Interest is growing

To establish a common solution for exchanging emissions data, 16 members of the Open Logistics Foundation are now involved in the Working Group Enabling Logistics Decarbonisation (ELD) and its associated project Emissions Data Exchange. The initiative was launched by the international logistics provider Dachser because an increasing number of the company’s customers – ranging from automotive suppliers and consumer goods manufacturers to the chemical industry – were requesting detailed information on the CO₂ emissions of their shipments. “In addition to regulatory requirements obliging companies to systematically document supply chain emissions, many businesses are also increasingly taking a proactive interest in creating transparency regarding emission-intensive transport operations in order to then reduce them in a targeted manner”, explains Ingo Müller, Department Head of Prototyping & Testing at Dachser.

It thus became clear to the logistics service provider that its previous method of exchanging data via Excel spreadsheets would no longer meet future requirements and that the process needed to be significantly more digitised and automated. Ingo Müller continued, “So it was clear to us right from the start: we need a standardised solution that works for everyone involved and for the entire industry! After all, creating individual interfaces for a large number of customers would entail significant implementation and maintenance costs and, in the long term, lead to a diversity of systems that would be difficult to manage”. Dachser’s push for ‘one solution for all’ was met with broad approval among the members of the Open Logistics Foundation.

Starting point: iLEAP

At the same time, the Working Group formed, Smart Freight Centre and SINE Foundation (see profiles at the bottom) unveiled the iLEAP protocol. It defines the structure, collection and transmission of emissions data, thereby creating a digital standard that ensures reproducibility, consistency and interoperability across software systems. It enables emissions data to be shared in a standardised manner between companies, partners and authorities. It is based on the GLEC Framework and the associated ISO 14083 standard, the globally recognised methodology for calculating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions consistently across the multimodal logistics supply chain.

This methodology is now, in the EU context, the methodological backbone of CountEmissionsEU, part of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The iLEAP protocol increases transparency and traceability throughout the entire supply chain – even when a shipment passes through multiple companies – whilst supporting compliance with regulatory requirements such as the CSRD.Furthermore, iLEAP boosts operational efficiency: emissions metrics can be closely linked to operational data such as fuel consumption or route planning. In this way, emissions reporting becomes an active management tool, not merely a regulatory obligation.

A key principle of iLEAP is open source development. “Developing the protocol as open source allows companies of all sizes to participate in developing and later adopting the protocol”, writes Violetta Matzoros of the Smart Freight Centre, Senior Technical Manager, Data & Digitalization – Methods, Standards & Assurance at Smart Freight Centre, in her Experts’ blog. “This creates a collaborative ecosystem for emissions accounting in logistics”. For the Working Group and the Open Logistics Foundation project, iLEAP proved to be an ideal starting point and basis for further development.

Productive use cases

The first use cases have now been carried out, in which members of the Open Logistics Foundation have implemented and tested the interface. Two of these use cases were worked on by logistics service providers in collaboration with a platform for analysing transport emissions data:

• Dachser partnered with Gryn. The Hamburg-based company enables logistics firms to automatically record, standardise, and analyse transport emissions, and to use them for sustainability and regulatory reporting.
• LKW WALTER partnered with the Norwegian company Kinver, a consolidation and analysis platform.

In both use cases, the logistics service providers made emissions-related data on transport operations for a shared customer available to the platforms – in Dachser’s case, an international automotive supplier; in LKW WALTER’s case, a global market leader in cleaning technology. The main differences lie in the interface hosting: at Dachser, the Gryn platform served as the host, whilst at LKW WALTER, the logistics service provider itself acted as the host. Both projects were successfully completed following the full go-live of iLEAP.

The effort involved in implementing the interface was relatively manageable. At Dachser, the project took around four weeks of working time, spread over a period of three months. The data exchange was set up in stages to enable testing and expansion of the functionality in successive phases. Initially, data exchange was carried out manually. At the same time, semi-automatic data transfer functionality was implemented.

