10 FRoM EFFICIENCY To SUFFICIENCY: INSIGHTS …
111
Framing the Energy Challenge
Pumpipumpe creates opportunities for sharing at the scale of a neighbourhood, so as to reduce the purchase of household items but also
prompt people to think about product and service design, inspired by
the cradle-to-cradle design philosophy. As quoted in Sahakian (2017),
the co-founder states that “(s)haring makes sense in the material
world as we have it today and would make sense in a world where
we have very intelligent products, which go back into recycling”. She
feels that Pumpipumpe could ultimately influence purchasing decisions: “How we buy, how we select. If you see that there are already
two pasta machines in your neighbourhood, you know you don’t need
to buy one”, leading to less material throughput in the economy and
less waste.
The initiative has been designed to be simple, accessible to all people, and easy to use. That is why the stickers are composed solely of
graphically-designed images (without any text) to facilitate the exchange
between neighbours, without difficulties of language or legibility (e.g.
easily understandable by children or old people). Participants are free to
share their tools, kitchen appliances or toys with their neighbours, however they see fit. This way, Pumpipumpe promotes the free sharing (not
renting for money) of personal belongings.
Outcomes and Outputs
More than 15,000 households in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria
have ordered Pumpipumpe stickers, and approximately 9450 addresses
are listed on the online platform. However, the association does not
keep track of who is using the platform and what sharing activities are
actually taking place. In the future, the co-founder envisions a smartphone application for identifying different available items in a given
area, but for this, additional funding would be necessary. Beyond virtual
connections, she emphasizes the importance of the “real, live network”
as she put it:
We live in rather anonymous urban neighbourhoods. We have a beautiful digital network, all over the world […] With social networks, we are
connected with people like us everywhere in the world, but in fact in the
real network, in the neighbourhood, it is the opposite. Because it is very
111
Framing the Energy Challenge
Pumpipumpe creates opportunities for sharing at the scale of a neighbourhood, so as to reduce the purchase of household items but also
prompt people to think about product and service design, inspired by
the cradle-to-cradle design philosophy. As quoted in Sahakian (2017),
the co-founder states that “(s)haring makes sense in the material
world as we have it today and would make sense in a world where
we have very intelligent products, which go back into recycling”. She
feels that Pumpipumpe could ultimately influence purchasing decisions: “How we buy, how we select. If you see that there are already
two pasta machines in your neighbourhood, you know you don’t need
to buy one”, leading to less material throughput in the economy and
less waste.
The initiative has been designed to be simple, accessible to all people, and easy to use. That is why the stickers are composed solely of
graphically-designed images (without any text) to facilitate the exchange
between neighbours, without difficulties of language or legibility (e.g.
easily understandable by children or old people). Participants are free to
share their tools, kitchen appliances or toys with their neighbours, however they see fit. This way, Pumpipumpe promotes the free sharing (not
renting for money) of personal belongings.
Outcomes and Outputs
More than 15,000 households in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria
have ordered Pumpipumpe stickers, and approximately 9450 addresses
are listed on the online platform. However, the association does not
keep track of who is using the platform and what sharing activities are
actually taking place. In the future, the co-founder envisions a smartphone application for identifying different available items in a given
area, but for this, additional funding would be necessary. Beyond virtual
connections, she emphasizes the importance of the “real, live network”
as she put it:
We live in rather anonymous urban neighbourhoods. We have a beautiful digital network, all over the world […] With social networks, we are
connected with people like us everywhere in the world, but in fact in the
real network, in the neighbourhood, it is the opposite. Because it is very