Our mission at InCommon is to support individuals to launch small-scale but effective projects in their local community. These projects can take many forms, but what they all have in common is to show how living in a more environmentally sustainable way can be positive and bring many other benefits to participants.
In this post we're featuring a few project ideas to give you a flavour of the sort of thing you could start. If one of these sparks your imagination, or you have your own idea for a project, the hardest part is getting started. Why not join our pilot programme and get the support you need to make it happen? It's free to join, we just ask you to invest some time and enthusiasm! Read more here or apply now!
Community Car Share
Privately owned cars are expensive, a major contributor to carbon emissions and are unused over 90% of the time on average. Car clubs exist in many areas, but peer-to-peer car sharing can hugely increase the number of vehicles available and make better use of cars that would otherwise be sitting unused. Using this peer-to-peer sharing model in a closed community group gives people more confidence to try lending their vehicle as it is within a trusted group of people. Using existing platforms, setting up your own private sharing 'loop' can be quick and easy, with huge benefits to your community AND the environment. Read more at Share Our Cars.
Community Library of Things
There are plenty of things that you may only need once, or infrequently, but which are expensive to buy and take up space to store when unused. You may have heard of, or even used, a Library of Things, a collection of these sorts of items that you can borrow for a small charge. Starting a community library of things brings a peer-to-peer model to this idea. Many of these items may be sitting unused in your own community and informal sharing may already be happening. Formalising this into a community library can increase participation and increase the benefits to the community and the environment!
Create a Parklet
A parklet is a parking space that has been transformed into a space that everyone can enjoy. it could be temporary or permanent, and could take any form such as a space to play, rest, garden, learn or perform. Our streets are currently dominated by cars, so creating a parklet has the power to help us reimagine how we could better use public spaces. They can also address the lack of green spaces and biodiversity in our environment. Best of all, it can be a great focal point and shared interest for the community. Read more at Possible's Parklet Campaign.
