What if everyone becomes a sharer? A quantification of the environmental impact of access-based consumption for household laundry activities
Open accessAbstract
In order to meet the EU's climate and resource efficiency targets, changes in our daily-life behaviours, as well as business models, are urgently necessary. More insights are needed to make real changes based on research with a systems perspective. We developed a system dynamics model to analyse the environmental benefits of a transition from ownership-based to access-based household laundry activities. The model considers demographic, technological and behavioural aspects and thereby assesses the environmental impact of laundry activities. The model is applied to the Swedish as well as the European context and allows cross-country comparisons. The results indicate a significant potential of the sharing economy. The higher utilisation of shared machines and extended lifespans of the machines can cut greenhouse gas emissions by a third and lower raw material usage overall and lower primary raw material in production due to higher recycling rates. The carbon intensity of the energy mix is a crucial factor for the environmental consequences that arise through changes in energy usage due to sharing economy practices. This case study shows the value of adopting policies that could promote sharing and extended life spans.
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- Authors
- Wasserbaur, R., Sakao, T., Ljunggren Söderman, M., Plepys, A., & Dalhammar, C.
- Affiliations
- Linköping University (SE)
- Lund University (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Wasserbaur, Raphael
- Venue
- Resources, Conservation and Recycling
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-07
- Volume
- 158
- Pages
- 104780
- ISSN
- 0921-3449 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3012223725
- Semantic Scholar
- 14e6e5567d4ccf9b51e72588cc08b4cd901c120f
- Cited by
- 34
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 5.14
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- urn.kb.se
- Licence
- Locations
- Resources Conservation and Recycling (publishedVersion)
- KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
- Chalmers Research (Chalmers University of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Stiftelsen för Miljöstrategisk Forskning
- H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Sharing Economy and Platforms
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Sustainable Supply Chain Management
- Keywords
- sharing economy, access-based consumption, household laundry, washing machines, system dynamics modeling, environmental impact, greenhouse gas emissions, raw material use, recycling rate, cross-national comparison, Sweden, Europe
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