Design to Replace the Need to Consume

She describes how the way we use internet has evolved from simply sharing information (emails, wikipedia), to connecting to others (facebook, twitter), to collaborating. She also demonstrates how websites like Ebay, Landshare, Air BnB, Hey Neighbor, WhipCar and many more mark the transition from “me” to “we”.

These innovations do not only happen online, but network technologies like smart phones and social networks provide “the efficiency and the social glue” that enable people to collaborate in meaningful ways.

She has identified three approaches that are symptomatic of this trend, which she be interprets as a move from ownership to access, and the emergence of a generation that is not looking for stuff, but for experiences.

Product Service Systems come from the understanding that, when we buy an object, what we really want is its usage. If we apply this idea to car companies for instance, this means that rather than selling cars, they are selling mobility services. Hence the emergence of car sharing businesses like Zipcars, for example, whose tagline is “wheels when you want them”. Bike sharing schemes are also a great illustration of the convenience of such an idea: the bike is handy for as long as we need it and disappears when we do not need it anymore. If we consider that, in average, 90% or the objects we own are used less than once a month, we start to understand the potential of such systems to address sustainability issues.

Like any second-hand shop, websites like Ebay or Freecycle allow people to sell unwanted items. However, the fact that they are online gives a new dimension to the idea. Rachel Botsman refers to the internet as the “ultimate match making machine”, that connects an incredibly wide range of people with an incredibly diverse range of wants to an incredibly diverse range of offers. Redistribution markets also have interesting sustainability implications, as they help to maximize the usage of a product and extend its life-cycle.

Finally, Rachel Botsman argues that network technologies facilitate the emergence of collaborative lifestyles. Couchsurfing, which connects travelers who need somewhere to sleep and people who have a spare bed, is one of many examples of this. It goes beyond just convenience: more than offering somewhere to sleep, it is about sharing hospitality, creating friendships and experiencing meaningful ways of travelling. It is about building social capital and thus making the world a smaller planet.

These kind of online platforms work because they place emphasis on trust: contributors are rated and reviewed by other members of the online community. This is characteristic of a transition to an economy where we are “being defined, not by what we consume, but by what we contribute.”