Prepared ahead of MultiModal 2025 by Josh Dickerson
Look closely at the edges of our cities and you’ll see one of the UK’s fastest-growing asset classes: industrial and logistics developments.
But also look closer, and you’ll spot the problem.
These are the back-of-house spaces of our economy. Vital, yes. But often sterile, disconnected, and designed for vehicles rather than people. Sheds and car parks. Ring roads and roundabouts. Spaces to pass through, not to belong in.
At a time when place-making has reshaped high streets, campuses, and even business parks, logistics has been left behind. And yet it’s precisely here—on these so-called peripheries—where the next placemaking revolution must happen.
It’s time to put health at the heart of logistics design.
A Place for packages—but not for people?
The logistics sector has long prized efficiency: speed of delivery, cost per square foot, and access to arterial roads. While there are some great examples, such as SEGRO’s East Midlands Gateway, what it has too often ignored is the human dimension.
- No safe walking or cycling access to sites.
- Workers taking breaks in car parks or service bays.
- Communities adjacent to noise, traffic and grey views—but with no access, benefit or buffer.
These issues aren’t just aesthetic—they’re structural. And they create very real costs: poor air quality, community resistance, planning delays, recruitment struggles, and reputational risk.
“We have to stop building logistics like machines and start designing them like places.”— Josh Dickerson, Director of Place, BWB
The shift is already happening—If you know where to look
Across the UK, new logistics models are challenging the old assumptions, and BWB is helping lead the charge.
Case Study: Thrive by IM Properties
Thrive isn’t just a masterplan, it’s a mindset shift. Supported by BWB, this scheme embeds green infrastructure, active travel networks, and biodiversity net gain from the ground up. This is logistics reimagined as sustainable employment space that coexists with nature and neighbourhoods. Civic in tone. Practical in delivery. Have a look at their website, the following video is the first thing it shows, intentionally putting place, health and sustainability at the forefront of the scheme.
Case Study: SEGRO Logistics Park East Midlands Gateway
Located near East Midlands Airport, SEGRO’s EMG is one of the UK’s most advanced multimodal logistics hubs. It combines a strategic rail freight interchange with extensive road and air connectivity—but crucially, also prioritises movement for people, not just freight.
The site features cycle-sharing infrastructure, a dedicated bus terminal, and a shuttle service to move staff around the park, making it one of the few logistics developments in the UK where active and public transport have been designed in from the outset.
Landscaping, sustainable drainage systems, and tree planting further soften the site’s scale and environmental footprint, while community engagement has helped embed the park more comfortably within its rural-urban fringe setting. EMG shows that even nationally significant logistics infrastructure can make room for health, access and civic responsibility.
Case Study: Peddimore, Birmingham
Another BWB-supported project, Peddimore, blends strategic freight infrastructure with human-scaled design. Driver rest facilities, wayfinding, SuDS, green buffers and transparent community engagement helped shift perceptions from “concrete shed” to civic asset. It’s a logistics site—but also a local employer, a public interface, and a piece of a healthier place.
These aren’t edge cases—they are the emerging blueprint.
Why healthy logistics matters now
This is more than a design upgrade. It’s a business case, a policy shift, and a social necessity.
- Workforce wellbeing: Attracting and retaining logistics talent requires safe, pleasant, well-equipped environments. Fatigue and churn are design problems as much as HR ones.
- Community trust: Developments that include public space, green buffers, and clear benefits face less resistance. People support places they feel included in.
- Planning certainty: Healthy place principles can de-risk projects, meet ESG targets, and unlock land faster.
- Strategic alignment: Healthy logistics contributes to net-zero goals, levelling up, and healthier urbanism—all national priorities.
Urban greening can reduce particulate matter by up to 25% within 100 metres.
— Nature, 2020
The BWB Sniff Test: A new standard for industrial places
At BWB, we’re talking about a “Sniff Test”—a simple but powerful framework to assess logistics schemes for real-world wellbeing impact.
- Can you walk to it, around it, and through it safely?
- Does the site include meaningful green infrastructure and biodiversity?
- Are there daylight, dignity, and amenities for those who work there?
- Is it legible and welcoming, not just from a vehicle, but on foot?
If the answer to any of these is unclear, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
The Opportunity is huge—If we’re bold enough
As industrial land values rise and pressure grows for more logistics space, we must resist the temptation to repeat the old model. Healthy logistics isn’t about spending more—it’s about designing better: more considered site layouts, smarter material choices, earlier community engagement, and integrated movement and landscape from day one.
It’s also about narrative.
We need to talk about logistics not just as infrastructure but as part of a healthy civic ecosystem, the same way we talk about parks, schools, and high streets.
Because the truth is, a logistics site isn’t just where goods move. It’s where people work. Where landscapes change. Where places take shape.
The next fulfilment centre should deliver wellbeing
The UK is at a tipping point. With national frameworks evolving, health equity rising up the planning agenda, and developers under increasing ESG scrutiny, healthy logistics is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s an imperative.
The next generation of logistics infrastructure must work harder—for people, for place, and for the planet.
At BWB, we’re ready to help shape it.