Our journey began in 2023 with the aim of giving more Europeans access to sharing stations: self-service lockers where you can go to borrow everyday items, from DIY tools to sports equipment, without the need to buy. To help us achieve this aim, we secured funding from the European Union through the Interreg North Sea programme, launching the Digital Kiosks project to expand the number and capabilities of sharing stations across Europe’s North Sea region.

But we didn’t stop there. Working with leaders across the sharing sector, we quickly realised that sharing stations were only one piece of Europe’s puzzle to develop a full access economy. In other words, a Europe where citizens can borrow what they need, when they need it, through a variety of interconnected sharing options: from sharing stations to peer-to-peer apps and libraries of things.

In 2024, the Access Economy Alliance was launched to power this shift.

We are Europe’s first dedicated community of access economy practitioners. We bring together cities, startups and circular economy researchers to accelerate Europe’s transition to a circular economy through access-based services.