation likewise EU competence in forestry. Moreover, he has studied the environmental responsibility of enterprises and policy instruments likewise environmental impact assessment and land use planning. Earlier he has worked as a professor of environmental law at the University of Lapland (2006-2014) and as a judicial secretary at the Supreme Administrative Court (2005–2006). During his career professor Kokko has been appointed many scientific positions of trust, e.g. a member of Finnish Climate Panel (2011-2015).
Incentives to promote sustainable transport sector
Law could be social engineering, and could shape a greener society in respect of transport. But which possibilities are there, and how effective are they? The presentation will provide a catalogue of different incentives and disincentives and a brief evaluation of each group of them.
Some incentives relate to infrastructure and organization. The role of the lawyers are quite subsidiary in this respect, but is often a better alternative than throwing money after people. However, there are limits for what even legislation can do.
Within the lawyers’ domain, such as in contract law and torts law, the incentive structure could be easily managed by legislation. But which changes should be targeted in transport law? A closer analysis reveals, perhaps unsurprisingly, that law developed over centuries not always copes well with environmental challenges.
Erik Røsæg
Professor Erik Røsæg is formerly the Director of the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law, University of Oslo. He teaches and writes in the fields of maritime law and third party interests in commercial law.
He has been much involved in the negotiations of liability Conventions in the IMO, chairs the Norwegian Maritime Law Commission and has also chaired other committees preparing draft legislation. He has published extensively in national and international journals and books, and is much used as a speaker and consultant in a number of jurisdictions. He is currently involved in the Oslo Law of the Sea Forum an d the chairman of the Arctic Committee of the University of Oslo.
Financing sustainable market actors
Private firms depend on private and debt financing and after listing, institutional investors. Public investments vary from stated-owned enterprises to sovereign and pension funds. This heterogeneity of investors reflects their preferences and conflicting interests. Private investors have incentives to influence the firms’ governance. Institutional investors are often more short-term oriented.
Secondly, new start-ups are reaching new pools of capital while remaining private. In them investors, founders, managers and often employees have contract-based stakes instead of tradable shares. Other new examples are ‘benefit corporations’ intended to operate in a responsible and sustainable manner. Public financing takes place more and more in various hybrid public private partnership forms. A third promising source of long-term corporate finance is crowdfunding.
Due to this heterogeneity, it is crucial to analyse the drivers and obstacles different kind of investors have in creating sustainable value.
Jukka Mähönen
Jukka Mähönen is a Professor of Law at the University of Oslo, co-leader of the Research Group Companies, Markets and Sustainability and Risk Manager of the Sustainable Market Actors for Responsible Trade (SMART) project. Previously he was a Professor of Civil Law and Dean at the University of Turku. His research interests are in company and securities law, accounting and auditing law, tax law and economic analysis of law. At this moment he works with the relationship between institutional investors and public entities as market actors and sustainability.
For additional information, see: http://www.jus.uio.no/ifp/english/people/aca/jukkam/index.html
How can the Single Transport Area promote sustainable transport?
Transport is an important and central economic activity for achieving the objectives of the EU’s internal market. Within the EU, the transport industry provides cross-border services essential for the mobility of people and for the access of goods to geographically distant markets. It is an industry in its own right but also it is an indispensable ancillary activity for many other industrial sectors. It is a complex industry with distinctive features and operating in economic, legal and political conditions differing in substance from EU Member State to EU Member State.
The Presentation examines the transformation of the EU’s Common Transport Policy into a Single Transport Area in a modern world where economic objectives need to be balanced with environmental and social objectives.
Rosa Greaves
Rosa Greaves (Professor, LLB (Leeds), LLM (Exeter), Dr jur.h.c. (Oslo), Barrister (IT)) joined the Law School at the University of Glasgow in 2006 as Professor of European Commercial Law and was Director of the School from 2009 to 2013. Rosa is a Professor II at the University of Oslo and a Visiting Professor at the Catholic University of Lisbon. She has been a Visiting Professor at Universities in Australia, US, Europe and UK.
She is also the University of Glasgow’s International Dean for Latin America.