At LKW WALTER, the implementation took a little longer because, unlike Dachser, the company hosted the iLEAP interface itself. The main technical challenge lay in authentication. Unlike traditional methods that use tokens valid for a specific period, iLEAP uses TANs – one-time tokens for a single data query. However, an extension to the API connector quickly resolved this issue. At the same time, two-factor authentication was implemented – an important security mechanism for distinguishing authorised from unauthorised requests. An additional layer of complexity in the use case arose from the fact that, as a specialist in intermodal transport, LKW WALTER had to verify whether and how this could be mapped within iLEAP. It became clear that iLEAP processes the relevant data points regardless of the sequence of transport modes.

In conclusion, the two use cases have demonstrated that the iLEAP interface works with standard ERP and TMS systems – including SAP – and that all of these systems provide the data points required by iLEAP.

Mission accomplished

Dachser and LKW WALTER also draw a positive conclusion from their use cases. Ingo Müller says, “iLEAP has proven itself to be practical and will therefore become the interface of choice at Dachser”. Michael Gschwandtner, Chief Digital Officer (CDO) at LKW WALTER, agrees: “We too will rely on iLEAP for the exchange of emissions data in future. This provides our customers with a simple, secure and, moreover, cost-effective solution”. The work of the Working Group and the project thus exemplifies what the Open Logistics Foundation stands for. Here, companies develop well-thought-out solutions for practical use that take into account the perspectives of many market participants and which then spread rapidly across the market via the companies involved in the project and the use cases. Ingo Müller and Michael Gschwandtner agree: “As our two companies together reach a very large number of end customers across Europe and worldwide, by using the new iLEAP interface, we are laying an important foundation for it to gradually become the industry standard. Mission accomplished!”

Way conducts trials in Northern Europe

The Finnish start-up Way Data Technologies, also a member of the Working Group and project, has tested the interface in an additional use case. The company operates a platform that collects and analyses telematics and vehicle data from transport fleets. Way piloted the iLEAP interface with several fleets in Scandinavia. The implementation has already been released as open source. The company is also preparing to take part in the pilot project for iLEAP certification. “Our goal is to improve transparency and accuracy in CO₂ accounting by making it easier for all players in the transport and logistics chain to access and exchange carbon footprints based on primary data”, says Juho Hyytiäinen, CEO and co-founder of Way.

Logistics sites are following

In another use case, Fraunhofer IML is investigating the extent to which the iLEAP interface is also suitable for exchanging emissions data from logistics sites. This is based on the REff Tool® (short for Resource Efficiency at Logistics Sites), a web-based application developed at the institute to determine greenhouse gas emissions from logistics sites, such as warehouses, transhipment sites or distribution facilities. The tool helps companies collect primary data – such as energy consumption, refrigeration systems, or other on-site consumption – and use it to calculate and report their carbon footprint in accordance with the ISO 14083 standard. Currently, more than 100 companies use the REff Tool® at over 1.000 sites. Relevant information can be exported as an XML file and imported into other systems for further processing.

“The aim of this use case is to address current challenges in exchanging data from the REff Tool® with another system via iLEAP and to develop practical solutions. To this end, we have examined whether all relevant data for logistics sites is also contained in iLEAP and how the data should be prepared and made available for the interface”, explains Dr.-Ing. Kerstin Dobers, Senior Scientist and Deputy Head of the “Sustainability and Circular Economy” department at Fraunhofer IML.

The partner for this use case is the Hannover-based company IVE mbH, which offers EcoTransIT World, a software solution for complex calculations and optimisation of emissions and energy consumption in intermodal transport. EcoTransIT World is used by shippers, logistics providers and transport companies worldwide, which also transmit data from the REff Tool®, amongst other sources. IVE is participating in the use case to actively support standardisation in sustainability.

For sustainability researcher Kerstin Dobers, this use case is yet another step towards greater sustainability in logistics. “We cannot achieve sustainability in logistics overnight,” she says. “It is, rather, a journey comprising many steps that will lead us towards sustainable logistics solutions and services”.

