Most people in the Netherlands are convinced that their consumption patterns affect the environment. Many of them are looking for ways to reduce their footprint. Businesses, some with good intentions, tap into that concern by claiming their products and services can help customers lower emissions and use fewer materials.
However, the reality is more complicated, according to research by Leiden Ph.D. candidate Levon Amatuni.
On average, users of car-sharing platforms reduce their impact by only three to 18%—much less than the 51% or 37% claimed in previous research. This is caused by so-called “rebound effects,” which are rarely accounted for by companies or even researchers.
For example, shared vehicles are replaced with new models more frequently than private cars. Additionally, the introduction of sharing schemes can encourage people to drive when they would have otherwise taken a bus or ridden a bike. These rebound effects turn out to be highly influential.
Amatuni reached a similar conclusion when studying second-hand phone usage in the United States. Sellers of used electronics, such as Marktplaats (Adevinta), often claim that buying a second-hand item eliminates the need to produce a new one. Amatuni found that, in reality, a second-hand phone only offsets about one-third of a new phone’s production.
“People would use their phones for longer if they couldn’t sell their old devices,” says Amatuni. Again, rebound effects are the cause. “The study reveals that if people couldn’t sell their old devices, they would use their phones for longer”.