LIKE CO-HOUSING AND PRODUCT SHARING
Co-housing is an initiative that is strongest in Scandanavian countries, but there is also a significant co-housing movement in the United States. The term refers to a wide range of housing arrangements that at the least involves a number of residences jointly owning and sharing common facilities or products like a laundry, kitchen, tools and equipment, or car.
It is the principle behind co-housing that can be a powerful source of sustainments. Why should every family have a product, like a pruning shears, that it only uses once a month at the most? Without too much effort, up to 30 families could use that tool, reducing the resource consumption impacts of its manufacture 30-fold. The same could be said for many kitchen appliances. Co-housing arrangements make particular sense in regard to renewable energy generation technologies, which need economies of scale whilst still remaining regionalised.
The sustainment aspect of product-sharing however lies beyond the mere quantitative aspects of ecological impact reduction. More sustainable ways of living and working are required by those who have things in common; the products being shared must be cared for so that others can continue to use them, and the relations between people must also be more carefully maintained.