All results from the use cases are, or will be, documented in the Open Logistics Repository. Companies wishing to implement iLEAP can draw on the insights and experience gained there, enabling them to roll out the system more quickly

About Smart Freight Centre

Smart Freight Centre (SFC), founded in 2013, is a globally active non-profit organisation (NGO) for climate action in the freight sector based in the Netherlands. SFC works to mobilise the global logistics ecosystem, in particular its members and partners, to track and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It accelerates the reduction of logistics emissions to achieve a zero-emission global logistics sector by 2050 or earlier. To support this objective, SFC develops and disseminates methods, standards and tools – such as the globally recognised GLEC framework or ISO standard 14083 – for the consistent calculation and reporting of emissions along the supply chain. The organisation promotes collaboration between businesses, policymakers and NGOs to implement practical decarbonisation solutions and strengthen the exchange of knowledge and technology. Together with the SINE Foundation, SFC has developed the iLEAP interface as a shared organisational and technical framework for exchanging emissions data. Smart Freight Centre is a network partner of the Open Logistics Foundation.
www.smartfreightcentre.org

SINE Foundation

The SINE Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in Berlin turning pioneering research in the fields of cryptography and economics into action. This “think and do tank” combines technology (e.g., cryptographic software) with governance mechanisms to enable companies and organisations to share data securely and with confidence, without losing control over sensitive information. A key area of focus is promoting sustainable collaboration, for example, through protocols such as PACT for CO2 transparency or the iLEAP data interface. In this way, the organisation aims to pave the way for a more collaborative and sustainable economy.
www.sine.foundation

Dr.-Ing. Kerstin Dobers: A key lever is resource efficiency – in other words, alongside the question of whether we need to use resources at all, there is the question of how we can use materials, energy and products for as long as possible and in the most sensible way. After all, sustainability begins long before transport. When companies make greater use of secondary rather than primary raw materials and close material loops, this can reduce not only emissions but also cuts down natural resource consumption. At the same time, it is important to keep products and components in use for as long as possible, for example, by updating or modernising existing products, machines or systems – so-called retrofitting – through software updates, or through services such as predictive maintenance. Those who consider the entire life cycle, from the design stage of products and services, lay the foundations for a genuine circular economy.

Q: Which measures are particularly relevant at the moment?

Dr.-Ing. Kerstin Dobers: A key component of the circular economy in the coming years will be the Digital Product Passport, or DPP for short. It is being introduced as part of the EU’s circular economy framework and will become mandatory. From 2027, manufacturers and importers of certain products in the European Union will be required to provide such passports, starting with resource-intensive goods such as batteries, textiles, and electronics, as well as intermediate products such as steel. The Digital Product Passport will document information on materials, origin, reparability and recycling options. This means significantly greater transparency regarding products and materials throughout their entire life cycle. At the same time, new opportunities are opening up for data-driven services in logistics, such as return processes, reuse or recycling. However, establishing these data structures is technically and organisationally challenging, as many stakeholders must jointly define processes. Various research projects are currently underway at Fraunhofer IML in this area, in which companies are also involved. However, there are also fundamental points of contact with OLF-eCMR, the Open Logistics Foundation’s software solution for the digital consignment note.

Q: What role do open source approaches and standards generally play in the context of sustainability?

Dr.-Ing. Kerstin Dobers: We achieve sustainable business practices through the collaboration of various stakeholders. Open standards and interoperable platforms are particularly crucial when it comes to exchanging data across organisational boundaries. Open source approaches can help to establish a common technical foundation that can be used and further developed by a wide range of stakeholders. This not only facilitates data exchange but also lowers barriers to entry for companies that lack significant in-house development resources.

At the last Ideation Workshop, members were able to discuss various topics suggested throughout the year in small groups, such as the electronic Bill of Lading (eBL) – the key to international logistics – along with time-on-site prediction and yard access management. Paweł Ziaja, Product Development Team Leader at Trans.EU, decided to participate in the eBL session, among others. He shares, “My most exciting insight was that the biggest obstacle is not the technology, but its acceptance – similar to the digital consignment note eCMR in road freight transport. In the B2B sector, there is also a day-zero problem: unlike private deliveries, the recipient needs their own legally valid proof of delivery. Digitalisation must therefore work across the entire network and cannot start with a single sender”.

Learn more about the Open Logistics Foundation’s yearly Ideation Workshop.

