UnityShare made for encourage sustainable behaviour, designed for university and campus.
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.
National
Italy
{Empty}
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
As individual(s) in partnership with organisation(s)
First name: Alessandro Last name: Graciotti Gender: Male Please describe the type of organization(s) you work in partnership with: I worked on the project with my colleague Guido Catarozzo for an exam, during my universities studies at Unicam Saad of Ascoli Piceno Age: 27 Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
By ticking this box, I certify that the information regarding my age is factually correct. : Yes Nationality: Italy Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: via Damiano Chiesa 36 Town: Castelfidardo Postal code: 60022 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+393471915229 E-mail:graciotti.design@gmail.com Website:https://www.behance.net/alessandrograciotti
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.
Sustainable lifestyle
Universities
Sharing economy
Collective consumption
Systemic product
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
