Is rental more than sharing?

During the last ERA Convention in May 2019, the Promotion Committee organised a workshop that was focused on the question: “Is Rental more than Sharing?”

After a presentation on Industry 4.0 and Rental, given by Omar Achment, from Overstory.eco, the members of the Promotion Committee got the convention delegates (rental companies, OEMs, service providers and representatives of online platforms) to debate around two questions: “How is Rental part of Sharing Economy?” and “How will Industry 4.0 change the rental industry?”

Attendees were reminded that rental is the inventor of the sharing economy, since the industry organises the sharing of assets between customers.

The impacts of Industry 4.0 on the rental industry were split into four areas: strategy, technology, talent and social/environment. Under social/environment, the attendees stressed the fact that the rental industry has to work on minimising the environmental impact, on monitoring energy and on providing feedback to customers about the carbon footprint of rental.

The outputs collected in this workshop will be reviewed by the Promotion Committee during their next meeting in October.

The Promotion Committee is open to ERA members and more information can be found about the Committee and its works on the ERA website, https://erarental.org/en/committees/promotion. Rental companies interested in joining the Committee can contact the ERA team at era@erarental.org.