The rapid growth of cities requires effective management of transport demand and restructuring of transport systems to address the needs of growing urban populations in an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable way. In recent years, car sharing has emerged as an alternative to owning cars in cities, which has potential to bring environmental gains and address social considerations. There is a sizeable academic inquiry about the social and environmental benefits of car sharing and the barriers to its introduction and provision in different empirical contexts. However, most research on the determinants of its uptake and the ease of provision remains limited to investigating consumer demand and how to realise the benefits of car sharing. Drawing on cases from the UK, Israel, Sweden and Finland, this paper focuses on the institutional and policy settings to understand the systemic barriers for car sharing services in diverse urban contexts to expand knowledge on the challenges to and the challenges that emerge from car sharing schemes.

A transition towards a low resource economy is unavoidable. This can be concluded from numerous initiatives which have been introduced recently. Methodologies and indicators are required in order to better assess the possibilities and challenges related to a transition towards a low resource economy. One of these is economy-wide material flow analysis (MFA). When MFA is connected to national economics accounts it enables the input-output analysis (IOA) of the economic structures causing material flows. In this study we used IO modelling and total flow analysis to identify industrial sectors with the highest material flows in Finland. The analysis exposed that in Finland most resource consumption is caused by the export industry, of which material intensity is low and does not produce significant value added, whereas the domestic construction sector, with notable resource flows, produces significant value added. A low resource economy requires significant and radical change in socio-technological systems and people’s mindsets. Due to the complexity of society and the diversity of the economy different types of measures are needed in order to achieve the change. We suggest some measures related to regulations, eco-design, material recycling and welfare for production, investments, services and individual consumption, for example. In the future, the transition towards a low resource economy needs radical changes, more innovations, policy support and actions on all societal levels.