Rent.Group

Mit Design die Sharing Society ermöglichen

A machine costs €100,000. In the average German factory, it operates for just 25% of its potential. The remaining 75% sits idle. That is €80,000 of capital unused for years, not days or weeks. Multiply this across millions of assets and an estimated €3.5 trillion in value lies dormant across Germany in warehouses, storage rooms, and company yards.

This is not waste, but unused potential. And potential only has value when it moves. What if ownership is not the answer? Imagine the same machine shared by five companies. Instead of one investing €100,000, each invests €20,000. The machine runs at full capacity. Every company gets access, and each keeps €80,000.

That money can be reinvested in people, ideas, and growth instead of idle capacity. We often assume ownership creates value, but it also locks up capital. Sharing can deliver the same outcome with less investment, more liquidity, flexibility, and room to grow. This is not just a sustainability argument. It is an economic one.

Most products are designed for a linear world: buy, use, replace, repeat. But sharing requires a different approach. Products must last longer, work harder, serve more users, and be repaired, reused, and kept in circulation. The circular economy is not only about recycling. It is about extracting more value from what already exists, and that begins with design.

Katharina Döring is the Managing Director of the Rent.Group across three Swiss locations. Her work focuses on how commercial viability and sustainable value creation can be combined in practice.

The Rent.Group is a leading enabler of temporary ownership and circular utility, as well as a driver of change towards a comprehensive, circular sharing society that delivers both ecological and social benefits.