Learn more

The open, cross-company exchange continues between and after the sessions. “What stood out most was the ability to openly debate such challenges with companies that are competitors in daily business. OLF is one of the very few forums that not only allows, but actively facilitates, this kind of honest, cross-industry collaboration”, Paweł Ziaja continues.

The results of the sessions are presented to the plenary by the respective group spokespersons. “The structured, small-group format encouraged open dialogue and honest input. Hearing different perspectives and constraints across the ecosystem highlighted how much coordination is required to make digital logistics work in practice”, emphasises Zoltán Aranyi from CargoTrack. “The workshop reinforced our belief that progress starts with early collaboration, a shared understanding, and jointly developed standards”.

Not “if”, but “when”

A recent study by Fraunhofer IML reveals that companies worldwide are actively developing humanoid robots that, according to current product claims, are feasible to be deployed in logistics. The researchers identified more than 80 systems in a market survey; the study presents a dozen of them. A complementary industry survey showed that, although humanoid robots are not yet in productive use at any company, most enterprises expect deployment within the next four to ten years. Thus, the question is no longer whether humanoid robotics will be used in intralogistics, but when and under what integration conditions.

The new Fraunhofer IML study is entitled “Automation on Two Legs? Humanoid Robots in Logistics”. It presents the results of a detailed industry survey and an international market study. From these insights, Fraunhofer IML derives recommendations for action for companies, researchers, and policymakers.

Download

Hardware development is currently concentrated in the USA and China. So far, Europe is represented sporadically. However, integration nonetheless concerns European companies. To operators of warehouses and distribution centres, the integrability of the new generation of robots into existing systems directly affects productivity, scalability, and economic efficiency.

In highly automated environments, physical material flow is inseparable from ERP, WMS, and control systems. Any additional technology that cannot be seamlessly integrated into this architecture reduces the transparency necessary for decision-making, increases complexity, and creates new interfaces. European users, logistics service providers, and system integrators who will incorporate humanoid robots into their portfolios face similar challenges. Robots from different manufacturers each come with unique navigation concepts, data models, and communication protocols. Each new system combination, therefore, results in project-specific integration solutions.

This was already observed several years ago with the introduction of driverless transport vehicles in intralogistics. In 2017, the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) and the Specialist Association for Conveyor Technology and Intralogistics of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) therefore initiated a communication interface for the development of an open standard: VDA 5050, a manufacturer-independent, standardised communication between driverless transport vehicles, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), and central control systems, enabling operators of logistics and distribution centres to run mixed fleets of different types of robots. The open source software libvda5050++, developed at Fraunhofer IML in 2021 and published in the Open Logistics Repository of the Open Logistics Foundation, provides an open source solution that serves as the technical implementation of the standard and can equip almost any driverless transport vehicle for the VDA 5050 standard.

Opportunity for Europe

The more diverse and universal the fields of application for robotics become, the greater the need for shared, open integration foundations. In the context of humanoid or multi-purpose robots, it is not just about communication, but about modelling basic logistics functions, standardised process descriptions, and interoperable data models that allow flexible task allocation between humans and robots. Open standards and open source components for non-competitive areas provide users and integrators with the opportunity to focus development resources on performance features that differentiate them, rather than repeatedly solving interface problems on a project-by-project basis. Operators benefit because they can integrate new robotics faster and with lower risk into existing structures.

Especially against the backdrop of global hardware dynamics outside Europe, this presents an important opportunity. If it is possible to further develop the integration and software architecture of intralogistics on open, shared foundations, Europe can strengthen its competitive position in logistics in a sustainable fashion.

“In intralogistics, many fundamental terms such as pick, order picking, retrieval, or packing have so far been interpreted differently, resulting in processes being implemented inconsistently. The introduction of humanoid robotics now emphasises the need for both operators and manufacturers to standardise definitions and procedures. To ensure processes are implemented consistently and productively, uniform standards that benefit everyone are now essential for greater efficiency and lower costs. Against this background, I can very well imagine operators and manufacturers working together on this in a Working Group on Intralogistics within the Open Logistics Foundation and in corresponding projects.”
Christian Prasse, Head of Strategy, Fraunhofer IML

About the author

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alice Kirchheim is an expert in intralogistics, with a focus on the planning and design of warehousing and order picking systems, the automation of logistics processes, and the use of AI. Since April 2024, she has been Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML and holds the Chair of Material Handling and Warehousing at TU Dortmund University. Fraunhofer IML is a founding member of the Open Logistics Foundation; Alice Kirchheim is Chair of the Board of Open Logistics e. V., the Foundation’s supporting association.

