Car sharing means more travel with less pollution: Eco-efficient services: Stop selling cars; sell kilometres instead

The product, or hardware if you will, still lies at the heart of the production and consumption chain, resulting in a significant environmental impact. Basing design on applied value instead of the product itself can offer substantial ecological advantages. Ir. Rens Meijkamp tested the eco-efficient service theory by examining car sharing schemes, commercial ventures which make rental cars available to their customers on a twenty-four hour seven days a week basis, thus providing an alternative to privately owned motor vehicles. The results? The potential environmental benefits of car sharing (which should not be confused with car pooling) are enormous: the environmental impact of car sharers is 40 percent less than that of the average Dutch household, at least insofar as mobility is concerned. If car sharing were to continue to develop at the current rate, the total environmental impact resulting from mobility could be reduced by 30 percent in the year 2010. Even so, it remains to be seen whether that will be enough to create a sustainable society