Sharing! Exactly!

Wow, so I just read this article over @fastcompany magazine, one of my favorite ideas-sources as of late, and it resonates strongly with The Saxifrage School concept and its connection to larger economic needs and economic trends of the future. The FastCompany article, published today, compiles and discusses the various exciting sharing-businesses that have sprung up over the last decade (Zipcar, airBnB, Lending Club, etc.).

What do car-sharing, peer-to-peer banking, and bedroom rentals have to do with this College? They are all focused on improving the economy of transactions, and making the most of underutilized assets. In the article, the author notes that our cars–one of our most valuable resources–sit un-used over 90% of the time. As we start to realize our current systems of ownership and utilization are unsustainable, our economy will have to rely more heavily on mutually beneficial partnerships and shared resources.

While cars do lose some of their value through use, they also depreciate due to age and by becoming out-moded; it would be interesting to see statistics on how much of a car’s value (including the money spent on insurance and fees) is lost when it is sitting in the driveway vs. when it is being driven. But, to be sure, the most efficient use of a car would be to see it driven as frequently as possible.

Buildings on the other hand do not depreciate through use as much as cars do, age and out-moded-ness are greater causes of their depreciation. Buildings, also require consistent upkeep, tax payments, insurance and temperature control, regardless of how many people are using them or how often.

The typical church in my neighborhood is certainly the best example of under-utilization. If a church has a sanctuary for 800 and an attendance of 80, that is only a 10% use; but, it is only being used for this purpose one day in a week and, even then, only for a few hours. So it’s efficiency gets reduced by 1/7th and then again by 1/5th (3 hours out of a possible 15-hour day): it’s being used about 3% of the time, at about a 10% capacity. Leaving us with a church that is using its space at an efficiency of just 00.3% And this does not even account for the use of some of the churches more valuable assets: its kitchen, its musical instruments (organ), its library, etc. Again, this is especially terrible because many of these churches are being heated and cooled 100% of the time.

Now, the lack of efficiency is not nearly as bad for many other local buildings, but nearly everywhere has a sufficient amount of underutilized space. Take your friendly neighborhood Irish Pub for instance: it’s packed ear-to-ear between 6pm-2am, but from 6am to 2pm it is completely empty. The bar is being utilized at about 50%.

So many of our spaces (and our equipment) are utilized at only specific times for specific purposes. Some of the time this singularity is necessary, but often it is not. So many spaces are able to be shared and can benefit readily from being more fully utilized. More presence and more tenants means improved responsibility and security for the space and and the ability to share overhead costs.

Certain programs are not mobile enough to take advantage of these empty spaces, but a school–especially in this highly technological age–is just the right entity to swoop in, operate during down hours, and leave the space better than they found it.

The idea behind the Saxifrage School’s campus is exactly this: Sharing! We will assist local organizations in better utilization of their spaces and compensate them with money, services, marketing, or goodwill.

Better utilization, efficiency, and economy for everyone involved. The shared savings gets passed on to both the students and the organizations.

I must say, I feel a little bit like when your mother tells you to share with your younger cousin: “c’mon honey, when you share…everybody wins!”

And it’s true, assuming that the other person doesn’t break your toy. This fear of letting others use of things or feeling that we might need it just after they borrow it is the main roadblock to good economical sharing. This is why truth, good-faith, solid partnerships, communication, protocols, insurances and agreements are all important… protecting the sharer and the shared alike can be tricky, at first, but it’s well worth the effort. As my father would say: “think of the savings!”

These savings will allow The Saxifrage School to offer a yearly tuition rate of $5000.

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This brings me to the final, most important question: Does everyone on a small City street with small yards need their own lawn mower?

That’s 40 lawnmowers being used… 1 day every two weeks (at most)… for 30 minutes (at most!)… for only 6 months of the year.

That’s about .0012% of the time; to be fair, I can’t really count the fact that it isn’t used during the winter because it doesn’t make sense to transport it somewhere where it could be used. So,it’s .0025% efficiency…assuming possible mowing times between 8am-9pm.

Sorry, I just had to do figure that one out…