Applications of artificial intelligence (AI) have long arrived in logistics. Yet solutions that address isolated sub-problems still dominate. However, this hardly does justice to logistics’ true strength – its ability to network and control highly complex processes. “The core competence of logistics lies in coordinating many individual steps in such a way that highly complex tasks can be reliably accomplished”, says Andreas Nettsträter, CEO of the Open Logistics Foundation. “Now the question is how artificial intelligence can provide support at this central point”.

The often-expressed hope that artificial intelligence will solve all logistical questions in the form of a universal system – in other words, a “ChatGPT for logistics” – will certainly not be fulfilled. Instead, a different scenario is emerging: an ecosystem of specialised AI agents orchestrated to manage supply chains. AI agents typically operate within a clearly defined area of responsibility, react to events, and trigger subsequent processes in a targeted manner. The particular added value for logistics lies in their interplay: when multiple specialised AI agents act together, an end-to-end process along the entire value chain becomes possible.

For AI agents to be integrated into logistics processes and usable along the entire value chain, the underlying workflows, data models, and interfaces must be comparable and defined in a binding manner. “AI delivers its benefits above all, where structured and comparable data are available”, Andreas Nettsträter sums his thoughts up.

2. How data models become “AI-ready”

Within the Open Logistics Foundation, companies have already developed various components and data models that can be specifically used for the development and deployment of AI agents.

• One example is the electronic consignment note (eCMR). The solution developed by the member companies of the Open Logistics Foundation – the so-called OLF-eCMR – is based on structured, standardised data. This makes documents directly machine-readable and easier for AI to process. It enables automatic extraction and validation of content, handover to downstream processes, and integration with transport, billing or compliance systems. In addition, the three status messages of the eCMR – “Provision by Sender”, “Loading by Driver”, and “Acceptance by Recipient” – are legally effective through the respective signature and act as triggers for subsequent processes, such as initiating automated invoicing or payment release.
• Another example is the Tracking Event Model of the Open Logistics Foundation. Companies have agreed on a standardised description of status events along the transport chain. The model thus provides an ideal basis for AI agents that can interpret events in real time and automatically derive subsequent actions. For example, an agent can evaluate incoming status messages and automatically trigger notifications, suggest re-routings, or re-coordinate time windows.
• Currently, companies in the Open Logistics Foundation are also developing a basic model for timeslot management. This could allow AI agents to dynamically manage time slots based on real-time data and capacity information. Instead of static bookings, an adaptive system emerges that can respond to delays, utilisation, or changed priorities and replan or optimise time slots accordingly. Through the use of AI, the examples mentioned can be fully automated. Simple agents can accelerate usage while simultaneously simplifying the dissemination of standardised data models and status events.

3. Why open source is an enabler for agentic AI

The current shift towards agentic AI, which acts proactively and “works on” tasks, is not only a technological but also an organisational question. Agentic AI should therefore not be conceived as a centrally provided solution, but rather as the result of the interplay of open components and company-specific integration. “Companies will only deploy AI agents in critical end-to-end processes if they can understand the decisions, retain control over their data, and integrate systems securely”, identifies Jens Leveling, Technology Advisor at the Open Logistics Foundation, citing two main reasons for open source: traceability and trust in open implementations. Open architectures and open source approaches enable the connection of different systems – a fundamental prerequisite for seamless value chains. Jointly developed components also reduce implementation effort and accelerate innovation. In addition, companies avoid dependencies on proprietary platforms and retain control over their processes.

In principle, the Open Logistics Foundation develops only basic functionalities, so-called commodities. Agentic AI and the underlying data models are not, in themselves, elements that differentiate competitively. Therefore, it makes sense for companies to develop them together and provide them as open source. Each company thus has the opportunity not only to use them but also to reuse them commercially. Andreas Nettsträter says, “The same principle also applies in the field of artificial intelligence: the actual differentiation in logistics does not arise in the AI agents themselves, but in the orchestration of AI agents within concrete application environments”. For companies, this opens the opportunity to develop their own solutions based on these building blocks and deliberately leverage the orchestration of AI agents as a competitive advantage.

