Successful, sustainable and often, by extension, intermodal transport operations are by nature multifaceted. Logistics networks cover wide areas and the degree of involvement of the different play (waterborne, rail, road, air) varies equally widely. Therefore, the recipe for „green savings consists basically of streamlining individual industrial processes, collaborative partnerships, greater transparency within information flows and, above all, a change of mindset, starting at the base.

As stressed in a recent intervention by Peter Wolters, the Deputy Secretary General of the European Intermodal Association, the intermodal transport is “a wealth of golden opportunities” and “green” savings are feasible through the optimization of individual industrial processes, collaborative partnerships, a greater transparency within information flows and, above all, a change of mindset.

Unfortunately the shift from congested and expensive modes towards sustainable and reliable modes seems quite breakable due to the inadequate infrastructure availability. Furthermore we are still waiting for a common and fair policy for the internalization of external costs, and, for the moment we can only rely on sustainable solutions come out from some best practices. One example is the Intermodal Comparative Framework (ICF), including an Excel‐based tool that enables measurement of the environmental and cost performances of different transport solutions along key EU transport corridors.

This have came out thanks to the studies conducted by the project Realise, which according to the project coordinator Walter Vassallo, Secretary General of MARI (The Maritime Association for Research and Innovation) intended to fill the lack of quantification and comparison methods for assessing and evaluating the impacts of the various surface transport modes.