Rosa specialises in European commercial law in both her research and teaching interests. She is the author of Transport Law of the European Community (1991), EC Competition Law: Banking and Insurance Services (1992), EEC Block Exemption Regulations (1994), EC Transport Law (2000) and co-authored Advocate General and EC Law (2007). She has edited the following books: European Company Law: A Guide to Community, EFTA and Member State Legislation (1989), Protecting and Exploiting Biotechnological Inventions (1990) and a volume for the second series of The International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory on Competition Law (2003) and another Volume II entitled Dominance and Monopolization (2012).
Information and market behaviour – how could the market change towards sustainability?
The EU’s approach to transport is fragmented. Seems even more so when considered from the point of view of consumer purchasing products on the internal market, instead of transport industry offering services on it. Could the consumer, with the help of transport industry, become a key player in transitioning to a safe circular economy and what could this require from a legal point of view? Main challenges concern availability of comparable information on products’ and business models’ GHG emissions, and availability of sufficient information on the product. Repeated political deadlocks on regulating non-food products’ country of origin labeling suggest it is time to consider less orthodox methods for transparency. In a ‘box economy’, products are transported to and around the internal market in sealed containers under assumed compliance with standards, hence the transport industry might find itself in a unique position to benefit both consumers and circular economy.
How policies could be further developed to promote electric mobility. Recent policy proposals in Finland
The extensive use of fossil fuels by the road transport sector is one of the biggest challenges for climate change and air quality policies in the EU Member States, particularly in the light of the forecasted growth in mobility demand. In order to reach both climate and environmental objectives, it is consistently underlined that the road transport sector’s current reliance on fossil fuels must be broken through a significant structural change of the transport system as a whole.
Electricity has the potential to increase the energy efficiency of road vehicles and to contribute to a CO2 reduction in transport, the legal promotion of which is taking place in a multi-levelled regulatory landscape, involving various areas of law and different actors. Building on certain regulatory examples of Finnish law, this paper will examine what policies in the different national areas of law are involved in the electrification of the mobility system. In this part, the paper will make use of certain comparative insights in Swedish law. The paper will thereafter elaborate on how policies could be further developed to promote electric mobility. In connection with this, it will be particularly examined what potential the recently proposed Finnish Transport Code (Fi: Liikennekaari) and recently presented investigation on a different financing structure of roads (Fi: Liikenneverkkoyhtiö LIVE) could have in promoting electrification of the mobility system.
Thus, with a focus of electric transport, the aim of the paper is to examine the contents and adequacy of current multi-level policies promoting electric mobility as well as identify regulatory potential to support the required structural change of transport systems for electric mobility to materialise.
Sara Kymenvaara
Sara Kymenvaara is a Doctoral Candidate of Climate Change Law at the University of Eastern Finland, and her PhD concerns the legal transition to low-emission transport fuels in a multi-level regulatory context. In March 2016, Sara completed a consultancy report on transport sector climate law to the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, and has contributed to a transport related publication on greenhouse gas emissions and energy security with the European Liberal Fund in November 2016. Sara has worked as an associate lawyer of a Helsinki-based law firm, providing advice in environmental and energy related regulatory matters in connection with large-scale mergers and acquisitions, and she has recently finished writing a new Water Act for the Åland Islands.
Organization Boundaries: How to Integrate Transport in the Circular Economy
In the frame of circular economy, where the transport is an element to consider, new assessment frameworks and tools are required at corporate sustainability level. With the aim of moving this issue forward, a key question to answer is whether freight and personnel transport processes should be integrated with other system processes -e.g. extraction of resources, manufacturing process or retail- or remain as an isolated process in a product life cycle system or sustainable supply chain.
In this sense, for the first topic "Integrating Transport in the Sustainable Circular Economy”, this study proposes to open this debate to the symposium participants in order to identify strengths and weaknesses of both approaches.
