[Mingli Lecture Hall, 2021, 13th] Associate Professor Mi Zhifu, University College London, UK: The sharing economy promotes sustainable societies

Time: 15:30-17:00 pm, March 30 (Tuesday)

Location: the sixth floor of the main building

Abstract:

A simultaneous improvement of both ecological and economic efficiency is necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The new sharing economy has potential to promote the needed shifts in collective consumption behaviour, but better governance models are urgently required. While the sharing economy provides a potential pathway towards sustainable societies, conflicts between business profits and social wellbeing can potentially arise. Service providers aim to maximize corporate profits to shareholders and value to paying customers, while governments aim to optimize wellbeing for all citizens. There is a concern that some companies may use the ‘sharing economy’ as a marketing gimmick to disguise profit-motivation and exploitation under the pretence of making the society a better place. Governments on the other hand might be considered overly optimistic regarding the role such emerging business models can play in resolving a wealth of urban issues even in the absence of financial incentives or new regulations. We suggest instead that such conflicts are resolvable through cooperation between sharing enterprises and governments. Public authorities should provide both economic and noneconomic incentives to private operators who have passed a complete Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) which estimates environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the shared product’s life (or over a firm or project’s lifecycle), while sharing service providers should take environmental protection and improvement of societal wellbeing as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) rather than a marketing ploy.

Reporter profile:

Dr. Mi Zhifu is an associate professor and doctoral supervisor at University College London, and a senior visiting scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He graduated from the Energy and Environmental Policy Research Center of Beijing Institute of Technology. Committed to the economics of climate change, the results were published in journals such as "Science Progress", "Natural Energy", "Natural Food", "Natural Sustainability" and other journals. Selected in the Forbes European "30 Under 30" elite list and Clarivate Analytics "Highly Cited Scientist". Won the Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award in Chinese Economics, China's Hundred Most Influential International Academic Papers Award, World Sustainable Development Award, Top 50 Papers in Earth and Planetary Science from Nature Communications, and Highly Cited Paper Award from Geophysical Communications , "Environmental Research Communications" Best Young Scholar Paper Award, "Applied Energy" Highly Cited Original Paper Award. He has been invited many times to participate in the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development and the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Co-editor of SSCI journal Structural Change and Economic Dynamics.

(Organized by: Energy and Environmental Policy Research Center, Scientific Research and Academic Exchange Center)