José Holguín-Veras presents “Freight transportation policy and planning in the fight against climate change: The role of connected trucks, land use, and other tools nobody talks about”

The obvious changes in the climate—exemplified by former “hundred year weather events” taking place every other year—are adding tremendous urgency to efforts to reduce the emissions produced by mobile sources. In this context, reducing the freight transportation’s environmental footprint is an essential, though extremely hard to achieve, component of sustainability efforts.

To a great extent, this is a result of the pervasive nature of freight activity where even the simplest human activities have the potential to require supplies or one kind or another, and produce cargo that needs to be transported elsewhere. The profound interconnections between freight activity and the rest of the economy —after all freight activity is a physical manifestation of the economy—creates a situation where the sustainability of freight activity is intrinsically linked to the sustainability of the economy.

In this talk, Professor Holguín-Veras will provide a brief overview of:

• freight transportation research conducted at Rensselaer relevant to the fight against climate change
• the economic and behavioral interconnections between the participants in supply chains
• the wide range of potential public sector initiatives that could be used to foster sustainability
• the role of novel technologies, such as Connected Trucks, and best ways to avoid the trap identified by the Efficiency Paradox
• the role of land use policy and planning, and other potential public sector interventions such as efforts aimed at changing the very nature of freight demand, including freight mode choice.

In the final section, Professor Holguín-Veras will illustrate the potential benefits of selected initiatives.

Dr. José Holguín-Veras is the William H. Hart Professor and Director of the VREF Center of Excellence for Sustainable Urban Freight Systems at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2013 White House’s Transportation Champion of Change Award, and the 1996 Milton Pikarsky Memorial Award.

His research group works on freight transportation modeling and planning, and disaster response logistics. In these areas, he and his group are among the most published and cited scholars in the world. His research has led to major changes in transportation policy to improve urban freight systems. His work on disaster response has played an influential role in disaster response procedures, and has led to deeper insight into how best to respond to large disasters and catastrophic events.

Holguín-Veras is in numerous leadership positions at professional organizations, public sector agencies, and leading journals.

He received his PhD from The University of Texas at Austin in 1996; an MSc from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in 1984; and a BSc from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo in 1982.

Presented by University of Toronto ITE Student Chapter, UT-ITE and co-sponsored by the Smart Freight Centre.

Free. All are welcome.

If any specific accommodations are needed, please contact ite@studentorg.utoronto.ca. Requests should be made as early as possible.

Join link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/s/81320181425. Please note that the same Zoom link will be used for all UT-ITE seminars this term.