(María Jesús Muñoz-Torres, Idoya Ferrero-Ferrero, Juana María Rivera-Lirio, Elena Escrig-Olmedo, María Ángeles Fernández-Izquierdo, José Vicente Gisbert-Navarro)
María Jesús Muñoz-Torres
Full Professor in Finance at the Department of Finance and Accounting, Universitat Jaume I. PhD in Agricultural Economics from the Polytechnic University of (1994). She is member of the Spanish Institute of Financial Analysts. She coordinates the research group SoGReS. Her research focuses on Sustainable Finance, CSR and socially responsible investing, and efficiency of public financial support to companies and has several publications in high impact international academic journals. She is currently a faculty member in a number of master and postgraduate courses related to CSR, Sustainability, Development and Corporate Finance. She is currently coordinating the WP5 at the H2020 Project SMART. An extended CV can be found at https://sites.google.com/a/uji.es/maria-jesus-munoz-torres/
Circular Economy and Sustainable Logistics: Setting a Future Sustainability Agenda
Circular economy (CE) is increasingly gaining attention worldwide due to its emphasis on the management of sustainability by decreasing the use of natural materials and virgin resources. Further, CE also emphasizes social and societal development through the conservation and judicious use of natural resources. Similarly, sustainable logistics (SL) emphasizes that the management of all the activities required to move products through a supply chain should be done keeping in view the three dimensions (economic, ecological and social) of sustainability. The regionalization of procurement, production sales, and consumption decisions decrease in transport intensity thereby contributing to sustainable logistics. Within the SL literature the focus of researchers has mostly been on reducing the intensity of emissions by using pollution free vehicles. SL is also about the conformance of various supply chain components to social systems and ethics surrounding the workforce based on quality and working conditions. The conceptual overlap between CE and SL warrants the integration of these two fields. The integration of CE and SL becomes more relevant due to the change in supply chain structures and also the circular flow of products and services along the supply chains. It is increasingly seen that evaluation of the sustainable logistics is done using new models of the processes and networks contrary to the linear chain view adopted by the SL researchers. Therefore, as a first step, we conduct a literature review of the sustainable logistics for the past 10 year to determine the relevant sustainability issues in logistics. Previous literature reviews on SL and specifically reverse logistics do not provide a robust conceptualisation of the sustainable logistics. Therefore, based on the content analysis, firstly, we spot potential gaps within the logistics literature. The identification of literature gap allows for the identification of potential areas of research in the file of SL and allows for the conceptualisation of the extant SL literature. Further, a literature review will also allow for the identification of key dimensions and constructs within the SL literature. After deriving the key dimensions and constructs and spotting the literature gaps, we compare them against the principles of CE literature. Such comparison allows the sustainable logistics researchers to focus on potential areas of sustainability when aiming for the implementation of circular economy. The major contribution of this research is that it will allow an integration of SL concepts with the CE principles. Secondly, the use of SL literature to understand the future prospects of CE will open theory developments in both the fields of research.
Sadaat Ali Yawar
Aalto University, Department of Information and Service Economy
PO Box 21220, Helsinki, Finland
Freight transport decisions: Does environmental sustainability matter?
A number of stakeholders are involved in the progress towards environmental sustainable development. In making transport decisions towards sustainable development, there are two important actors in the market: logistics service providers, who arrange the transports, and shippers, who own the cargo. Therefore, it is important to understand what criteria are used in transport decisions and what the role of environmental sustainability in these decisions is. Purpose of our study is, first, to systematically address the current body of literature on the topic and to summarize key findings. We will also elaborate findings from the empirical data collected. Our findings might be of interest to policy makers and companies opting for environmentally sustainable transport service designs.
Anu Bask
Anu Bask is an Assistant Professor in Logistics at Aalto University School of Business, Department of Information and Service Economy. She serves as Director of business part of InterTran Research Group and as Director of the Kataja’s Finnish Graduate School of Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Her research interests include service supply chains, supply chain relationships, modularity approach in services, sustainable service supply chain management and sustainable transport. She has published over twenty articles in international refereed journals and a number of other publications. She has also been a co-editor of a special issue of the International journal of Operations and Production Management, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management and MarIus Periodical, and a reviewer for several international journals and conferences. Her research has been published in Service Science, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, International Journal of Services and Operations Management, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, International Journal of Logistics Management, Journal of Transport Geography, among others.
