Decision making for transportation systems as a support for sustainable stewardship: Freight transport process evaluation using the ETIENNE‐Tool

The environmental impacts of transportation are rarely brought into decision making frameworks. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a framework and tool to help in these organizational decisions.

A survey analysis was carried out amongst waste‐management companies within the project ETIENNE. Using this information, drivers and hurdles to the environmentally motivated optimization of transport were identified.

This research framework presents results of perceived hurdles in transport process optimization. Results of the research are grounded with definitions and discussion of the relevance of logistic processes.

Analysis provided in this paper shows that there is no practicable tool to consider environmental impacts in management decisions in transportation. Therefore, a software tool, the so‐called ETIENNE‐Tool, for the evaluation of transportation alternatives, is developed. Theoretical principles for the environmental evaluation of transport processes are also proposed.

Organizational tasks – such as the selection and planning of transportation relations; employment of means of transportation; planning of locations; finally performing of operative business – can be fulfilled in a more environmentally sound manner.

Based on the ETIENNE‐Tool and taking into consideration stakeholders' requirements, different transportation chains for one transportation task can be easily compared and transportation can be planned efficiently.