Posts Tagged ‘sharing’
Guide to Sharing: The Mesh Directory
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on August 19th, 2010
Source: Springwise
Regular Springwise readers are already familiar with transumers and the many ways in which they share and exchange goods without ever having to own them. The Mesh Directory is an online network that attempts to encapsulate that trend, aggregating all the many companies that now “create, share and use social media, wireless networks, and data crunched from every available source to provide people with goods and services at the exact moment they need them, without the burden and expense of owning them outright,” in the site’s own words.
Mesh Directory provides a freely searchable index of some 1,500 companies that are helping to enable the new sharing economy. Designed as a companion site to a forthcoming book on the same topic, the directory allows users to browse alphabetically or by category as well; among the categories included are transportation, fashion, food, real estate, travel, finance and entertainment. Provided for each company on the list are its URL and contact information along with a description of its offerings; there’s also an option for companies not already on the list to request to be added.
Read about it on Springwise.
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Exchange for Change: Ethical Sustainable Fashion
Posted in Events, Models by Kate Archdeacon on June 25th, 2010
Oxfam Australia and CarriageWorks presents Exchange for Change: The festival for a fashionable world without poverty
The latest kicks, those perfect fitting jeans, that jaw-dropping dress. We all have fashion cravings. But often our fashion sense has a flow-on effect that we don’t get to see. What are our clothes made of? Who makes them? Under what conditions? Could we be making better choices – more eco-friendly, people-friendly choices? Oxfam Australia and CarriageWorks are delighted to join forces to present a series of events that examine the workings of the fashion industry. Exchange for Change celebrates the positive steps many have made to address the environmental impacts of clothing production, as well as fair wages and safe working conditions for the people who make our clothes. Above all, the three day event will focus on what we can do in our everyday lives to make a difference.
Stitched together with a lineup of live local music, and wintry treats from the CarriageWorks café and bar, this is an event for anyone ready to evolve their fashion sense. The 3-day event features discussions, a designer showcase, and one of Sydney’s biggest clothing swaps – all for free!
Toy Rental Service for Businesses
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on June 14th, 2010
Source: Springwise
Image: dougitdesign via flickr CC
From “Toy Rental Service Targets Businesses with Waiting Rooms“:
Serving Vancouver, B.C., Lucky Duck Toy Box provides a wide assortment of toys for kids aged newborn through five years old. Parents or grandparents simply choose a subscription plan—ranging from CAD 24 to CAD 69 per month for 3 to 12 toys—and pick out which toys they’d like to start with. Lucky Duck then delivers those within days. A month later, customers login once more to choose their next set; when their delivery date arrives, Lucky Duck swaps the old ones for the new ones. For businesses, Lucky Duck Toy Box offers a like-minded solution to the problem of old, dirty, worn out toys in waiting rooms. Instead, it delivers a fresh assortment of sanitized playthings to keep businesses’ youngest customers safe and entertained. All toys are lead-tested, inspected and cleaned with environmentally friendly products. Weekly and custom delivery plans are also available.
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Growing Communities: Start-Up Programme
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on June 7th, 2010
Source: SustainWeb
Growing Communities 2010 Start-Up Programme
Growing Communities (GC) is a social enterprise run by local people in Hackney, East London. It has been running a community-led box scheme since 1993 and now packs over 900 bags of fruit and vegetables a week, most of which come direct from local, sustainable farms and some of which is grown in their urban agriculture sites dotted around Hackney.
GC wants to help more communities round the UK to set up their own community-led box schemes, as a practical way to change the food system and increase the economic sustainability of food growing projects. There is now a Start-Up Programme with materials, training and web-tools to help groups set up community-led box scheme using the Growing Communties Model.
If you are interested in joining the programme or if you want to register to receive email updates, visit the website.
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Compost Cab: Food Scraps Pick-Up Service
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on May 28th, 2010
Source: Springwise
…For every 50 pounds of organics the company collects, customers can receive five pounds of fresh compost and one pound of worm castings in exchange.