Mervi Rajahonka
Mervi Rajahonka, D. Sc. (Econ) is a Researcher at the South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences XAMK and Aalto. She earned her doctoral degree in Logistics from the Department of Information and Service Economy at the Aalto University School of Business. She also holds a Master’s degree in Technology from the Helsinki University of Technology and a Master’s degree in Law from Helsinki University. She serves as postdoctoral researcher in InterTran Research Group. Her research interests include sustainable logistics and supply chain management, service modularity, business models, digitalization, and service innovation. Her research has been published in a number of international refereed journals in the areas of logistics, services, and operations management, among others, Technology Innovation Management Review, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, and International Journal of Logistics Management.
Legal infrastructure for cooperation as a catalyst for platooning?
Platooning could bring an important efficiency gain to road transport as fuel savings are estimated at 20 %. In order to achieve such efficiency gain, a large scale transition to this new technology is required however. Without coopetition between different road carriers, a shift to platooning will only be efficient for large carriers with sufficient thick cargo bundles in specific directions, while a large majority of road carriers consists of SME`s. For these companies the costs connected with platooning (both investments and transaction costs) would outweigh the potential efficiency gains. Thus in order to make platooning accessible for SME`s a contractual framework for sustainable platooning networks should be developed. Such framework can allow road carriers with compatible destinations to conclude framework agreements for long term platooning-partnerships, which provide the legal certainty to make the required investments in platooning-compatible vehicles.
In order to facilitate coopetition in platooning, on two important points the contractual framework should be further developed. 1) The design of a framework for sustainable cooperation; 2) the design of standard liability rules for individual cases of platooning.
The first part of the research aims at developing a model framework for platooning-partnerships holding rules on breach of agreed shipping dates, a rewarding system and rules on decision making. Such model can reduce the transaction costs connected to setting up such platooning-networks and create legal certainty for the companies involved. For the design, current models for horizontal cooperation in logistics can serve as an example, but also consortium agreements in other domains.
The second part concerns the liability rules applicable between leader and followers in case of platooning. This analysis can in the future also become relevant for on the fly (ad hoc) platooning. A preliminary question is whether platooning contracts fall within the scope of CMR, which would in such case be mandatorily applicable. Albeit it is clear that the draftsmen of the Convention could not anticipate such development in 1956, platooning contracts could still be brought within the scope of CMR through the method of evolutionary interpretation. Such interpretation leaves however a great margin of discretion to individual judges, leading thus to uncertainty as to the applicability of CMR. For this reason, the contractual liability rules should be aligned as much as possible with the CMR rules. For this, also an evolutionary interpretation of the CMR liability rules is required in order to estimate the impact of such applicability in this specific context.
After the initial design is finished, in an experimental setting it will be tested with a panel of road carriers and afterwards further refined.
The legal infrastructure is as viable for innovation as technological infrastructure. In a setting that is so dependent on networks as platooning, legal innovation is not only required in the regulatory framework, but also in the contractual framework. By designing the required contractual framework for platooning, this study can greatly contribute to the transition of road transport towards platooning.
Wouter Verheyen
Wouter Verheyen obtained a PhD at KULeuven and afterwards became an assistant professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam and lecturer/ Researcher at Odisee UC Brussels. Wouter Lectures in the fields of methods of legal research, commercial law, transport law and marine insurance. Wouter conducts research on these topics, and has published +50 articles and has given a similar number of presentations at (inter)national conferences. In his research, Wouter has special attention for projects on platooning, cooperative logistics, passenger rights, transport intermediaries, innovation and transport law and sharing economy. Apart from legal research projects, Wouter also acts as research coordinator of logistics and business research projects on cargo bundling, cooperative e-commerce, sharing economy and platooning. Finally, Wouter supervises PhD researchers in all these domains.
