The global transport sector currently contributes 23% of carbon dioxide emissions, a figure set to double by 2050 without mitigation efforts. While Scope 3 emissions, notably in container transport, are challenging to address, they constitute over half of all emissions. This study explores cargo owners' perspectives on Scope 3 emissions and identifies opportunities for mitigation. With impending Scope 3 reporting obligations in 2024, the shipping sector lacks a clear path for emissions reduction. The research aims to bridge this gap by examining how carbon emission information in port environments can enhance the sustainability of logistics processes. The study combines supply chain performance theory, decision-making processes, and decarbonization of logistics into a conceptual framework. A multiple case study, incorporating diverse cases based on product and market segments, validates the framework. Interviews with logistical decision-makers and experts reveal challenges such as lack of data availability, data quality, responsibility, and intrinsic motivation. The study identifies legislative pressure, consumer and shareholder influence, and comparison functions as potential drivers for prioritizing carbon emissions in decision making. Improvements suggested include enhanced data quality through responsibility agreements, standardized emission tools with mode comparison functions, and the facilitation role of port authorities. Technological development is seen as crucial for increasing sustainable options, with legislative and stakeholder pressures necessary for cargo owners to prioritize carbon emissions in decision making. The study concludes that emission information tools, supported by port authorities, can contribute to a more sustainable approach in logistics decision making.

Humanity faces the challenge of dealing with resource exhaustion and environmental destruction. The root of these issues lies in the linear economic model established after the industrial revolution. This model relies on two fundamental principles, limitlessness and easily accessible resources and unlimited earth regenerative capacity. The economy thrives by consuming planetary resources to manufacture products and generating wastes by disposing of products in the landfills or incinerating them when they are no longer desirable. However, the growing planet’s population and the limited regenerative earth capacity make this model unsustainable. The circular economy (CE) represents an alternative to the current consumption pattern. It is an economic model aspiring to limit the use of virgin resources in the production systems and eliminate the waste streams by promoting a closed resource loop. The transition to CE is at the top of the agendas of both policymakers and companies (defined as CE auditing actors), which have initiated policy instruments to catalyze it. Such policy instruments could vary from regulations to additional taxes for eco-unfriendly goods. These policy instruments are prone to manipulations when there is a lot at stake. An indicative example is the case, in which plastic waste exported from the Netherlands to Turkey for recycling or reuse was illegally dumped. To prevent such adversities, the CE auditing actors need a monitoring system to control the implementation of their policy instruments and enforce compliance when necessary. Such a system should provide visibility in the flows of raw materials and products in the supply chain and detect frauds. The need for a monitoring system can be addressed by leveraging the research on the data pipeline concept. A data pipeline is an IT infrastructure capturing data at the source. It equips authorities with data shared by the businesses voluntarily and in real-time. This data pertains to the flows of goods from a seller in an exporting country to a buyer in an importing country. Traditionally, data pipelines have been used by customs to access information stored in the traders’ information systems willing to be transparent. The supply chain visibility currently captured by data pipelines is not sufficient to serve CE. They need to be extended to monitor the entire journey of materials and products in the CE context. Furthermore, to unleash the full potential of the shared data, the data recipients need to have trust in the data and its quality. This condition can be satisfied by using blockchain-enabled data pipelines. Blockchain is a technology that exceeds the capabilities of traditional information systems thanks to four characteristics, namely, decentralization, auditability, immutability, and smart contracts. The thesis dives into the research domain of blockchain-based data pipeline solutions by investigating their ability to support the CE transition. For that reason, it develops a framework that evaluates their ability to enforce compliance with CE policy instruments by acting as monitoring systems. The evaluation framework identifies the information requirements needed to be captured by such architectures to monitor the journey of materials and products in a closed-loop supply chain.

To ensure safety and security of imported goods, customs authorities perform risk assessment on incoming goods. European customs use declaration data provided by traders to execute risk analysis. Lacking availability of this data to customs authorities currently hinders proper risk management and poses threats for the European socio-economy. To solve this issue, this research analysed how Blockchain, an emerging and promising technology, could solve the issue at hand. Using a design-oriented approach, the process to be supported was analysed, the requirements were elicited, and the core blockchain components were identified. This was instrumental to develop a blockchain-based platform to support the availability of declarations data to customs authorities. The feasibility of the designed platform was evaluated through a comparison with TradeLens, an existing supply chain platform underpinned by blockchain technology, and possible implementation issues were identified by using a blockchain governance framework. The platform design contributes to the import control system implementation and research on blockchain technology. The next step is the development of a Proof-of-concept to analyse whether the designed platform supports the process at stake.

Customs authorities are responsible for secure cross-border activities and collection of duties. To that extent, customs authorities perform risk assessment. The customs declaration on which risk assessment is based often lacks detailed data or is incorrect. Therefore, customs authorities are in need of new ways to improve risk assessment. One way to improve risk assessment is exchange of other trade documents (e.g., Bill of Lading or pro forma invoice) the customs declaration is based on. The documents can be used for piggybacking that involves the cross-validation of documents to determine correctness of the declaration. Blockchain technology can in potential support exchange of trade documents. However, challenges related to openness, security and scalability need to be addressed to come up with effective solutions. Therefore, this research develops an open, secure and scalable blockchain-based architecture that supports exchange of trade documents. Using a Design Science Research approach, several use cases to exchange documents are developed, requirements based on previous research on the exchange of trade documents (e.g., data pipeline concept) are derived, core blockchain architecture components are derived and a design that support the use cases is developed. The research finds that a open, secure and scalable blockchain-based architecture can support exchange of trade documents. However, slight differences in the design of each use case show that blockchain technology is not a black box. Generalization is therefore not straightforward. In-depth analysis of use cases is needed to come up with effective solutions. Future research should focus on the development of a Proof-of-Concept of the blockchain-based architecture design to test whether actual exchange of trade documents is supported.

In the last years, Floating Car Data (FCD) has risen as a technology that has the potential to replace legacy sensors, reduce associated installation and maintenance costs and offer new possibilities in the field of traffic management. FCD refers to the use of sources such as in-vehicle systems with network connectivity or road users’ mobile phones to collect relevant traffic information (e.g. vehicle speed or intensity). There is extensive literature on the feasibility of using FCD for traffic management purposes and on the added value of fusing legacy sensors data with FCD. These studies have been mostly experimental and a literature review shows that there is no academic work on how to deploy and integrate legacy sensors data and FCD in an actual live setting. This research aims to fill that gap by designing a flexible ICT Architecture that integrates FCD into Rijkswaterstaat’s Traffic Management and Information Systems.

Taking an architecture point of view to address this challenge is not only novel but also appropriate because it provides a comprehensive view of what changes need to take place at different levels of the organization (business, information systems and technology) for this to happen. This research follows a design science research approach, where four main phases can be distinguished: (1) Problem formulation, (2) Building, (3) Reflection and learning and (4) Formalization of learning. The Building phase is further subdivided into the specification of design principles and requirements and the development of the solution ICT Architecture.

The outcomes of this research are relevant not only to Rijkswaterstaat but also to other organizations looking to integrate FCD in their traffic systems, to design science researchers and to ICT architects.