more than a cup of sugar

The concept of sharing equipment, living space and vehicles is certainly not new. Humans have been sharing tools since the first stick was used to dig for ants. Borrowing from neighbors and family members is common enough; we’ve all worn hand-me-downs (willingly or not) and our mothers sent us next door for that sugar. But the rise of a consumer-based culture played out in larger and larger houses has allowed most of us to have pretty much everything we need, including more garden, kitchen and sport equipment than we make use of. Perhaps all these possessions bring a sense of security, but our ability to purchase them allows us to cram our houses and, increasingly, rented storage space with goods that will most likely never be used.

Finding an alternative to our culture of ‘more than enough’ was a key factor in the housing project the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences entered into the 10th Solar Decathlon competition in Versailles, France in 2014. In the book Smart Sharing[1], which accompanied the Decathlon entry, a series of essays puts forth the idea of sharing, a concept hundreds of thousands of years old, as a logical alternative to our materialistic habits. Not as a post-modern alternative to socialism, but rather as part of a social network grounded in a common commitment to consume less. The competition itself specified a solar-powered building that incorporated ideas of sustainability, urban density, mobility and affordability as well as architecture and innovation. The Lucerne entry incorporated all of these into their pilot project for flexible shared living with private, family and communal spaces. A concept for Smart Sharing - not just of energy and spatial resources, but of all resources - was overlaid onto the architecture. The result was a comprehensive scheme that identified key elements, such as tools, large and seasonal equipment, vehicles and media, that could be shared using a community smart phone app.

It is perhaps easy to imagine that sharing within a planned community would be easy to organize, but what about in apartment buildings or in suburban neighborhoods? Which brings us to the project my friend asked if I had heard of. A few years ago, a group of cyclists in Switzerland started using a simple mailbox sticker to inform passing cyclists in need of a proper bicycle pump where one could be had, especially on the weekend when shops were closed. The sharing program, “Pumpipumpe”, whose name reflects its cycling origins, soon expanded to include other sharable objects such as lawn mowers, ladders and drills. The Pumpipumpe website identifies itself as a ‘sharing community’ and offers an array of stickers that can be put on mailboxes or a central bulletin board, including costumes, recreational equipment and even internet access. The project has spread rapidly throughout Europe and is now available in North America in places such as Montreal, New York, California and even Texas!

Is it possible to break our purchasing habits? The success of the Pumpipumpe stickers shows that there are people ready to do just that. The benefits of turning our fear of not having just the right equipment into a sharing network are many. In addition to the obvious savings on resources and space, the social interaction generated by a sharing scheme produces precisely the connectiveness that many of us crave in our isolated and fully stocked fortresses.

There is a hierarchy to what can be shared and what not, as illustrated in the Smart Sharing project - we wouldn’t share our toothbrushes, but we might share books, tools and hi-tech equipment, especially within a mutually agreed system. If I knew my neighbor was willing to lend theirs, I would think twice about buying a sewing machine to hem the curtains my sister gave me. And seeing that sticker on my neighbor’s mailbox will make it easier for me to go ahead and ring the bell. Or a quick glance through a list on a sharing app would inform me that the neighbor I take the bus with everyday is willing to lend me her drill or her camera tripod. All of a sudden she is not just a woman on the bus, she is part of my community. I would even ask her if I could borrow some sugar.

Sufficience urges us to question what is enough. Sustainability asks us to contemplate not just the economic and the environmental reverberations of our actions, but the social ones as well. Consumerism has had an enormous influence on our society and it is high time to reconsider its hold on us. Our goal cannot just be to stem the unabated use of resources for the sake of the environment; we must also move our society away from consumerism and towards sharing. Meet me in the commons after dinner for fresh brownies! By the way, do you have a cup of sugar I can borrow?

[1] Smart Sharing, H. Bürgi, S. Gallner (eds.) 2015 Quart Publishers