Repairably certification
Basic information
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Full project title
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Project Description
Repairably certification brings practical repair to the 21st century. As a third party, we test and verify that the product fulfills 10 basic rules of the Repairably manifesto. These practical rules assure customers that the product is easily and affordably repairable. This idea implements circularity straight into the society, strengthens the consumer rights,supports producers to produce high quality products with good design and effectively contributes to solve numerous environmental problems.
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EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
Repairably is an independent certification body that certifies products that are designed for simple and affordable repair. Repairably strives for less waste and better future by encouraging design, manufacture and use of truly repairable products.
Repiarably manifesto was formulated with a vision to create universally accepted standard and rules that would serve as a platform for new generation of products, services, customer use patterns and product life cycle compatible with the circular economy.
Repairably as a platform would be easily accessible to manufacturers to introduce repairable products, to small business to service and repair repairable products, to consumers to recognize, buy and repair repairable products and to local and national governments to support and promote eco innovation and ecological behavior in the adoption of circular economy.
The main goal of Repairably, ngo. is the protection of the environment by establishing a product certification. Certified products will fulfill the conditions of available and simple repairability and thereby long durability. This possibility of being repaired is one of the essential processes of the circular economy that we want to support and promote.
This certification will influence the economy to shift to manufacture long-lasting products, and to service-oriented instead of product-oriented economy. At the same time it will positively influence waste management by decreasing the amount of waste, reducing societal costs associated with separation and disposal of waste. It will also help to use resources responsibly and thereby protect the environment.
The certification of products is planned to be worldwide and should help to change the mindset of the society. As one of the last articles in The Guardian says: “The climate crisis requires a new culture and politics, not just new tech”.
Key objectives for sustainability
We helped to raise awareness in regard to the need of repairability, by participating at events, discussions, presentations, workshops, exhibitions and social media.
As we are members of the Right to repair campaign Europe. Together we achieved that repairability is coming to be a part of the EU legislation.
We are in contact with Slovak MEPs, when there are proposals or approval on topics such as repair, labeling, consumer rights and sustainability.
Our project focuses on long term sustainable usage of electronic devices as well as other products. By certification of products which are meeting our standards of repairability, we prolong their use which automatically reduces the technical waste.
Furthermore, when speaking about technical waste, the majority of waste in production of products like smartphones is composed of the so-called invisible waste. In the production of one smartphone with a weight of no more than 200 grams, the invisible waste can make up to 68 kg. Afterwards, there is the carbon footprint of transportation. Once the product is certified by our standards, we are guaranteeing the repairability of the product easily while achievable for all the consumers. This keeps the product in use, saves resources and also reduces the unnecessary waste.
In Repairably, we understand that the trend of overconsumption is very present and very hard to fully stop. Therefore, it is important to find a way to work within the trend to ease the damage to the environment. Our goal is to have certified as many products as possible to ensure the repairability standard which will provide consumers with less speed shopping for fast defective merchandise.
Repair is the most effective circularity tool with the smallest energy footprint (see the butterfly diagram by Ellen MacArthur Foundation). Therefore repair is a very important way to ensure necessary production in a sustainable manner. This could be strongly supported by independent certification as Repairably is.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The compliance with Repairably rules encourages producers to produce quality goods, with focus on repair in all aspects. The certification requires producers to comply and make available components, tools, manuals, software and last but not least reconsider price politics of their spare parts. These rules can inspire producers to produce demountable products with appropriate connections between components that allow easy disassembly, maintenance, repair and recycling.
We support good design in the meaning of easy repair. We focus on communication with students of design - to direct their attention to design products with respect to repair in cooperation with Universities in Slovakia and Spain. We started successful cooperation with the Slovak Design Center, and in 2019 we awarded the Prize for Repairable Design for the first time to the most repairable product in the competition.
Our goal is to support good aesthetics, quality and functional aspects of the products while ensuring repairability.
In order to assure the high design and functional standard, Repaierably counts with a guarantor of the Repairably certification, currently Slovak professor of industrial design at the College of Fine Arts in Bratislava.
We also created Repairably design certification to evaluate the repairability of a product in its design stage. This is dedicated mostly to products in the prototype version- not on the market so far. We publish “Repairably talks” on irregular basis, to interviewing European product designers, to speaking about their work and their relationship to repair.
