Is the sharing economy a sustainable mode of consumption? An empirical case study of sharing of household goods and environmental rebound effects in a university context

IF 3.7 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
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Abstract

The Sharing Economy has been suggested as a sustainable mode of consumption due to its potential to lower resource use and waste generation. A better understanding of sharing drivers, consumption dynamics, and their interlinkages is essential to suitably appraise the role that sharing practices can play in sustainable transitions. A survey of 654 participants from the EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; Switzerland) was carried out in order to investigate their household goods sharing practices. Among the participants, 328 people that borrowed household goods (takers) were identified and their responses were analysed to find motives and barriers for sharing household goods. Furthermore, Environmental Rebound Effects (EREs) were investigated with the consideration of psychological and economic factors that may influence them. The findings indicate that attitudes towards sharing household goods are most positively influenced by expected environmental impacts followed by enjoyment, economic savings, and social interactions. Negative influences include concerns about a potential loss of independence and lack of trust in people. However, it also turned out that EREs actually amounted to 102%, indicating that the motivating (direct) environmental benefits from sharing tend to be fully compensated for by the negative impacts derived from subsequent re-spending. The imperfect substitution of sharing and the moral licensing effect contributed to this result. Furthermore, consumers’ sharing rationale significantly influences the magnitude of EREs; either increased by economic motivations, or decreased by environmental motivations. Based on our results, we suggest that, to ensure the implementation of the Sharing Economy as a sustainable mode of consumption, it is necessary to increase awareness of the environmental rebound effects caused by re-spending. Consumers could thus be more motivated to share for environmental reasons, identify themselves with sustainability and decide to abstain from morally licensing themselves to re-spend their extra disposable income on Carbon Footprint intense activities.

共享经济是一种可持续的消费模式吗?以大学为背景的家庭用品共享和环境反弹效应实证案例研究
共享经济被认为是一种可持续的消费模式,因为它具有降低资源使用和废物产生的潜力。更好地了解共享驱动因素、消费动态及其相互联系,对于适当评估共享实践在可持续转型中的作用至关重要。瑞士洛桑联邦理工学院(EPFL)对 654 名参与者进行了调查,以了解他们的家庭用品共享做法。在参与者中,确定了 328 名借用家庭用品的人(借用者),并对他们的回答进行了分析,以找出共享家庭用品的动机和障碍。此外,还对环境反弹效应(EREs)进行了调查,并考虑了可能对其产生影响的心理和经济因素。研究结果表明,预期的环境影响对共享家庭用品的态度产生了最积极的影响,其次是享受、经济节约和社会交往。负面影响包括担心可能失去独立性和对人缺乏信任。然而,事实也证明,EREs 实际上达到了 102%,这表明分享所带来的(直接的)环境利益往往会被随后的再消费所产生的负面影响所完全抵消。共享的不完全替代和道德许可效应促成了这一结果。此外,消费者的分享动机也会极大地影响EREs的大小;要么因经济动机而增加,要么因环境动机而减少。基于我们的研究结果,我们建议,为了确保共享经济作为一种可持续消费模式的实施,有必要提高人们对再次消费所造成的环境反弹效应的认识。这样,消费者就会有更大的动力出于环保原因进行分享,认同可持续发展,并决定放弃从道德上许可自己将多余的可支配收入用于碳足迹密集型活动。
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来源期刊
Cleaner and Responsible Consumption
Cleaner and Responsible Consumption Social Sciences-Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
CiteScore
4.70
自引率
0.00%
发文量
40
审稿时长
99 days
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