NEWS The project Sharing City Umeå wants to build trust among the citizens of Umea by making them share, borrow and rent more from each other, and thereby jointly create added value for a sustainable development. On October 30, Umeå municipality organized a workshop at Sliperiet at Umeå university to start up collaborations and development of ideas for sharing services that can be implemented in the next three years. A total of 40 people from Umeå University, private companies and public sector participated in the event.
The focus of the workshop was to start collaborations between different stakeholders in Umea, generate new sharing ideas, as well as to map planned investments that can be upgraded through Sharing Cities. Laura Vidje, Esam, coordinator of Sharing City Umeå, summarizes the workshop as follows:
- We have started an important effort to create sharing services, services that will facilitate the sharing of for example products, tools and premises among the citizens of Umea. The interest is large among the participating organizations. We hope that the workshop will lead to new organizational models where non-profit organizations, private companies and the public sector jointly create sharing services that consider the needs of the citizens.
Sharing City Umeå is part of the national program, Sharing Cities, which will last 2018-2020. Its purpose is twofold. Firstly, to put Sweden on the map as a country that actively and critically works with sharing economy in the cities. Secondly to develop world-leading innovations for sharing economics in Umeå, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.
- We hope the program will contribute to sustainable development in Umeå, focusing on reduced environmental impact, increased trust between people, and increased gender equality. This can be achieved by engaging more citizens to share, rent and borrow from each other. In the long run we want to create an active exchange of experiences with other cities, nationally and internationally, says Laura Vidje.
An important part of the project is to evaluate the new sharing services. In that work, Umeå University will play an active role. according to Laura Vidje.
Johan Sandström, contact person for Sharing City Umeå
johan.sandstrom@umea.se
Laura Vidje, Esam, coordinator of Sharing City Umeå
Laura.vidje@esam.se
Visit Sharing Cities Sweden's website
"The currency of the new economy is trust", a TED Talk that explains the relationship between trust between people and sharing economics.
Editor: Eva J:son Lönn