Borås gets started with Good Goods
It has been done in several places already, including Gothenburg, Stockholm and Copenhagen, all major cities with huge infrastructure problems. Borås is the first small city to invest in this concept. Good Goods is a pilot within Surflogh, and aims to reduce heavy traffic in Borås city centre through smart, energy-efficient solutions. Transports of goods and waste play a major role in traffic congestion and pollution and Borås City will tackle this issue together with their local partners partners.
"This is a way of working with the city's ‘Vision for 2025’, where the municipality ’works with the private sector to create opportunities for a future distribution system," says project manager Sophia Strandberg Jonsson, City of Borås. “This is an important issue for the property owners, waste companies and the Municipality, it is a way to reducing maintenance costs while also increasing a general sense of well-being in the city centre.
Good Goods already started in 2017. The project started with conducting a goods flows analysis with the help of students studying logistics at the University of Borås. “We need a distribution hub, “ says Sophia. Carriers can drive directly to a delivery point, winning both time and efficiency. The distribution hub must be easily accessible and at the same time central. And for economic reasons, it should preferably be at an existing location.”
“The economics is a hard nut to crack,” says Janne Petersson, Strategic Community Planner at the City of Borås. “The project must find a business model to survive on commercial terms, even after the project period.” The big win will be reduced noise andCO2-emissions, increased well-being and a better working environment
Not all goods and waste transportation in the city centre will be directly included in the Good Goods project when it starts after the summer of 2019. “It is a process,” according toSophia. “We also do not want to make the centre completely car-free – there must be a beat and people should be able to get around. But by reducing heavy traffic, we will get closer to the goal of being carbon neutral by 2030 and reducing emissions in the centre of Borås.