As luck would have it...

I've just found an article by Alex Steffen on worldchanging.com on Use Communities which discusses the idea of sharing stuff between people, as an alternative to buying multiple copies of the same thing (which might remain unused). I’ve made a comment here (scroll down!).
John Thackara also writes well on these topics in his excellent book In The Bubble.

I really like these ideas. What is interesting is implications for the kinds of IT systems you might have to support sharing of things— reputation based systems (like ebay) that could help to create trust between members of the community, logistics systems to track the items… These kinds of systems might not be particularly necessary for informal networks such as small community groups but could be needed for larger networks where people would not know each other that well or at all.

In this way you can get around problems such as people returning stuff in bad condition (they get rated as such) and locating lost items and so on. You might even get some positive side effects—people get to know others in their neighbourhood and build up trust in them; or negative ones—some loss of privacy.

But the question remains, what kinds of things would people share, and how could it be done in an economically as well as environmentally sustainable way? The answers will be specific to particular geographies, demographies and cultures and the type of thing to be shared, among whom and how acutely they need it, will drive the particular solution. We need marketers who can divine these hidden needs and make them explicit… whether for private or public good (or both). It will be interesting to see where and how it succeeds.

Introduction

This blog is going to concentrate on the role of information technology in helping us to live more sustainably. I’m going to look at this in the context of the city because

• Urbanisation trends mean that over 50% of us live in cities around the world and this is accelerating
• Cities offer a model of living that could be more sustainable (the opportunity to live more compactly, sharing resources and so on)

So how does ICT support sustainable living? There are a few ways. The opportunity to know what you’re consuming and make informed use of resources (examples include smart metering of energy). The opportunity to substitute physical goods for virtual ones – e.g. MP3s not CDs. The opportunity to substitute travel for communication e.g. telecommuting. The opportunity to share goods rather than owning them, e.g. sharing tools with neighbours.

All these opportunities are underpinned with information and communications technology, from the applications that could enable sharing (think ebay for shared goods, or freecycle) to the broadband infrastructure that enables telecommuting.

I think that the really exciting application of IT is its ability to deliver information to us that will really help us to change how we live. The Stern Report talks about information policies and changing behaviour. Changing demand for resources by consuming less of them (or more of other things) is a key part of combating climate change. For example, using your car less and using public transport more. Or using less water, or energy.

One last thing—of course we shouldn’t ignore the fact that IT equipment has its own sustainability issues… Waste from manufacturing is considerable, not to mention the amount of energy consumed by hardware. There appears to be some progress on these issues, but there is a long way to go.

Anyway, this and other issues to be discussed further…