Dr. Wouter Verheyen
Assistant professor Erasmus University Rotterdam
Program director master commercial law
PhD coordinator Erasmus Graduate School of Law
Researcher Odisee UC Brussels
Financial instrument to facilitate safe and sound ship recycling
Regulation (EU) No 1257/2013, also referred to as the Ship Recycling Regulation (SRR), entered into force on 30 December 2013. To address concerns over its efficacy, as the Regulation only requires sound recycling for EU flagged ships, a criterion that can easily be circumvented through timely re-flagging to a non-EU flag, the possibility for the European Commission to create a financial incentive is provided in Article 29 of the SRR, stating that the Commission shall report before the end of 2016 on "the feasibility of a financial instrument that would facilitate safe and sound ship recycling".
To be effective, a proposed financial instrument must be capable of inducing a change in behaviour on the part of ship owners towards the recycling of their ships in compliance with the SRR.
Various options have been considered for such a financial instrument in previous studies, but an earlier proposal based on these to the European Parliament was rejected.
This study proposes an alternative financial incentive instrument based on the introduction of a Ship Recycling Licence required for the entry to EU ports, connected with fees that serve capital accumulation with the aim to cover the revenue gap between sound and unsound recycling.
Who pays for oil pollution at sea? Some remarks on the interplay between certainty of the law and sustainable development
Erika case has given rise to several decisions issued by the French criminal courts and the Court of Justice of the European Community.
If the decision of the Court of Justice may be read as a fundamental statement on the coexistence between the international system of liability for oil pollution at sea and the European Directive on waste, the decisions of the French criminal courts have been a sort of “contradictory discussion” over the fundamental principles of
liability for oil pollution at sea, especially with regard to the “canalization” of responsibility on the shipowner and its limits.
The analysis of the decisions on the Erika case demonstrates that a fundamental question like “Who pays for an oil spill at sea?” may receive unpredictable answers. In this context it could be useful to starting a discussion based on some “policy concerns” in order to propose predictable solutions for the future (God forbid!).
Legal dimensions of data utilization: the case of autonomous ships
Digitization and automation are ongoing developments in many branches of transportation and logistics, including shipping. For instance, so called autonomous ships, equipped with artificial intelligence and robotics but no crew, are under intense further development, while the utilization of data is also transforming the business. The presentation will outline the concept of autonomous ships from an information law perspective. It will present ongoing research on the topic and highlight some important legal dimensions from the point of view of data utilization. For its part, intellectual property (IP) law could, for instance, support clean tech whereas data presents itself as an asset with possible linkages to personal data protection. Overall, autonomous ships entail not only interesting legal challenges related to the data economy but also great promises with regard to circular economy, that is, sustainability, efficiency and the environment – notwithstanding some new risks.
Anette Alén-Savikko
Dr. Anette Alén-Savikko is interested in the legal dimensions of digitization, especially from communication and information law perspectives. Her expertise covers intellectual property law and data protection law in particular but fundamental rights also cross-cut her areas of interest, while she is especially interested in EU level instruments. Anette has published on various topics in the field of digitization and provided national expertise in the field of communication and information law. Her current research covers areas, such as regulation of industrial internet (II; IIoT), human-centered management of personal data as well as privacy in location estimation and navigation.
Mobi Carnet
The system enables the composing, storing, later use and exchange of transport documents between the transport process parties and officials based on the so-called Single Window principle. The system can handle telemetric information of the vehicle.
Intelligent, role based and standardized system for communicating with officials and third parties, with strictly controlled user rights. Additional applications Mobi ADR and Mobi Footprint will bring added value to Mobi Carnet platform.
Especially Mobi Footprint will bring new way of measuring and reporting transport related greenhouse emissions on shipment level. Each truck linked with Mobi Carnet and Mobi Footprint will create event level report of each shipments journey from consignor to consignee. Reports can be generated accurately and timely as soon as delivery has been conducted.
Mobi Carnet solution family will be launched in the fall of 2017. The success of the project depends on the willingness of the logistics partners to focus onelectronic information exchange between various stakeholders of the logistics chain.
