Transitioning towards net-zero warehouses: empirical insights and best practices in Italy

In recent years, sustainable warehousing has become more and more in focus among researchers and practitioners. On the one hand, practitioners – e.g. Logistics Service Providers (LSPs), manufacturers, and retailers – have been looking for solutions to decrease the environmental impact of their logistics facilities and incorporate practices and solutions towards greener warehousing processes. Still, on the academic side, although an increasing number of papers have been found addressing logistics sustainability, empirical evidence is lacking on sustainable warehousing, i.e. how are logistics facilities transitioning towards net-zero warehouses, what are the solutions and practices in place, and what are the related effects on warehouse environmental performance over time. This contribution aims at addressing this research gap. Based on an extensive longitudinal study in Italy, the paper discusses four best practices and illustrates their roadmap towards net-zero logistics facilities. Some key messages are elaborated, and streams for future investigation are highlighted. The main novelty of the work consists in discussing real business data related to warehouse environmental performance collected over a four-year timeframe and proposing some key findings as a starting point for future developments.