MoLo Hubs kicked-off from 4-6 October in Hamburg,
hosted by “Logistics Initiative Hamburg (LIHH)”.
Warm Up
As one of five pilot regions, Hamburg was the first stop for a physical meeting within the 4-year project period, bringing together about 25 participants out of 13 project partners from five different countries (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden).
LIHH will act as the Lead Partner and mainly coordinate the project in terms of project management, project reporting, project level communication as well as project level events.
The meeting started with a small warm-up exercise, where each partner presented a souvenir from its home city. Of course most of the group members were already familiar with the fact that Hamburg is known for its rainy days but not that Borås, for example, is known as the capital of textile in Sweden.
Study Visit - Part I
After a general introduction about the upcoming project activities, the second day started with an on-site visit to Neighbourhood Hub Altona, which is part of MOVE21 - an innovation project funded by Horizon 2020 that aims to transform European cities into smart, emission-free hubs for mobility and logistics.
The hub in Hamburg-Altona combines social district projects with commercial logistics and mobility services and is used for last mile parcel shipments distributed by cargo bikes.
Moreover, the association Dein Topf e.V. has established a social and counselling kiosk in the premises, as a food and clothing distribution for people in need. Afterwards, the group handed over 70 Euro in donations to the association as a "thank you" for the exciting insights and hospitality.
Study Visit -Part II
The second stop went to the “Bahrenfeld recycling yard”, organised by Stadtreinigung Hamburg (SRH) and HiiCCE (Hamburg Institute for Innovation, Climate Protection and Circular Economy).
As a science partner of SRH, HiiCCE will support the scientific evaluation and implementation of the Hamburg case study within the project. Their task will be to handle the project management for SRH, develop concepts, compile lessons learned and scientifically accompany the implementation and testing process as well as the involvement of local stakeholders.
The excursion ended with a guided tour around the SRH premises, where the group got the chance to inspect hydrogen vehicles and cargo bikes.
SRH launched their first waste collection vehicle powered by hydrogen in June 2023, with the goal of becoming climate-neutral as early as 2035.
The MoLo Hubs Project Team
Site Visit at Bahrenfeld Recycling Yard
SRH is the municipal waste and cleaning company and in charge of collecting, transporting and treating waste from approx. 1 Mio. households in Hamburg. Currently private waste (residual, organic, paper and packaging materials) is either being collected at the households or citizens have to transport it to one of the city's twelve recycling yards. They will act as a one of the host partners within the project, focusing on testing and setting up neighbourhood collection points as an intermediate stage between collection at the source and recycling yards at people-oriented hubs, i.e. at underground stations or locations of parcel lockers.
The project started in July 2023 and will run until the end of 2026. At the beginning of September, a formal online meeting had already taken place, where the Interreg guidelines were presented as a basis for the further project activities.
The days in Hamburg showed how inspiring and important European co-working and exchange is and we are now looking forward to the next meeting taking place in April 2024 in Mechelen, hosted by our partner City of Mechelen.
Project Partners: LIHH, SRH, HiCCE
Source: LIHH