The sharing economy has already proven a wide range of successful applications to be no longer limited to a theoretical concept. Providing environmental and social benefitis, this is what the Circule platform is doing in Montréal.

The current dominant economy is linear in its processes: it takes resources, makes goods, and quickly wastes them. This is polluting, wasteful and causing greenhouse gas emissions to spiral upwards. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to transforming the way we produce and use goods.

In order to extend source reduction, Éco2Québec has developed a sharing platform called 'Circule' to encourage neighbors to rent goods from each other instead of buying them. To create this platform Éco2Québec has financed the project by themselves, without external support, while hiring a well-known Tunisian company to minimise costs. The municipality of Laval, among other partners, has been supporting the project.

The new consumption model proposed by Circule, which is to maximise the use of an object between neighbors leads to a better use of resources, which decouples the use of a good and the consumption of energy and raw materials. Rental transactions are carried out between an owner of the object and a tenant, and by paying a commission to the Circule platform. Circule will allow the owner to take charge of the complete life cycle of the object (use, maintenance, reuse, waste and end-of-life management).

The sharing economyhelps reducing the consumption of the inhabitants and packaging waste. Besides, it enhances the life cycle of goods while improving relations between neighbors and helping the community save money through a circular and functional economy. It contributes in reducing consumption, mainly by changing mentalities in favor of degrowth, sobriety and therefore new ways of consuming and owning goods.

Photo retrieved from Québec Circulaire website