Why would a global software company, whose success is built on innovation, intellectual property, and differentiation, invest time, resources, and senior attention into open source initiatives? Why would a company like Blue Yonder — serving some of the world’s most demanding supply chains — actively support the creation of open, shared industry standards?

The answer is simple, and at the same time deeply strategic:

Because our success depends on the success of our customers — and our customers can only truly outperform in an industry that works together where it matters most. One year ago, Blue Yonder joined the Open Logistics Foundation. Looking back today, it is clear: this decision was not only right. It was necessary.

Customer excellence comes first

Blue Yonder’s primary mission has always been clear: enable customers to be excellent and outperform — in service, efficiency, resilience, and sustainability.
That is how we create value.
That is how long-term partnerships are built.
And that is how sustainable growth happens—on both sides.

To achieve this, Blue Yonder invests massively in proprietary capabilities:

• Advanced optimisation algorithms
• AI-driven planning and execution
• Deep industry-specific process models
• Integrated end-to-end decision intelligence

These are areas where differentiation matters. Where competitive advantage is created. Where customers win or lose in the market. But there is another category of capabilities — just as critical — where differentiation makes no sense at all.

Where open beats closed

There are parts of logistics where the highest value is created when everyone speaks the same language.

Standards for documents.
Standards for handovers.
Standards for appointment booking.
Standards for status exchange.
Standards for reporting.

In these areas, fragmentation does not create competition. It creates waste:

• Endless bilateral integrations
• Manual workarounds
• Misunderstandings and mismatches
• High coordination effort
• Constant firefighting

We are not competing on PDFs and phone calls. But we are spending an incredible amount of time on them.
This is exactly where the Open Logistics Foundation comes in.

One year in: From idea to impact

When Blue Yonder joined the Open Logistics Foundation a year ago, the vision was clear: build a coalition of the willing to create open, practical, implementable standards for real logistics processes.
The progress since then has been remarkable.

eCMR: A Digital Foundation for Everyone

The electronic consignment note (eCMR) is a perfect example.
Instead of every company and every country developing its own interpretation and interface, the foundation has created a shared, open standard that:

• Works across systems
• Works across companies
• Works across borders

The result is not just less paper. It is less friction in the entire ecosystem.

Learn more about the OLF-eCMR solution.

Learn more

Timeslot booking: Attacking one of logistics’ biggest sources of waste

Another powerful example is the Timeslot Management project. Today, a shocking amount of operational effort is wasted on:

• Coordinating arrival and departure times
• Chasing confirmations
• Handling last-minute changes
• Resolving conflicts manually

It is slow. It is expensive. And it is completely unfit for a digital supply chain. The Open Logistics Foundation is creating a shared standard that allows enables all participants — shippers, carriers, warehouses, and platforms — to use the same language and the same logic.
And this is where it becomes truly strategic.

Learn more about the Timeslot Management project.

Learn more

Once time windows are standardised and machine-readable, Blue Yonder’s network can interactively communicate, and planning systems can start to negotiate them dynamically, says Robert Recknagel, Vice President at Blue Yonder. Imagine a fleet management or transportation planning system that can optimise routes and schedules while interacting in real time with warehouse slot availability. That’s not just automation — that’s a completely new level of system intelligence. Our customers don’t buy Blue Yonder because of our proprietary document format. They buy us because we help them run their supply chains more efficiently. Open standards make the ecosystem faster, cheaper, and more reliable — and that makes our customers more successful.

Network effects beat individual optimisation

There is another, even more important aspect. Logistics is not a single-company game. It is a network sport.
The best planning system in the world still depends on:

• Partners
• Carriers
• Terminals
• Authorities
• And many other participants

Open standards multiply the value of digitalisation:

• Each new participant increases the benefit for everyone
• Each new adoption reduces friction for all others
• Each shared interface replaces dozens of custom ones

This is how real scalability is created.

