UnityShare, share and change the future!

Basic information

Project Title

Full project title

UnityShare made for encourage sustainable behaviour, designed for university and campus.

Project Description

The field of education is undoubtedly one of the most promising to change the current idea of well-being based on the consumption of natural resources. Following the strategies of eco-design and the sharing economy, we have created UnityShare, a service system for universities and campuses that takes inspiration from Amazon Lockers. Capable of increasing the intensity of use and the useful life of products, it encourages buying and selling second-hand products but also reduces food waste.

Geographical Scope

National

Project Region

Italy

Urban or rural issues

Mainly urban

Physical or other transformations

It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)

EU Programme or fund

Description of the project

Summary

UnityShare is a modular smart locker designed for universities and campuses to simplify and encourage buying and selling second-hand products, renting equipment, and reducing food waste. UnityShare encourages and facilitates a more sustainable lifestyle to spread social innovation among young people. The blue module simplifies the buying, selling, and exchanging of second-hand products. Through the Unity app, students can cut a deal on a product of interest, and the seller will deposit it in a locker. The green module is for the rental of products that students use sporadically. Unityshare service will provide for their maintenance and replacement. With the yellow module, users can drop off unopened food products as a donation for other students in case they plan not to consume them before the expiration date. The red module is a distributor of merchandise and stationery. Through UnityShare modules, one can obtain fidelity points which can be used to receive products. Together they make a systemic product to change the current idea of well-being based on the consumption of natural resources.

Key objectives for sustainability

UnityShare is composed of four different modules, which are: The blue one simplifies the buying, selling, and exchanging of second-hand products. Through the Unity app, students can cut a deal on a product of interest, and the seller will deposit it in a locker. The green module is for the rental of products that are used sporadically. With the yellow module, users can drop off unopened food products as a donation in case they plan not to consume them before the expiration date (E.g. if they are going back home for the holidays). Finally, the red module is a distributor of merchandising. Through the use of the UnityShare module one can obtain fidelity points which can be used for discounts. The monitors display: notice, the “Time Bank” and featured products. The UnityShare electronic key is used for authentication within the various sharing modules, and its open-source system allows institutions to implement other services (bike and car-sharing or campus key).

Key objectives for aesthetics and quality

Following the strategies of eco-design and the sharing economy, we have created UnityShare, a service system similar to eBay, Thredup, Streetbank, and TooGoodToGo, alongside a product that takes inspiration from Amazon Lockers. Capable of increasing the intensity of use and the useful life of products but also of reducing food waste. Furthermore, The Little Book of Green Nudges by UNEP showed us the key points to encourage the use of university services: timely, attractive, easy, and social.

Key objectives for inclusion

As said before, the Little Book of Green Nudges by UNEP showed us the key points to encourage the use of university services: timely, by offering the service to the student from the moment of enrollment; attractive, by implementing other services such as bike sharing, car sharing...; easy, simplifying the use of the service with the universal UnityShare key; and social, by implementing tools of progress-sharing and smart incentives.

How Citizens benefit

The field of education is undoubtedly one of the most promising to change the current idea of well-being based on the consumption of natural resources. If we change the mentality of our children we can also change that of parents and future generations. By giving a few "Nudges" towards sustainable behaviors and allowing users to visualize the results achieved, you can change the approach to sustainability of each of us.

Physical or other transformations

It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)

Innovative character

There are no similar products in the university environment, UnityShare sets up three different services. In fact, there are online sites that perform these functions individually, but the presence of a large number of competitors makes it difficult for the user to select the most suitable and active one in their territory. Often the exchange, sale or donation of products and foods through these sites requires you to organize a shipment or to agree with the other party for a change of hands which can represent an additional obstacle or risk for both parties. UnityShare makes these actions feasible locally between small and medium-sized communities. The campus and university context is similar to the organization of a small village and is optimal for testing this kind of system. Thanks to the fact that it is modular and can be updated quickly and easily, it adapts well to different university sites.

Disciplines/knowledge reflected

Knowledge in the area of sustainability and circular process was essential to carry the project forward. Being students ourselves, it was easier to highlight what sustainable behaviors we were already implementing and what we weren’t. We asked ourselves what would be useful to simplify sustainable actions in our field. Systemic reasoning is certainly another key point in the design phase.

How stakeholders are engaged

The project was born for an exam university project. The design theme was to find a product within the university that would solve problems related to sustainability. The project was carried out during the course of the Professor Lucia Pietroni and her collaborators. In 2022 we signed our project at the ADI Index for the Compasso D'Oro and we won the selection, the project of facts is now exhibited at the Italian Design Museum, waiting for the next phase for the Compasso D'Oro selection.

Global challenges

The current idea of well-being based on the consumption of natural resources is wrong. Multinationals are decentralizing capital and stifling local activities. We need to think again as small communities connected to each other. Unityshare has this as its goal, to show that there is more where we think there is less, that in small communities like campuses and universities already exist these collaborative models but they need to be improved and structured.

Learning transferred to other parties

UnityShare was initially created for the condominium as a locker that allows you to leave tools shared with the other residents. Subsequently, due to some issues, the context of the University and Campus felt as more promising for us. Being off-site students ourselves, we were inspired by sustainable actions that we already carry out independently. UnityShare modules travel pre-assembled to speed up the on-site set-up phase. However, after testing and developing the service in the university, it would certainly be possible to reproduce it in the condominium or neighborhood.