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The Return of Renting, Sharing and Borrowing
publication date: Jun 3, 2011
“Collaborative Consumption” covers a huge range of ideas and enterprises that are allowing people to live more sustainably, more cheaply and in greater community. One example is Streetbank.com, which works as a giant shared attic, garden shed, toolkit, fancy dress chest, library and DVD collection for neighbourhoods across the country.
Free to join, members are asked to enter their postcode, an email address and to add one thing they would be willing to share or give away – they are then able to see everything their neighbours have added within one mile of their front door. Established as a charity and operating with minimal funding, resources or publicity it is growing rapidly by around 10% per month and currently has 6,700 members, focused mainly in London but spreading to other cities across the country. Some companies and local authorities have been quick to take advantage of the shift in preference from ownership to access – Boris’s bicycles, Zipcar and Lovefilm are all examples. However, the emergence of new technology, a renewed belief in the importance of community, pressing environment concerns and cost consciousness is driving many people a stage further to prefer to borrow from their neighbours. Streetbank is not the only example. Whipcar allows you to rent your neighbour’s car, landshare and Grow Your Neighbours Own give you access to your neighbour’s garden, and crashpadder allows you to rent a bed in another town. |