Key objectives for inclusion
By easier repair, we make electronics and other products more accessible for anyone. Not only the guaranteed repair creates less waste and more sustainable use, it also has a positive economical impact on the indigent. Easy repair makes products more accessible while sustainable. Guaranteed long life of items also creates space for second-hand shopping which again lowers the price while maintaining the proper function.
The high-quality products with long lifecycle may not be accessible to all social layers in the society, as the durability and high quality of the used materials may objectively cost more than other products. However, a transition to buy and use durable and high-quality products is essential for the circular economy. Repairability allows to integrate the environmental benefit and social inclusion, by introducing second hand but high quality products to the market. These products are environmentally friendly and bring benefits also to the second or third hand users, being still totally functional, and assuring a long lifespan of the product, in contrast to other products that do not give any future guarantee.
This way, repairability brings via second and third hand shopping the possibility to own functional products also by low-income families. Products with guaranteed repair options will also support the new trend of the so-called “ shared economy” via high quality products.
At the end of the product's life cycle, we as a society can donate to third countries the older, with potentially imperfect aesthetic appearance, but still repairable, functional products that can be maintained and used, instead of the unwanted e-waste.
Repair is an effective key for employment too. For every 1000 tons of electronics, landfill creates less than 1 job, recycling 15 jobs and repairing 200 jobs! The jobs created within this concept also provide equity in opportunities, given the small scale and local character of the repair workshops.
Results in relation to category
We created a repairability framework - rules for practical and affordable product repair -the Repairably manifesto. This ensures repairability in all aspects.
Successfully certified products are labeled with a unique alphanumeric code. Thanks to this code, you can recognize the repairable products and find all the information necessary to repair.
We built a Repairably online platform - with all the information about the certified products and their repair (as list of components, tools and repair manuals). The needed component can be bought on one 1 click. We are working on the extension of this platform for customers to recognize the quality products even if they are not certified yet and to ease the repair as much as possible.
Repairably certification is suitable for all products that are composed of 5 or more components. This encloses almost all products, as for example electronics, furniture, bicycles, toys, etc. 9 products were certified so far. These products ensure an integral repair according to the Repairably manifesto - 10 rules for repairable products. Thanks to these certifications we proved our concept and built all the processes of testing and evaluation. In our case, as by many other certifications too, the more widespread and applied, the more effective it will be.
As already mentioned we also focus on positive impact on design - by inspiring designers and design students, and by awarding the Prize for repairable design.
Thanks to our membership in the international organizations and our activities we impact legislation at the EU level regarding product repair, labeling, consumer rights, circularity etc.
How Citizens benefit
Certification brings repairable products right to consumers, and makes responsible buying decisions easier. As an independent certification body it strengthens the trust of consumers to product and producer.
Repairably leads a new way of thinking in what it means: good functional product, good design and effective sustainable solution. This could bring positive effects to all citizens also beyond EU borders.
As already mentioned, certification as a global solution has strong potential to increase employment in services, support the local economy, support second and third hands markets, the shared economy and other aspects of citizens' future life.
Repairably aims to make repair possible to each individual. It supports the skill and self-sufficiency of the population. It could increase community repair sessions and its successfulness.
We encourage public to sign repairably manifesto on our web page, to show their demand and interest in repairable products. They also helped us to fill the survey about repair habits. The results of this questionnaire are published on our web page. After all, we are a group of volunteers and interns and there are many ways to participate.
Innovative character
Repairably certification brings practical repair back to the 21st century. As repair is not one of the consumer rights, certification leads a new way to guarantee the repair to everyone.
This innovative solution is an effective tool to cope with the environmental problems we are facing today and it brings positive side effects to society, and to the economy. By supporting circularity it has potential to be a successful future tool.
Repairably certification ensures repair in all its aspects. We have seen that EU legislation is gradually adopting repairability rules similar to Repairably rules, but the implementation in the wide scale is complex and slow, which is why only partial requirements appear in the legislation. But to effectively allow the repair and to make it a new normal, the integrity of the rules is a basic condition.
This courageous project needs support of the consumers and the public, to motivate producers to certify their products as repairable.
As there has not been any comparable project so far, it is coming only slowly to praxis, as many other pioneer innovations too.
