Millennials put it one step further. Sometime between “sharing is caring” and “#SaveEarth” it actually happened: we started to share things. First, it was to be green and politically/socially correct.
But it didn’t really happen on a large scale until the second factor came into play:
Technology
The improved infrastructure and access to information it provided were a game-changer and carbon footprints shrunk more than ever before.
We brought both of these together and got a “maybe we can share more, rather than live in excess”.
Then along came Generation Z and the definition started to change once more. Putting a desk together? Time to lend/rent some tools. Had to drive half an hour forth and back to pick them up and bring them back? You probably won’t do that again.
Now it was about being both green AND convenient.
The Shift
We no longer wanted to have so much stuff to carry around, so we dropped the excess weight. Technology improved, even more, practical sharing became more and more convenient, and on top of that the social norm was shifting more and more towards a green approach.
But the meaning and convenience alone were not enough.
Cause and Quality
No matter how much you told someone something is green or responsible or it would have an impact, you couldn’t sacrifice quality for the sake of it anymore. At first, even the price/value ratio could be somewhat sacrificed as long as there was meaning behind it and merchandise sales revived, but there was increasingly more skeptic.
One couldn’t live without the other one anymore. Meaning an quality. Green and convenient. A good price and Value.