Pinal Desai
We live in a world where we want everything. All fashion in wardrobe, all appliances in kitchen and the list goes on. Recently I was in a talk with some Dutch friends and each of them had a workshop shed at their parents place. Almost all of them wanted one such for themselves. I was utterly surprised, as in my own country (India), to own even few tools is a big deal, let alone a full-fledged workshop. It does not mean I didn’t have my hands on them; we were only able to borrow tools from the school property. So when I heard them wanting to own an entire workshop, I asked myself, why? What is the need that each person should have these enormous sheds when a community can decide to share the same resources?
It is like a library, where you can share books, then why not a library of tools where one can share tools. Of course the details of who maintains it and who takes responsibility of broken equipment come into picture. But that also goes with gyms; communities share these equipments and pay a certain price for its maintenance etc.
If we extend this to a broader world, many belongings that we are so attached to calling as "mine" but use maybe once a year can be shared. The reason is simple. The more we share, the less our ecological footprint will be. If we look at the data of ecological footprint of nations, it is very clear that the developing nations have a relatively lower footprint compared to the developed nations. This is definitely one of the reasons. Because of limited resources, people are forced to share commodities in developing nations. This, infact, works in natures benefit, as fewer natural resources are needed in the production of these goods to serve the same amount of population. Maybe it’s time that developed countries also start learning values of “sharing” not because they can’t afford, but because the environment cannot afford anymore!
according to www.mrsanchelon.com, some more things (within the Netherlands) you can share are:
- The electric cars of CAR2GO.
- Owning a boat is kinda expensive, try Sloepdelen
- We all want green! Share your durable energy with Amsterdam Energie
- A drill, a trailer or something else you need for a day on Peerby
- Need a working place? Try The Thinking Hut
Important links:
list of countries by their ecological foorprint: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ecological_footprint
Calculate your ecological footprint: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/gfn/page/calculators/
Image courtesy: http://www.mrsanchelon.com/sharing-is-caring/