At the recent PWC Herald Talk on The Sharing Economy, there was plenty of conversations about examples of how businesses based on sharing or renting models were tracking well. But what is happening in New Zealand that you might not have considered? Beyond Airbnb and Uber the sharing economy can mean non-commercial transactions such as lending your friend your BBQ or borrowing some things from a toy library. But, within New Zealand are a growing number of businesses and organisations sharing across industries as diverse as electric car sharing and gardening.

Mevo
Electric car sharing startup Mevo is New Zealand’s electric car share. Based Wellington, their team and partners are bringing climate-positive on-demand mobility to urban New Zealanders. Mevo co-founder, Erik will be at GridAKL / John Lysaght soon – talking about all things startup and business growth – click here to book your tickets or read a little about what the event will hold below.

“Sharing Economy business Mevo is New Zealand’s first electric car sharing business, and also the world’s first climate positive car share organisation. Erik, who is getting ready to expand Mevo into Australia, will be talking about the many paths that have lead to the growth of Mevo, from accelerators and corporate partnerships, through to local government relationships and lots of other good stuff.”

Eat My Lunch
Order lunch online for yourself and get something tasty, healthy and fresh delivered to you without lifting a finger. For every lunch you Buy, the Eat My Lunch crew give a freshly made yummy school lunch to a Kiwi kid in need. What more could you ask for? To date, the buy one give one model social enterprise has fed 609,681 children in New Zealand and expanded their offer from lunches to include catering and dinner options.

Next Bike
In Auckland and Christchurch, Nextbike allows users to rent a bike easily by using their phones. Nextbike New Zealand is part of a global network that has operated public bike share systems since 2004. As the leading supplier of adult cycle skills education and driver coaching on rider behaviour, Next Bike combines both the ability for cyclists to share bikes but also share in knowledge.

Flora Gora
“Would you like to swap roses for daisies? It’s no longer just date-seeking Kiwis who can look for a good match online: a new website makes it easy for gardeners to find each other and buy or swap plants. Floragora.kiwi was launched for the first time in New Zealand this summer. The idea for the website came to the founder, Thomas Pedersen, after he established his very first garden and couldn’t find a good tailored marketplace for plants.”

Shared Spaces – coworking
Within GridAKL are coworking and shared space workspaces; not only allowing people to share resources but enabling increased connection, collaboration and sharing of experiences through proximity. The drive for more shared working space is part of a larger trend towards flexibility, connection and community that we are proud to be part of.

This blog post was written by GridAKL / John Lysaght Building team member Anya, if you have a story you think she would love to write about tweet her about it.