Looking forward: An invitation

After one year, the conclusion is clear: this journey has only just begun.

Blue Yonder is ready to continue investing, contributing, and leading — as one of the global players in supply chain software. And we hope many more will follow. Because in the end, this is not about open source versus proprietary. It is about something much more important: enabling customers to outperform in an industry that finally works as one.

The MoU was signed in Dublin, Ireland during the National Open Source Innovation Summit 2026 on 6 February 2026. The agreement marks an important step in connecting the OLF’s growing European ecosystem with Ireland’s large and highly engaged open source community. According to Open Ireland Network, Ireland currently ranks number 6 in the EU for developers per capita, highlighting the country’s strong open source potential.

Open Ireland Network is a social enterprise dedicated to fostering open source innovation across Ireland. By connecting individuals and organisations from government, business, and academic, it promotes open source best practices for innovation and social impact. Its work focuses on strengthening community collaboration, developing open source skills and knowledge, and linking Irish innovators with international networks.

Open Ireland Network was co-founded by Clare Dillon and Michael Meagher.

Through this MoU, both organisations commit to exploring opportunities for shared learning and joint initiatives. The collaboration with Open Ireland Network also reflects the broader role of network partners within the Open Logistics Foundation ecosystems. Network partners contribute regional and thematic expertise, helping open logistics solutions travel across borders, sectors, and communities. By working together rather than in silos, these partnerships accelerate learning and innovation, strengthening adoption across the ecosystem and supporting sustainable progress for the future.

For more information about Open Ireland Network, visit https://openirelandnetwork.com/.

The foundation: Independent custodian of shared open source assets

In principle, a foundation is nothing more than a state-recognised, ownerless entity with rights and obligations that has its own assets at its disposal. It can therefore be the owner of tangible and intangible economic assets, including newly developed software. It may carry out the related legal transactions within the scope of its respective statutory purpose. The purpose of the Open Logistics Foundation, against the backdrop of the legal framework for non-profit organisations, is to promote science and research in Germany and abroad, particularly in the field of logistics and the science and economy that serve the field of logistics. This purpose is achieved, in particular, through the Open Logistics Repository, which is an open and neutral platform for the joint development, use and public provision of open source software.
The foundation is organised as a corporation, similar to a public limited company. It has a board of directors, a board of trustees and, optionally, a supplementary management board.

Financing remains a key challenge for foundations. As a first step, the foundation is therefore endowed with initial capital by its founder(s) upon its establishment, which can be supplemented by additional donations. Naturally, this will not last forever; at some point, the foundation must stand on its own two feet financially, otherwise it could slide into financial difficulties and insolvency, as a public limited company or a limited liability company might. Since self-financing through the sale of open source software is naturally out of the question, and altruistic contributions in the form of donations and endowments from market participants are likely to be rather limited, a supplementary structure has been created that allows for a certain degree of participation as well as long-term financing of the foundation.

The support association: Platform for participation and funding

The support association (Open Logistics Foundation e. V.) is the second element of the dual structure, namely an association under civil law in which the project sponsors become members with certain rights and obligations and can exercise a certain degree of indirect participation. The association’s purpose is based on the foundation’s purpose. Like any other association, the association itself has a general meeting and a board of directors that is responsible for its business. In this case, both the foundation and association are structured as non-profit organisations, but this is not mandatory.

The organisational framework: cooperation between the foundation and the association

A key connecting element between the foundation on the one hand and the association on the other is a long-term cooperation agreement. This agreement sets out, in detail, the mutual obligations of cooperation and support, financing issues, and other aspects, such as voting recommendations for the appointment of committee members. Within this framework, an open exchange of ideas between all members of the association and between the association and the foundation is possible – even in a committee environment that can be designed to be quite flexible. The organisational framework is also flexible if set up correctly. For example, the cooperation can be extended to other institutions, and existing cooperation agreements can be adapted to the future needs of those involved.