Mika-Matti Rapo
Mika-Matti Rapo (Implementation Manager SKAL Kustannus Oy ,1968-) has been working within international transports since 1989. Several positions within transports has given him understanding of cultural and market differences within logistics. Since 2011 Mika-Matti Rapo has also participated in Finnish Emergency Supply Agency training programme for different stakeholders within domestic logistic field. As part of this role Mika-Matti Rapo has written contents to Suomen Kuljetus ja Logistiikka ry SKAL´s ASKI tool and its risk management entity.
Currently Mika-Matti Rapo is Implementation Manager in Interreg Central Baltic Mobi Carnet programme. Responsibility for Mobi ADR and Mobi Footprint modules creation. These modules are part of Mobi Carnet solution family.
Circular Economy and the Transport Industry
Following current estimates, we would need 4 planets full of resources to satisfy the demand for raw materials by 2050 under business as usual. Physical limits to growth exist; moving towards circular economy is a must.
At the same time, digitalisation is radically changing our societies. Together these two disruptive forces, circularity and digitalisation will also change the way we think about mobility.
For the EU, this means starting to think about mobility as integrated systems. It means more ambitious support for railways, where all possible transportation of goods and people is moved to rails. It means thinking about new ways of urban planning where “true mobility” is ensured and where public transportation is seamlessly linked to bike lanes and electric, autonomous cars.
ICT is used to optimise logistics, and with the move towards electric cars, biofuels are gradually “reserved” for heavy goods vehicle traffic. Air traffic is optimized through a true implementation of the Single European Sky.
Sirpa Pietikäinen
Finnish Member of the European Parliament representing European People’s Party (EPP) since 2008. Pietikäinen was Finland’s Minister of Environment in between 1991 and 1995 and a Member of the Finnish Parliament from 1983 to 2003.
At the European Parliament, Pietikäinen is a substitute Member of the Environment and Public Health Committee (ENVI) and full Member in the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON), and in the Women’s Right and Gender Equality Committee (FEMM).
Sirpa Pietikäinen was a member of the high-level European Resource Efficiency Platform (EREP), contributing to the platform´s manifesto and final policy recommendations that were published in March 2014. She was also the European Parliament´s Rapporteur for the Report on Resource Efficiency: moving towards a circular economy, adopted in July 2015. She is a frequent key note speaker at various events on all aspects of the circular economy, with the emphasis on financing the transition (sustainable finance), on systemic chance and on product and ecodesign requirements. Sirpa has authored various articles on circular economy, both for domestic and international publications.
Horizontal Cooperation in Logistics - Legal Solutions for Cooperation Agreement for 'Return' Cargo Bundling
Cargo bundling: Horizontal cooperation for cargo bundling requires multiple independent shippers to work together in communities to consolidate their overlapping freight flows. “Cargo bundling” in this context means that thanks to compatible and synchronized freight flows shippers are able to consolidate their goods in the common consolidation means (like containers or trucks) and as a result save on transportation costs. The practice has also a broader meaning as it contributes to sustainable transportation. Precisely it is a response to the growing number of empty running trucks and containers. Taking containers as an example, the numbers shows that the scale of empty running vehicles equaled to: 27% in 1982, 30% in 2005, 24% in 2009 and 2010 together with the average loading of 57% of the rest of them and 43% of the overall efficiency. Comparing to the traditional logistics models, consolidation in horizontal cooperation not necessarily needs to be outsourced to a 3rd party logistic provider. Furthermore, it is different from the commonly known ‘groupage service’, where the carrier is in charge of consolidation based on the individual contact with single shippers because horizontal cooperation is simply based on the group arrangements that can bring bigger efficiency gains. ‘Return’ cargo bundling refers to consolidation practices that happens on both ends of the same transport route. As an example, the partner A sends the cargo to the partner B and the partner B can provide the cargo for the carrier to avoid ‘empty running’ vehicle on its way back to the partner A.
Problem statement: Horizontal cooperation in logistics has long been subject to the economic investigation which shows that cooperating partners can create huge efficiency gains and contribute to more eco-friendly transportation. The practice although very promising and profitable, is not investigated as far as legal aspects, including the allocation of responsibility, are concerned. Lack of the legal knowledge as far as legal organization of cooperation is concerned may increase the costs of cooperation and thus may create an obstacle for its establishment.
