‘There is no waste in the sharing economy, it is simply sharing in the wrong place’

 

 

 

The sharing economy has been a personal interest of mine for some time now, so when I was given the opportunity to attend the Brighton Chamber’s ‘Share it out’ Pop up breakfast, I couldn’t refuse!

 

Within 5 minutes of sitting down it is fair to say my imagination was captured by the interesting individuals sat at my table. Before the talks had even started I had learnt about the range of industries everyone was from and what they were all hoping to gain from the event. 

 

After tucking into probably the best veggie breakfast ever, Peter Desmond (Pop-up facilitator, circular economy enthusiast, and modular phone owner) introduced sharing economy expert, Benita Matofska, and social entrepreneur, Dan Webb. 

 

Benita explained the sharing economy as ‘a system of accessing shared resources and value exchange’. Lending, borrowing, exchanging and renting were all mentioned as processes that enable a shared resource and help connect demand with surplus. In addition to this she mentioned that the sharing economy is actually pretty huge and is currently valued at 15 billion dollars.

 

To understand how this concept can have an impact on business, Benita explained that we were ‘generation share’ and that ‘sharing is to be human’, therefore if businesses want to have a future they need to integrate this concept into their operations.

 

 

 

This was my favourite quote from Benita’s talk. It made me look beyond the sharing economy as a money making strategy or a concept that explains the shift away from ownership, but as an approach that has very few impacts on the environment and doesn’t hinder development. 

 

Peter then introduced Dan who took a different tact on the topic and spoke about his business success in the sharing economy industry. Dan’s social enterprise ‘Goodmoney CIC’ ultimately aims is to create new ways for businesses to exchange goods and services without being reliant on banks. To help achieve this goal, Dan has created a gift voucher that can be used across a range of independent businesses in Brighton. There are currently 225 companies’ part of this network, allowing a large choice for the buyer, and challenging other shops and department stores.

 

 

Dan is still developing his business in a number of ways. At Christmas he hopes to give buyers the opportunity to send locally made greeting cards with a voucher when they purchase online. He is also expanding his network to Brighton based charities who will be able to receive donations from expired and unused vouchers. 

 

Thank you to both Dan and Benita for expressing your views, opinions and experiences of the sharing economy. I found the event very interesting, and I am looking forward to discovering new companies who have ‘sharing’ at the heart of their operations, and excited to see how current businesses adapt to this growing market.