Sharing economy is an integral part of the circular economy, in which people are not product owners but rather users or members of a community that collaboratively owns these products (Interreg Europe 2020a).
CECI (Citizen involvement in circular economy implementation) -project aims at passing on experiences and knowledge about sharing and circular economy practices among the eight partners from six countries: Finland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, France, and Spain. The project is funded by Interreg Europe and administered by LAB University of Applied Sciences. Its main goal is to promote citizen participation in sharing and circular economy. (Interreg Europe 2020b.)
Mobile applications promoting sustainable mobility
In recent years, the sharing economy has been gaining popularity, mostly thanks to the growth of digitalisation and user-friendly digital services. Among the sharing economy practices in the Päijät-Häme region, there is a couple of interesting mobile applications related to sustainable mobility.
CitiCAP – citizens’ cap and trade co-created -project aims to implement a Personal Carbon Trading scheme for promoting sustainable and low-carbon mobility to reduce traffic emissions, collect digital data on mobility and develop new transport services for citizens in Lahti. The CitiCAP app allows the users to track the carbon footprint of their movement and gain various benefits by favouring sustainable modes of mobility. LAB University of Applied Sciences is one of the project partners. (LAB 2020; Smart & Clean Lahti 2020.)
HyppääKyytiin is a ridesharing application suited especially well for people with a close-knit group around the same hobby or destination. The app can make traveling to hobbies and sport-related activities more ecological and easier. The service is subject to a charge, but the money raised from it is mainly directed to the common good, such as the development of children’s hobbies. (HyppääKyytiin 2020.)
Authors
Mira Rissanen who is a business student at LAB University of Applied Sciences and is doing her internship in CECI – Citizen involvement in circular economy implementation -project, and Katerina Medkova, who works as an RDI Specialist in LAB and is CECI Communication Manager.
References
HyppääKyytiin. 2020. HyppääKyytiin. [Cited 4 May 2020]. Available at: https://www.hyppaakyytiin.fi/
Interreg Europe. 2020a. CECI Terminology on Circular Economy. CECI. [Cited 11 May 2020]. Available at: https://www.interregeurope.eu/ceci/news/news-article/7461/ceci-terminology-on-circular-economy/
Interreg Europe. 2020b. Project Summary. CECI. [Cited 04 May 2020]. Available at: https://www.interregeurope.eu/ceci/
LAB. 2020. CitiCAP – Citizens’ cap-and-trade co-created. [Cited 28 May 2020]. Available at: https://lab.fi/fi/projekti/citicap-citizens-cap-and-trade-co-created
Smart & Clean Lahti. 2020. CitiCAP LAHTI- citizens’ cap and trade co-created. [Cited 4 May 2020]. Available at: https://www.smartlahti.fi/citicap/
Pictures
Picture 1. Mira Rissanen: These bike racks which use smart technology were installed in the fall of 2019. They are part of the smart bicycle lane that will be built as part of the CitiCAP project.
Picture 2. Mira Rissanen: During the test period of CitiCAP -app, it was possible to gain, e.g., bus tickets and reflectors by using sustainable modes of mobility.
