Hubs beyond Logistics
Aalborg, Denmark, is rethinking how logistics hubs can serve the city beyond just parcel deliveries. With the MoLo Hubs project, the city is testing innovative, multifunctional hubs that support waste management, the circular economy, and urban mobility.
Interview with Martin Quintero Hansen, elaborated by Zsófia Jákói and Daniel Herrera Meek.
Aalborg, Denmark—a city of 223,000 residents spread across 1,138 km squares, with about half of the population living in apartment complexes—has been undergoing a remarkable transformation from an industrial past rooted in coal production to a hub for sustainability. Today, the city is actively working to reduce and capture carbon emissions, collaborating with local stakeholders like Aalborg Portland to achieve its climate goals. This shift is reflected in Alborg’s commitment to projects like MoLoHubs, an EU-funded initiative focused on ‘People-Centric Mobility & Logistics Hubs’ (a combination of mobility hubs with logistics services), which aims to improve waste management, reduce emissions, and enhance urban living for city dwellers.
Aalborg’s blend of tradition and modernity, from Viking ships on the Limfjord to today’s vibrant cultural scene and iconic waterfront, underscores its vision for a future where sustainability is key. Aalborg also boasts an inner-city low-emission zone and regular sustainability events, including the 10th European Conference on Sustainable Cities & Towns. With the recent testing of MoloHub lockers, the city anticipated increased usage during the conference, which provided an ideal moment to explore Aalborg’s innovative approach to mobility hubs and offer insights for other cities.
Understanding logistics hubs in the MoLo Hubs context
Cities today are finding new ways to use logistics hubs beyond parcel deliveries, and Aalborg is definitely leading the pack. Through the MoloHubs project, the city is turning these hubs into multifunctional spaces that go beyond last-mile delivery, including waste collection and circular economy services. This approach not only helps manage urban freight more efficiently, but also introduces innovative solutions, such as reusable takeaway packaging.
By collaborating with local stakeholders like Homerunner and service providers such as Nordværk and New Loop, as well as housing associations, Aalborg is creating hubs that serve both businesses and residents. These partnerships allow the city to test a range of concepts, ensuring the hubs remain accessible and user-friendly.
Aalborg’s efforts with MoloHubs highlight practical strategies to help the city achieve its sustainability goals, addressing challenges from optimal hub location selection to effectively measuring service impact. To better understand Aalborg’s experience, POLIS talked with Martin Quintero Hansen. Project Manager at the City of Aalborg, who offered valuable insights for other cities looking to adopt similar approaches to urban logistics and sustainable city planning.
POLIS: Aalborg is participating in the MoLo Hubs project. How did the idea of combining last-mile freight logistics and waste collection in your hubs come to life? What problems were you aiming to solve in your cities, and what challenges and opportunities do you see for your ‘MoLo Hubs’ moving forward?
MoLo Hubs project partners in Hamburg
Martin Quintero Hansen: This initiative stems from Aalborg Municipality’s broader focus on the circular economy and the recognition of the need for improved waste sorting. When one adds more waste categories to be sorted, one must find a good solution for collection, which is already challenging. Traditional waste containers are not aesthetically pleasing in the city and can only solve a single problem. By contrast, multifunctional parcel lockers offer new opportunities to integrate additional services with waste collection.
POLIS: How did the city decide which services to include in the MoLo Hubs, such as waste types and last-mile delivery integration? And how did Aalborg determine the best locations for them?
Quintero Hansen: It is up to the waste planners to decide which waste categories to test. The last-mile delivery issue has been a longstanding challenge in Aalborg, so, we have worked with retailers and mobility operators over the years to find effective solutions. Selecting locations has been complex, but many housing associations see great value in the multifunctional parcel lockers for their residents, so, they have helped identify locations on their properties. They also allow nearby residents outside the housing association to use these multifunctional parcel lockers.
POLIS: Combining different services into hubs is challenging and requires collaboration across many sectors. How have you built partnerships with mobility operators, logistics providers, and waste management organisations to ensure a successful business model? Additionally, what citizen engagement activities are planned to promote the hubs’ uptake and encourage their use?
Quintero Hansen: We are not committed to a specific business model; instead, we use the MoLo project to test various concepts and invite other service providers to explore options for the parcel lockers. So far, we have involved Nordværk, a waste company, the public library, mobility operator DAO, and New Loop, which produces reusable takeaway packaging. All partners have been willing to invest time and money in the pilot.
POLIS: MoLo Hubs aims to drive change across several cross-cutting topics. How do you plan to measure the hubs’ impact on these areas? And how do the hubs contribute to the city’s sustainability goals?
Representation of a multifunctional logistics hub,
CoMoUK
Quintero Hansen: We track parcel locker usage and can monitor all the services provided. In the future, we also plan to track how many services a single van or mobility operator handles at a given hub. Since the parcel lockers are online, we can interact with them at any time. If we can demonstrate that existing vehicles are managing more services per stop, this will advance our sustainability goals by maximising vehicle capacity. Hopefully, we will also be able to measure reductions in residual waste by tracking textiles and hazardous waste disposal.
POLIS: Lastly, what are the key actions you believe can support long-term implementation and uptake of the MoLo Hubs? Could you share any insights that other cities might apply when developing or improving similar multifunctional logistics hubs?
Map of partners in the MoLo Hubs project,
MoLo Hubs
Quintero Hansen: It is all about the data. We need to show service providers that the parcel lockers are being used and are user-friendly. We also gather feedback from citizens through questionnaires. This data allows us to share insights with other cities, and Homerunner, the owner of the parcel lockers, can develop tailored solutions to address each city’s unique challenges and needs.
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About the contributors:
Interviewee: Martin Quintero Hansen, Project Manager, City of Aalborg. Quintero Hansen, an expert in economics and sustainable business models, focuses on project management, fundraising, and business development. With experience at the North Denmark EU Office and Aalborg Municipality’s Centre for Green Transition, he champions innovation, digital solutions, visual pilots, and behaviour change to foster a greener, more sustainable environment.
Interviewers:
Zsófia Jákói, Project Officer, POLIS. Jákói supports the POLIS Clean Vehicles and Air Quality Working Group. As a political science graduate with policy research experience, she contributes to numerous urban logistics projects, supporting the enhancement of sustainable mobility solutions.
Daniel Herrera Meek, Project and Parking WG Manager, POLIS. Herrera Meek leads POLIS’ Parking Working Group and is involved in the EU-funded SUM, SMALL, ShareDiMobiHub, and MoLo Hubs projects, which address topics such as inclusive shared mobility, shared mobility hubs, new mobility services, and sustainable urban logistics.
