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Sustainability Implications of Last Mile in E‐Commerce: An Assessment Model

Author

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  • Iria González‐Romero
  • J. Carlos Prado‐Prado

Abstract

E‐commerce is a rapidly growing and evolving sector. Its negative impact on sustainability has also increased, with the last mile being a key contributor. The sector is however struggling to tackle this impact, even though previous studies have tried to measure it. These studies have focused on one or two of the three pillars of sustainability (economic, environmental and social), using independent metrics and lacking real‐world implementations. This has prevented easy quantification and comparison of the overall sustainability of last‐mile strategies. In this research, we establish a method to determine the cost of the negative impact of the last mile in e‐commerce on sustainability. To tackle the problems of previous literature, we evaluate the three pillars of sustainability through a single value (cost of sustainability), facilitating the comparison between pillars and strategies. Furthermore, the usability of the model is confirmed through its application to a case study and a real‐world dataset (more than 48,500 orders). This implementation highlights the capacity of the model to identify elements that influence the sustainability of the last mile (e.g., demand density and operational capabilities), underline the importance of the economic pillar or compare different strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Iria González‐Romero & J. Carlos Prado‐Prado, 2026. "Sustainability Implications of Last Mile in E‐Commerce: An Assessment Model," Transportation Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(3), July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:transj:v:65:y:2026:i:3:n:e70029
    DOI: 10.1002/tjo3.70029
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