Research objectives: The objective of this paper is to propose model contract clauses which will facilitate the design of a cooperation and provide solutions for the conflict management. The paper focuses on the practice of ‘return’ cargo bundling. The scope of the paper includes legal framework for international road transportation (thus the CMR framework). Since particular arrangements concerning horizontal cooperation do not fall under the regime of mandatory carriage law (the CMR), the research takes into consideration Polish and German law to have a comparative perspective.
Marta Katarzyna Kołacz
PhD Candidate
Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Marta Katarzyna Kołacz is a PhD Candidate at the Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam. She investigates the issue of cooperative logistics with the special focus on cargo bundling that is the practice of cargo consolidation performed by independent shippers. She started her research project in the year 2015 under the supervision of Xandra Kramer, Frank Smeele and Wouter Verheyen.
Emissions trading as a tool for regulating greenhouse gas emissions from road transport?
The European Emissions trading Scheme (EU ETS) is one of EU’s main instruments for climate change mitigation. The study “Sectoral expansion of the EU ETS - A Nordic perspective on barriers and solutions to include new sectors in the EU ETS with special focus on road transport” (by Bragadóttir Hrafnildur, Magnusson Roland, Seppänen Sampo, Sundén David and Yliheljo Emilie) analyses possibilities for expansion of the scheme to new sectors. The project financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers identifies obstacles and solutions for inclusion especially for road transport, a major source of GHG emissions. The main barriers identified are overlap with current policies, disproportionate costs of including individual vehicles, and potential loss of fiscal revenue. However, experiences from other trading schemes show that emissions trading can cover also road transport.
Emilie Yliheljo
Emilie (Master of Laws 2011, University of Helsinki) is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Helsinki where she is currently working on a PhD on emissions trading at the intersection of climate law and financial markets regulation and the legal architecture of EU’s carbon market. Prior to joining the University of Helsinki in February 2017 she worked several years with innovative climate finance initiatives and emissions trading. Emilie has e.g. worked as legal counsel for the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation’s carbon funds and as legal adviser at the Finnish Energy Authority responsible for the implementation of the European emissions trading scheme in Finland. Emilie is one of the authors of the report “Sectoral expansion of the EU ETS- A Nordic perspective on barriers and solutions to include new sectors in the EU ETS with special focus on road transport” financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
The Promise and Limits of Sector-Wide Contracting for Sustainable Transport
The dynamics of the transport industry depend on a wide range of actors, from equipment manufacturers and service providers to shippers and individuals buying transport services, operating in radically different contexts, from locally organized personal mobility-as-a-service to global intermodal cargo transport. Producers, buyers/service providers, shippers, and regulators vie for control of the ensuing supply chains to increase their own shares of captured value. But who is responsible for sustainability: The invisible hand of the market, intervening regulators, or perhaps an approach to sector-wide coordination supported by the converging interests of select lead firms? Building on earlier work on modes of governance through contract, I focus on the promise and limits of contractual approaches to coordinating sector-wide cooperation for sustainable transport. Problems include establishing a shared standard of sustainability and ensuring the broad adherence of diverse actors to a governance contract. Promising case studies include mechanisms used by OEMs to capture value from service provider—shipper relationships, exemplifying the problem of conflicting interests between supply chain actors in adopting new technology, and the Bangladesh Accord, exemplifying sector-wide transnational cooperation beyond traditional privity lines.
Jaakko Salminen
After a brief spell at KONE Corporation, Jaakko Salminen has focused on researching the transnational legal aspects of coordinating global supply chains, ranging from dispute resolution to establishing liability for global production. In this capacity Jaakko has participated in numerous externally funded research projects resulting inter alia in papers published or accepted for publication in international peer reviewed journals. Most recently, he has submitted his doctoral dissertation, entitled From National Product Liability Towards Transnational Production Liability: Conceptualizing the Relationship of Law and Global Production, to the mandatory evaluation process required for a doctorate in law at the University of Turku.
