Environmental Technology

No. Human nature will take over.

How many communes from the sixties are left that were based on this premise?

Zero.

Kibbutz?

Hi kramarat, here in Britain there are about 36, and they are all thriving at this moment, I lived and worked in one for four years, the only reason that I left was for health reasons, otherwise I would still be there!

Spencer.

That's cool. I wasn't knocking them, but I don't know of any that survived in the US, at least not from the 60's.

I'm sure there are some that are living a communal lifestyle today, but we don't hear about them. As the economies of the western world continue to degenerate, I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot more of them spring up.

As far as sharing things between businesses...........................I don't see that happening without problems................and lawyers getting involved.

This makes sense if it is a WIN - WIN for both parties involoved. Especially as the dollar is worth less and less because of our increasingly incompetant government policy.

It hardly pays to save paper dollars because interest paid is only about .5% plus real inflation is about 5% or so there isn't much incentive to save in that fashion. The price of precious metals is certainly an indicator of the faith people have in our paper currency. This will only change when we have a government that has gotten back to sound fiscal, conservative principles.

It only makes sense to be willing to trade the use of equipment, tools, knowledge, etc., especially where equipment is costly and the number of times it is used is minimal. That's is where equipment rental businesses come into play. If things are being borrowed there does need to be a clear understanding about what happens when things break; who is responsible for the cost of repairs? That may depend most upon the relationships of the people involved.

From a conservation standpoint there will be less resources used and greater value to the individuals involved with the resources used.

I'm not sure how this carrying out in business relates to environmentally sustainable technologies though.

So they are sort of doing this now. I am not quite sure that "hyperconsumption" is the bug bear that this OP seems to think it is.

Most small businesses (remodeling firms and so forth) will rent their equipment as needed...concrete forms and so forth. What will accumulate is a collection of "in house" tools which supplement a personal tool box. The driving force will be "the expense". The cost of renting a tool box full of tools will quickly exceed the cost of purchasing them. My business has a code of ethics which demands that we recycle our waste, and go as green as reasonable. (I am a metalworker and knife maker by the way and I now work from home.)

The "format" (I presume by that you mean the "business model"?) is, on the face of it, unworkable. The fuel and man hour costs of continually going out to the rental shop to pick up what you might need for the day is what will kill the business. I think what people who come up with these ideas see teams, like roofing teams, drop into the shop in the morning, pick up the truck and load it with shingles and tools and head off to the job sites. These teams of course would share their tools and resources...the same truck could drop off and pick up several teams for instance. This is one case where sharing the resources might work...though if you have ever paid for a crew to sit around and wait for "the compressor" to arrive, you may have other ideas!

I worked at a metal shop to learn the trade, and a few people worked along side me...they gloried in replacing the expensive tools in the shop with cheap dollar store tools, and stocking their personal tool boxes.

Remember, if it belongs to everybody, then it belongs to nobody.

On a similar note, no mechanic shop can exist for long if they have to be continually putting jobs off until tomorrow because the desired tool is in somebody else's shop. I remember some jobs I competed on a few years ago that I rented all the cheap and close blocks and tackles and kept them in my shed and left my competitors with the expensive rental options or none at all. Cut throat competition at its best.

So, for these reasons and many others, the business model the OP is suggesting is very difficult to make work. I try to do it in MY shop, and often become unprofitable as a result. "Green" is good when you are in the tavern, club, or classroom, and if you can bring it onto the "floor", then you had better have a financial reason for doing it. Otherwise, going green is like peeing your pants in a dark suit....you get a nice warm feeling but nobody notices.