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Read it on Springwise:
The average American family produces more than 500 pounds of leftover organic material every year; composting not only keeps that waste out of methane-generating landfills, it also produces nutrient-rich, fertile, natural soil. Composting may be the right thing to do for the environment, but it can be hard to get around the smell and the mess—particularly for urbanites without expansive yards. Compost Cab is a new service about to launch in Washington, DC, that can be called upon to handle all the dirty details.
DC-area consumers begin by signing up online. Once it launches, Compost Cab will then provide them with a standardized bin equipped with a sturdy, compostable bag liner. Each day clients will fill the bin with their organic material, and once a week—on a reliable, fuel-efficient schedule—Compost Cab will pick up the bag, leaving behind only a clean bin with a new liner. The cost is simply USD 8 per week per bin; no long-term commitments are required. Compost Cab’s primary composting partner is Engaged Community Offshoots (ECO), a seed-stage urban farm in College Park, Md., that uses finished compost to grow natural, nutritious food for local kids.
At least as interesting is that clients who have been with Compost Cab for nine months or longer can claim some finished soil in return. Specifically, for every 50 pounds of organics the company collects from them, they can receive five pounds of fresh compost and one pound of worm castings in exchange. Those who choose not to claim their share, meanwhile, can ask Compost Cab to donate it on their behalf to ECO. Compost Cab is a production of Agricity LLC, a Washington, DC-based company focused on sustainability.
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Urban Revitalisation: Empty Shops Network
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on May 27th, 2010
Source: guardian.co.uk
From “Dan Thompson’s innovation: the Empty Shop Network” by Lucy Siegle
Dan Thompson describes his main skill as “charming keys out of people”. Ever since he was gifted a former bakery in Worthing which he made into an impromptu art gallery, he has been reviving disused shops with creative ventures and quirky commercial schemes. “It’s very easy,” he assures me. “It’s a question of speaking to property developers and landlords, and explaining what you want the space for. In most cases you’ll find they just want un-let properties to be looked after. Neighbours also like to see footfall and traffic. Breathing life into old shops brings town centres back to life.”
This is not about squatting. Each of Thompson’s Empty Shops Network (ESN) projects abides by a “licence to occupy”. Acquiring short, very cheap leases for pop-up shops and arts ventures is simple at the moment: experts predict one in five of the shops currently lying empty will never again see service as a commercial enterprise, as a nation of shopkeepers realises it has too many shops.
But the ESN believes that for ventures as diverse as seed swapping to recycled jeans, the right outlet is out there somewhere. Today Thompson is particularly excited by Coventry: “We’ve got one arcade where we’ve opened a gallery, a digital arts centre and a theatre. We want people to hang out in town centres, be inspired!”
Although he’s steered clear of old Woolworths (too big), he did install bumper cars in a former Allied Carpets showroom in Shoreham. And he allowed himself a wry smile when he visited the Gucci pop-up shop in central London recently. “It was amazing to see a luxury brand do what we’ve been doing for 10 years,” Thompson says. The informal shop economy appears to be booming.
Article by Lucy Siegle
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Shared Cogeneration Project: Queensland
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on May 26th, 2010
Source: Green Building Council Australia (GBCA)
From “Co-gen in Queensland: green tick from gas supplier a positive sign for precincts” by Lynne Blundell
There could be light at the end of the tunnel for cogeneration projects seeking co-operation from energy agencies. In a victory for precinct-style power generation, a proposed shared cogeneration project between The University of Queensland and the Royal Brisbane Hospital has received support from gas suppliers. It was very much an industry-driven victory. After an initial knock-back by gas suppliers to support the project, sustainability consultants from Cundall, armed themselves with extensive technical data to back their case. But it took some political nous as well – this time they bypassed the technical people and went straight to the top.
