PALETTEN-SERVICE Hamburg: Making logistics more sustainable

The challenge

The classic wooden pallet plays an important role in almost all supply chains. Whether on container ships, in lorry logistics or in the storage of goods - millions of pallets are used worldwide every day. Even though wood is a renewable and ecological raw material, there is still a lot of room for optimisation in the production of individual components. In particular, the processing of glue rich in harmful substances and steel nails with a high CO2 footprint have a negative impact on the ecological balance of the pallet. The focus of the student team's question was therefore to rethink the processing of wooden pallets and optimise their recyclable preparation.

Output

The wide range of perspectives of the students from the fields of IT, environmental sciences, urban planning and design resulted in a comprehensive understanding of the problem during the process. Of particular interest to the company was the targeted scrutinising of various processes that did not arise in everyday work.

The result is the "CircularPalett" - a wooden pallet that is truly recyclable. An ecologically compatible replacement was found for the conventional adhesive, which often contains harmful substances such as formaldehyde. Even steel nails, which are produced at great energy expense, are no longer needed, as the boards and blocks are held together by wooden pins in a plug-in system. The entire product is therefore unmixed and can be recycled particularly effectively at the end of its life.

Team: Tjark Dondera ,Florian Weckbecker, Marlena Dinger, Despina Locht, Lilith Arwen Hofmann, Noah Wandres, Samantha Schubert, Yu Joung Kim

Format & method

In the Cross Innovation Class, students from three to six different universities work in interdisciplinary teams on the challenges of the project partners.

• The process follows the logic of design thinking: in iterative feedback loops with the partners, the teams approach a solution step by step.
• The entire process is managed by the Cross Innovation Hub team and supported by trained facilitators.
• Prototypes can be created and tested in the workshops of the partner universities.

The Cross Innovation Class took place in the summer semester 2023 on the topic of Circular Cities.