This case is about an organically grown movement that has gone from naught to international recognition in just a few years, solely through the activities of its participants. Skjutsgruppen has as its main focus to spare the environment while helping participants to save money and grow new social connections through increased trust between strangers. As a non-profit entity, it stands out in this Handbook and has many lessons to share, for example, on values-based operations and communication, as well as successful regional network management and transparency. Fostering a vivid participatory culture with high-tech digital platforms, it stands as an inspirational role model for sustainable business networks and collaborative economics.
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Rolling forward together
Interested in both environmental and social issues, Mattias Jägerskog managed to combine these when deciding to start the small social experiment Skjutsgruppen in 2007. Friends invited friends to share rides, motivated by their unchanged motto “to come closer to each other” – both mentally and physically. Today, the non-profit ridesharing movement has more than 60,000 participants in Sweden and forms a growing community internationally, although the digital platform is still in Swedish. Skjutsgruppen also welcomes buses, trains, and sailing boats, and anyone can join the movement to ask for or offer a shared ride for commuting, long distance trips, going to events, or for road trips abroad. At Skjutsgruppen’s heart is the movement’s participatory culture, meaning everyone involved is not a user nor member nor consumer, but rather participant and cocreator of everything Skjutsgruppen does – from crowd funding the platform to organizing the movement as a non-profit group.
Driving development of trust
On the theme of trust and social sustainability, the fun stories from ride sharers of new encounters and unexpected friends seem endless. Simultaneously, the effects of increased wellbeing from improved social contact and sense of belonging have a high value for society, but are difficult to measure. One example was when a couple who had been active in Skjutsgruppen for three years were inspired by their good experiences and started a dinner group for unaccompanied refugees. Trust between citizens is vital to a healthy society, and Jägerskog believes much of Skjutsgruppen’s success is in its transparency. For example, when you look into a potential ride on the homepage, your social connection to the driver or rider is shown by how your friends are connected on Facebook. By knowing that my friend is friends with your friend, I feel more trust in you than by reading endorsements by people who are unknown to me. According to a theory, all people on Earth are connected by at most six degrees of separation – Jägerskog says in Sweden it is rarely more than four degrees, which is why the road to a society with strong mutual trust should be shorter for us.
Collaborating for a greener economy
Working with the development of Skjutsgruppen, Jägerskog developed his own understanding of collaborative economy and its potential as a foundation for a more sustainable society. Applicable to most things, a collaborative economy encourages the use of “idle capacity” – in this case, mainly empty car seats. Since the movement has grown so large, it affects not only individuals’ use of seats, but the societal service of transportation. Instead of seeing Skjutsgruppen as a competitor in a conventional market, the way of the future could be to see it as an important actor for mobility management cooperation. Open-minded players, such as municipalities, villages, festivals, and local public transport companies, have already had constructive cooperation with the participant-driven movement. Recently, Skjutsgruppen also launched Europe’s first search engine combining offers from public, nonprofit, and private actors, as they started collaborating with the global car rental firm Hertz. The initiative has been criticised for having more people travel by car rather than by bicycle, waiting for the bus, or not going at all. These attitudes are put into perspective however when you consider the total emissions reductions that result from increased ridesharing along with the invaluable positive social effects.
Regional dimension
In some regions, Skjutsgruppen is definitely an apparent actor in transport and a good source of increased social values. For example, it has cooperated with over 30 municipalities in Sweden, such as Umeå. However, its geographic activity is completely dependent on the number and activity of its participants. The core team, driving the management and development of the movement, is a group of professionals who could provide important input for regional social and mobility development. Additionally, being transparent, strong in its values, and believing in open source knowledge, Skjutsgruppen is at the forefront of driving societal development for the common good using new ways of financing and models for cooperation.
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