Start-2-Share

Sharing platform for business parks

Unlike the sharing economy among individuals that has already gained a foothold, sharing economy among companies is very rare. Although 50% of companies seem willing to share, it hardly happens in practice. Yet the sharing economy can play an important role in the transition to a more circular economy: materials are used more efficiently, which saves on new materials and CO2 emissions. 

With the Start-2-Share project, Quares Facility Management wants to encourage material sharing on business parks, and step by step build confidence in the system and its scale. To this end, we have designed a local digital sharing platform that clearly maps existing equipment and know-how on the business park. To convince immediately, we focus on the equipment that offers the most financial and operational benefits for companies. Also, additional guidance in the field and shared success stories should remove the barriers. 

Besides the ecological benefits, the sharing platform also offers many financial advantages for participating companies: they get access to equipment from neighbouring companies at attractive sharing rates, they save significantly on investments in new equipment and companies that rent out have an increased return on their investments.

What will the future bring? 

Thanks to this project, we had the chance to research a sharing platform, launch it effectively and already discover and adjust the first growing pains. 

Start-2-Share will certainly continue and options to scale up are being looked at. For instance, the sharing platform can be valuable for cities and municipalities to help achieve their climate plans and sustainability goals.

Both partners strongly believe in the success and further expansion of the platform. Sufficient reflection and adaptability during the project already gave us a good idea of how to respond to the needs of businesses. We therefore intend to continue investing time and resources to become a fixture for practically supporting companies in their quest for greater circularity.