Rental service from students to students – Pilot experiment of shared goods service at Tampere University
Murrost Oy established a Share & Save self-service point at Tampere University’s city center campus with the support of a grant from HUBS.
This story was written by the people of Murrost.
We are a six-person micro-enterprise founded by Tampere-based students. In our opinion, sharing and circular economy-based services, such as shared-use services, are excellent solutions for promoting more responsible consumption – especially when their use does not require sacrificing everyday convenience or leisure experiences.
Based on this idea, we originally started conceptualizing the Share & Save rental service for different communities, businesses, and ordinary consumers. The core idea of the Share & Save service is to offer an easy and affordable alternative to owning goods. It is a rental service for goods that can be rented when needed. The rental of goods is done on the service’s website, after which the user can pick up the rented goods from our self-service point
What is the idea behind the Share & Save service?
As students ourselves, we have personally noticed that money is one of the biggest concerns in our daily lives. For many students, their income does not always cover even the essential expenses, which is especially highlighted during times of inflation. At the same time, we also know that students are often active in trying new experiences and increasingly want to consider sustainability issues in their consumption. We wanted to address this particular contradiction and tailor a service specifically suitable for students’ needs.
The Share & Save service pilot at Tampere University’s city center campus was launched in April 2023. The core idea of the pilot is to offer students – and staff – a convenient and affordable service that can be found in their own daily environment, on campus.
Through our website, students, staff, and other visitors can rent items such as household goods, tools, games, and sports equipment at an affordable price from the self-service point located in the Päätalo building on the Central Campus. HUBS supported us in establishing the pilot project with a grant of 1000€, which allowed us to cover some of the initial investment costs related to setting up the self-service point.
“There is clearly a demand for our service”
We have previously piloted the Share & Save service in collaboration with the Tampere Student Housing Foundation (TOAS) in two different residential areas. Based on the previous pilots, there is clearly a demand for our service, and it is an overall functional concept. However, we wanted to test the functionality of the service on a larger scale and specifically in the campus environment – whereas in the previous pilots the target group was small and limited, now the target group for the service is all students and staff in the Tampere higher education community.
The current pilot aims to collect broader data on the need, profitability, and functionality of the sharing service on a larger scale, on the basis of which we can continue towards the commercialization and launch of the service. Therefore, organizing the pilot at the University of Tampere is a significant step towards the commercialization and launch of the service in the near future.
Check out the Share & Save service and Murrost Oy’s activities from the links below!
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