THE FUTURE IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY, we’ll do things differently there — we’ll have to.
There’s no doubt that our future will be shared; with an increasing population on a planet of finite resources, there’s simply no alternative. The Sharing Economy is, simply put, a sustainable economy built around the sharing of both human and physical resources. How and how long it takes us to build a Sharing Economy, to convince the mainstream that unless we share we have no future, or for sharing to become ubiquitous, is anyone’s guess. What’s clear is that by connecting the Sharing Economy, we’ll build it, so connect it we must.
I’ve spent three years working without a salary to build a global Sharing Economy movement — The People Who Share; running initiatives like Global Sharing Day, now reaching over 70 million people in 192 countries, to take this concept mainstream, to connect the many moving parts in order to build a viable, sustainable, economic system. I’m motivated by the fact that not only do I want to build a better world for my children; I want to make sure they have a future.
In this practical guide to the emerging Sharing Economy, Buczynski will take you on a captivating, shareable journey around the world where people are starting to share everything from cars to cabanas, from food to furniture. The rate of growth in the Sharing Economy is extraordinary; the potential for this to become a new sustainable economic model is not just the subject of game-changers dreams, it’s fast becoming a reality.
We know that between 2011 and 2013, 52% of Americans rented, borrowed or leased the kinds of items people usually own (source: Sunrun); in the UK, 64% of adults now participate in the Sharing Economy, making or saving £46 billion and a further 28% would consider it (Source: The State of the Sharing Economy 2013, The People Who Share). But this isn’t a book of statistics, where the reader merely sits on the sidelines. In Sharing is Good, the reader is the story; for people are the creators of a Sharing Economy — it’s a people’s economy.
After all, to share is to be human, and we’ve survived through sharing. When you consider the financial, social and environmental challenges we face, time is not on our side and finding a solution is critical to our survival. Start to see the world through a sharing lens and you’ll recognize that what’s wrong with the world is simply a shortage of sharing. A sharing shortage is something that we can fix since we all have unlimited sharing potential, making sharing the simple, achievable, solution to our complex global crises.
Aside from the necessity of resource sharing, we can’t ignore the happiness factor, sharing is fun. 80% of us say sharing makes us happy, 70% of us want to share more, (source: The Great Sharing Economy 2011, Cooperatives UK) and 83% of us say we’d do it if it were easy. In Sharing is Good, Buczynski recognizes not only is it time to get on with ‘the job’, she offers ‘the job’ to the reader and shows them where to find the tools they need to get ‘the job’ done.
More than that, Buczynski provides a comprehensive overview of this new economy, bringing together the separate strands that are forming the ecosystem for this new economic model. Buczynski’s Green Guru credentials come shining though; being able to take an aerial view, to not only see the various strands that make up this new economic system: collaborative consumption, cooperatives, DIY movement, co-housing (her personal favorite), co-creation, social entrepreneurship, greenomics, Cradle to Cradle, Wikinomics, open source, commoning, ‘collaboratition’… to name a few, but to connect them, is essential to building a robust economic system.
When I launched The People Who Share, I did this because I recognized that to achieve success, the Sharing Economy needed to be two things; to be connected and to be mainstreamed. Similarly, I founded compareandshare.com the world’s first comparison marketplace of the Sharing Economy because unless we open up the Sharing Economy and deliver it to the consumer in the same way that eBay opened up the second-hand goods market, it will remain niche and sidelined. This is something we can’t afford to let happen. As the old Chinese proverb says, “If we don’t change our direction we’re likely to end up where we’re headed.”
So, fans of the Sharing Economy and the uninitiated, prepare for a treat — by connecting the separate parts and opening the door for the reader into a thriving ecosystem that forms the basis for this new, inspiring economy, Buczynski demonstrates that sharing is what will save our planet, providing the means by which we’ll not only see ourselves as explorers in the country we call the future, but we’ll create the future. To share is to win.
Benita Matofska, Chief Sharer, The People Who Share, Brighton, England 2013.
Benita Matofska, a former TV executive and media entrepreneur is a global leading expert on the Sharing Economy, the creator of The People Who Share, Global Sharing Day, Compare and Share, the Global Sharing Economy Network, Crowdshare and Sharing Economy TV.
She lives in Brighton England with her graphic designer husband Lee, children Maia and Sol and rescued Cairn terrier, Buster.