New sharing economy platform launched to depollute morning commute

A new online sharing economy platform offers employees from different organisations in the UK the opportunity to 'buddy up' and share their commute to work, reducing transport costs and emissions.


The ‘joinmyjourney’ website, set up by resource efficiency specialist Ecosurety, enables workers to enter postcode destinations of travel points to and from work, before they are given a database of potential journey-sharers on an interactive map.

If it proves popular, the scheme could lower emissions, reduce congestion, decrease travel costs and improve punctuality, Ecosurity says. It will be particularly useful for workers of different organisations within the same business park.

‘Unnecessary waste’

Ecosurety’s commercial director James Piper said: “Ecosurety wholeheartedly supports sustainability. Our decision to create a scheme for businesses underlines our commitment to the environment, as well as our core value of striving to continuously eradicate all forms of unnecessary waste.

“joinmyjourney developed out of the need to find a features-lite solution that was free-to-use for employees, where they could efficiently and easily connect with other interested journey sharers between different businesses.”

The new website – which is set to branch out as a smartphone app this Spring – is funded by South Gloucestershire Council’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) and North Bristol SusCom. These are the two areas where joinmyjourney is currently enjoying popularity, according to Ecosurity. 

LSTF project manager at South Gloucestershire Council Verity Heal said: “joinmyjourney is a great example of how we are working with the business community to help resolve shared challenges. This is one of many schemes that we are delivering across the area to help take cars off the road.”

Sharing is caring

Last year, the Football League announced a new partnership with Liftshare.com to launch a similar platform –Get to the Game – which encourages fans to use lift shares when travelling to matches.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has claimed that the sharing economy could generate £9bn of revenue for the UK by 2025 as advances in technology, resource scarcity and social change start to interact with each other.

Forum for the Future’s director of sustainability David Bent believes the rapid growth of the sharing economy and servitisation is putting large, incumbent firms at risk of being left behind in the transition to a sustainable future.

In an edie exclusive last year, both DIY retailer Kingfisher and flat-pack furniture maker IKEA indicated a strong desire to move towards the sharing economy and servitisation due to the aforementioned economic potential.

Matt Mace

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