The dual structure is therefore particularly well-suited to promoting open decision-making processes and community-driven idea development and implementation. Overall, it can be considered exemplary when companies, organisations, and private individuals want to jointly develop solutions in a specific field and make them available to a wider public – i.e. for the common good – without individual interests having too great a negative influence on their development and use. In principle, companies and individuals from other industries or sectors can also consider adopting a similar approach, for example, in the field of artificial intelligence. The initiators of such projects should, in any case, individually examine their specific needs, their industry-specific framework conditions and, above all, the legal and tax limits of their own project.

In doing so, they must always be aware that antitrust and competition law, in particular, sets very strict limits on cooperation and the exchange of certain information between the parties involved. All competition law restrictions must be strictly observed during the preparation, implementation and operation of such a concept. Above all, information relevant to competition law and trade secrets of individual association members, other stakeholders and competitors must not be exchanged under any circumstances. All of this makes the implementation, operation and monitoring of such a concept challenging and therefore continues to involve a considerable amount of effort after its implementation.

The foundation’s independence protects it from outside influence

Since a foundation has no shareholders, it cannot be unilaterally influenced, either as a legal entity or in the projects it runs, by the particular interests of individuals, such as disruptive shareholders. It is also protected from outside influence, such as from unfriendly investors. This means that, from the founders’ perspective, the software developed by the foundation cannot fall into the ‘wrong hands’ in the normal course of business. In this respect, the foundation is structurally superior to all other possible legal forms, such as public limited companies, limited liability companies, cooperatives, limited partnerships, general partnerships, etc.

In addition, the Open Logistics Foundation’s corporate law approach avoids legal forms subject to stricter regulation and that require greater effort in terms of registers, authorities and administration. At the same time, it circumvents all legal forms that tend to entail higher liability risk for persons acting in executive bodies (e.g., due to capital maintenance regulations), thereby reducing all risks that cannot be completely avoided to a relatively low level. Finally, this legal structure allows for the desired multi-level and variable body and organisational structure, which is why it is fundamentally superior to many other legal forms, especially those with very strict articles of association (e.g., public limited companies), particularly with regard to the drafting of the articles of association.

TIC4.0 is an international, non-profit industry association focused on digital standardisation for the port cargo handling industry. It brings together terminal operators, equipment manufacturers and software technology providers to define common data models, shared language and interoperable digital standards so that systems across port cargo handling can communicate efficiently and consistently. The goal is to accelerate the digital transformation of port-logistics, including harmonised processes, automation of operations, integration of green technologies, and digital twins for terminal operations.  

The initiative currently has over 60 members and is endorsed by FEPORT (Federation of European Private Port Companies and Terminals) and PEMA (Port Equipment Manufacturers Association). 

The collaboration with TIC4.0 also reflects the broader role of network partners within the Open Logistics Foundation ecosystem. Network partners contribute regional, global and thematic expertise, helping open logistics solutions travel across borders, sectors and communities. By working together rather than in silos, these partnerships accelerate learning, innovation and adoption. 

For more information about Terminal Industry Committee 4.0, visit https://tic40.org/.  

Founded in 2022, JPIC promotes the Physical Internet, a logistics paradigm focused on open and collaborative systems that improve supply chain efficiency, resilience, and sustainability. JPIC’s activities include raising awareness, supporting research and standardisation, fostering education, and creating collaborative spaces for industry, government, and academia to implement Physical Internet solutions in Japan.   

The signing took place at the Global CLO Summit 2026 in Tokyo, Japan, hosted by SIGMAXYZ Inc. in cooperation with JPIC. The summit brought together over 70 leaders from industry and academia to explore the latest global logistics trends, with a focus on implementing the Physical Internet.  

As part of the event’s programme, Thorsten presented OLF’s vision for open source as a practical enabler of Physical Internet implementation in the session “The Open Logistics Foundation’s approach to the joint creation of open source software as a building block for the concrete implementation of the Physical Internet.”  

The MoU affirms the organisations’ shared commitment to advancing the Physical Internet as a global model for logistics. Network partners like JPIC enable OLF to connect global logistics ecosystems, share knowledge, and collaboratively develop open source software solutions that support real-world Physical Internet applications. 

This partnership marks a step toward advancing international collaboration in next-generation logistics and underscores the importance of standardisation, openness, and cross-border cooperation for the industry. 

For more information about JPIC, visit https://j-pic.or.jp/.