Energy-Efficient Green Vehicle Routing Problem

The greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector are one of the major contributors to global warming today. Freight share to GHG emissions is likely to increase 2-fold by 2050. This makes it critical for CO2 emissions to be reduced through an optimized transportation strategy. Vehicle routing, when done efficiently, can reduce these emissions across countries. In this attempt, the traditional distance minimization objective of the vehicle routing problem has been replaced with an energy-emission-centric objective. A model is formulated taking energy and emissions into simultaneous consideration and a typical VRP problem has been evaluated using a genetic algorithm. The application of the proposed model is observed to reduce emissions significantly compared to conventional models. Considering the possibility of increase in carbon tax in future, energy-emission minimized routing would not only aid “green logistics,” but also reduce the environmental costs incurred.