Shareable Goods and Impacts on Consumption; The Case of Digital Sharing Platforms

Digital platforms promote the shared consumption of a variety of material and immaterial goods. As they grow and appeal to more consumers, the new practices and patterns of sharing can have both desirable and undesirable impacts from a sustainability point of view. The present paper takes a closer look at the various impacts of shared consumption practiced in the Digital Sharing Economy (DSE) with the aim to propose a guideline for assessing the DSE’s sustainability impacts. The guideline builds on a typology of shareable goods and a classification of different positive and negative environmental impacts of sharing. By considering different consumption scenarios (based on consumers’ behavioral responses, where applicable), the study develops a conceptual framework for the DSE’s impacts on the environment. This is also an extension of the general impact categories of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) which already exist in the literature. In addition to the impact of consumption, the concepts of the impact of provision, impact of access, and impact of maintenance are introduced as the four main evaluations comprising the sustainability assessment of sharing platforms. The considerations addressed can be helpful in delineating further evaluations of the sustainability of various instances of digital sharing systems.