Facing the future: making and saving money by sharing

Benita Matofska

21 February 2013

Make sharing sexy: stop selling the message 'buy more', start selling the message 'share more'.

Benita Matofska considers how we can profit by sharing in the last of her articles.

Read part one Facing the future: share to survive and part two Sustainability means sharing.

A study by Cooperatives UK found that 80% of us say sharing makes us happier - and 70% of us want to share more.

So what's stopping us taking action?

What actually motivates people to share is our survival instinct - making or saving money. How many people do you see driving without passengers? And how much money would they save in petrol if they could carpool? 

The People Who Share has launched a new website. It's the world's first one-stop sharing marketplace. It lists all the UK car- and ride-sharing companies and plans to expand to other categories of sharing. £1.6 trillion worth of unused items clutter our homes - and 69% of us are willing to share if we could make money. We clearly need to make sharing easy.

To inspire more people to share, we should:

• Stop selling the message 'buy more'.
• Shout about the benefits of making or saving money.
• Make sharing desirable, easy and safe. 

People need to feel safe to share. The People Who Share is creating Sharetrade - a kitemark. Sharetrade will do for the sharing economy what Fairtrade has done for fairer working conditions.

But unless we make sustainability 'sexy' it won't reach the majority of consumers.

'Time to Start...' a month-long campaign to promote sustainable living will launch on 2 May 2013. Led by Start, it will help organisations and corporations to inspire millions of people to share. The campaign will culminate in Global Sharing Day and The Big Lunch on Sunday 2 June, 2013. 

We need to work with big business and celebrities to get the messages out there. Just like Marks and Spencer's Shwopping campaign with Joanna Lumley did. And B&Q's Streetclub did. 

The sharing economy is the future economy. By encouraging celebrities and public figures to promote a sharing lifestyle, we can sell this critical message.

Simply put, we need to make sharing sexy.

The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of Friends of the Earth.