Cundall’s Brisbane head, Rob Lord, told The Fifth Estate the decision by the gas authority to fund the necessary infrastructure to supply gas to the shared power plant was a sign of a shift in attitudes. “It is a kind of awakening for these authorities. They are bureaucracies and are very focused on risk. What we want is for them to be not only conscious of the risk but also the opportunities of cogeneration and shared energy schemes,” says Lord. “When the gas company was first approached they said it couldn’t be done. But when we got back to the upper echelons of the company with all the mechanical, hydraulic and sustainability information they were very positive about the opportunities and they told their technical people they wanted it to happen.”
With cogeneration, and trigeneration, buildings can generate their own power from gas-fired generators, reduce their reliance on the electricity grid and use waste heat to help cool and heat a building. But resistance from energy agencies to these plants putting energy back into the grid or to providing the necessary infrastructure for projects has been a major disincentive for developers and building owners considering the technology.
Grow Your Own: iPhone App
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on May 24th, 2010
The free Grow Your Own iPhone application (app) from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is designed to help you choose and grow fruit and vegetables – however much space or time you have. Currently, the content covers the 20 most popular varieties of fruit and veg, but low cost bundles of content covering additional fruit and veg will be available to buy soon. This app is initially intended for less experienced or less confident gardeners but will be a valuable resource for all because it gives you the chance to access horticultural advice from the UK’s leading gardening organisation while you are out and about in your garden with your iPhone.
Current features
- Choose vegetables and fruit for your garden based on your level of expertise, and your available space and time
- Access expert RHS advice about your chosen fruit/veg, what to do and when, view varieties that we recommend and learn about common problems you might encounter such as diseases and pests and what to do about them
- Link to the RHS plants site to buy quality plants
- Access the RHS Grow Your Own forum, to ask questions, advice and chat to fellow gardeners
The next release of this application will allow you to unlock more content and functionality for a small charge. It will include:
- An additional 15 fruit and veg (bringing the total to 35)
- Calendar and To-Do list functionality to keep track of your plants’ progress so you know what to do and when
- Location aware weather alerts
Bundles of new content will become available as they are released, again, for a small fee.
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Shared Earth: connecting gardeners with gardens
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on May 17th, 2010
Source: Treehugger
“I’ll provide the land, water and materials if you’ll provide the work. We can share the produce 50-50.”
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“It’s an obvious problem in urban and suburban jungles around the country: many people are eager to garden but have nowhere to indulge their green thumbs. And plenty of homeowners have gardens in need of tending. Enter SharedEarth.com. Taking the Craigslist model to gardening, it helps match up prospective gardeners to those with gardens, for free. Think of it as sharecropping 2.0 — or a kind of dating site for garden lovers. The idea has already inspired a trend (and a TV show) in the UK. The implications for the U.S. could be huge.
Consider less wasted land, lower greenhouse gases, more local, homegrown food, stronger community bonds, and perhaps the chance to make some extra cash. It’s the kind of thing that Malcolm Gladwell can dig, apparently. And while it’s just getting started, the site’s already shared almost 26 million square feet of land. Just before the site launched on Earth Day, I spoke to the founder, internet entrepreneur Adam Dell (Michael’s brother) about the site and where it grows from here.
Philly Kitchen Share: Sharing Resources
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on January 8th, 2010
Source: Springwise, “Commercial Kitchen for Rent by the Hour”
Philly Kitchen Share is a shared-use commercial kitchen available for hourly rental by caterers, personal chefs, bakers and other food professionals in the Philadelphia area. Created by the founders of PhillyCarShare, the 800-square-foot cooking space actually features two adjoining kitchens, for rent separately or together: one focused on traditional cooking or catering and the other on baking. Together, they’re equipped with stainless steel work tables, convection and standard ovens, commercial ranges and a variety of other tools. Rental prices are USD 39 per hour for one kitchen during off-peak hours, or USD 44 per hour during peak times. Since its launch last winter, business at Philly Kitchen Share has been steady, Philly.com reported, with renters including cooking classes, a vegan baker, a mobile cupcake vendor and a personal chef and caterer.