(Transport) Contract Management and sustainability
What is Contract Management? Why is it important? How could Contract Management promote sustainability? Contract Management, also known as Contract Lifecycle Management, is a relatively new, globally growing systematic approach to manage the contract throughout its lifecycle. Contract Management targets to improve contractual quality, cost-efficiency and balanced risk-taking. Contract Management battles value leakage, contract value erosion and cost of poor quality via Contract Management methodology, processes, tools and best practices. There are various ways how Contract Management indeed could promote sustainability throughout the contractual lifecycle.
Suvi Hirvonen-Ere
Suvi is a senior legal, commercial and contract management professional with a multidimensional international background. Suvi is currently catching her long-term dream of writing a doctoral dissertation on Contract Management. Before the doctorate program, Suvi worked for over 15 years in legal, commercial and contract management leadership roles, mainly in global corporations. Suvi holds a Master of Laws degree from the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki (2000), Professional of International Business Law diploma from Fintra (2001), Six Sigma Plus Green Belt Certification (2004), Contract Management Certified Member Accreditation (MCCM. Cert) from International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (2010), and has accomplished the Bar Exam by the Finnish Bar Association (2015). Today, Suvi is a full-time Doctoral Candidate at the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki, as well as a member of the InterTran Research Group for Sustainable Business and Law.
The behavioural shift – how does the truck driver behave?
Survey on 4 parking areas in and around Rotterdam: classified in different categories according to the Resolution of the Council of the European Union to Prevent Road Freight Crime.
Key factors of Court’s standards in case of force majeure and breaking through limitation.
Only 6 truck drivers know something about case law.
Others calculate the risk. They think that it will not happen to them, with cargo in those circumstances.
So yes, they calculate the risk but also don`t always get proper incentives to comply to behavioral standards. No instructions from employee
Driving regulations make it difficult to make the best decision for the cargo. There is a small group of international truck drivers that do accept the risk. This group would not take any measures.
Truck drivers not influenced by case law. 70% follow up instructions but are not in line with the behavioral standards imposed by case law
Carmen Polderman
Carmen Polderman is a graduate of the Erasmus School of Law. She worked as a police officer and for other law enforcement departments. Her research focusses on the behavioural aspects of international truck drivers. Insurance companies, law firms and authorities have shown their interest in her research. Carmen will develop and broaden her research as basis for her PhD which will deal with compliance in the transport industry.
A behavioural shift in transport – the role of contractual information
Low-emission mobility is an essential component of the broader shift to a European low-carbon, circular economy. Increased use of lower emission transport modes such as inland waterways, short sea shipping and rail is a central element in the European strategy on optimising the transport system and improving its efficiency. (COM (2016)501 final). This has been a goal for the Commission since the very beginning of the sustainable transport policy (COM(1992)494).
A harmonised liability regime for multimodal transport was introduced as a tool to promote the desired development, but with no success. The argument here is that contract law should not be brushed aside as a tool to promote a behavioural shift in transport. It argues, however, that a new perspective is needed and examines whether and how a duty to inform on carbon footprints from transport could be integrated into the legal and contractual frameworks applicable in transport.
Ellen J. Eftestøl
Ellen J. Eftestøl is Professor of Civil and Commercial Law at the University of Helsinki and adjunct Professor the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law, University of Oslo, where she also earned her doctoral degree. She is in charge of the InterTran Research Group for Sustainable Business and Law at the University of Helsinki
Her major subjects are European Commercial Agency Law (dissertation) and International Trade and Transport Law. She has published internationally on these topics. At present she teaches International Carriage of Goods, Nordic and European Contract Law, International Sales Law, Tort Law and International Private Law. She has previously been teaching Legal Theory and Family Law. Her teaching languages are English, Swedish and Norwegian.
Ellen J. Eftestøl is a Fellow of Baltic Area Legal Studies BALEX, Åbo Akademi University, a Member of Women´s International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA), Member of the board of directors of the Institute of Maritime and Commercial law of Åbo Akademi University and Member of the Finnish Maritime Law Association (CMI)