Users not consumers – collaborative use

Who said that we are addicted to ownership? The same way that advanced information technology is making energy consumers able to connect to the grid to become ‘prosumers’, and tracking materials and inventory is becoming easier so, too, has the technology enabled rapid growth in collaborative use, between erstwhile single consumers. In a way it is reinventing some of the sharing activities of the era before communities’ social capital degraded in the post war era. This is all very relevant to the circular economy as it enables both a changing mindset around products and their use and promotes rental and extended product lifetimes (in terms of how many hours of use is obtained for example) and is very much to the fore when it comes to creative thinking and business start ups. Many of the materials in these products will not be defined as technical or biological nutrients or have satisfactory end of life destinations but the changes point in exactly the right direction. The circular economy is a different sort of economy and collaborative use is an enabling part of it.

Information onCollaborative Consumption


Product Service Systems

Pay for the benefit of using a product without needing to own the product outright. Disrupting traditional industries based on models of individual private ownership.

Redistribution Markets

Redistribute used or pre-owned goods from where they are not needed to somewhere or someone where they are.

Collaborative Lifestyles

It’s not just physical goods that can be shared, swapped, and bartered. People with similar interests are banding together to share and exchange less tangible assets such as time, space, skills, and money.