Main challenge

“How can businesses, public and educational institutions, NGOs, and consumers promote repair?”

About the research

Worldwide, more and more items are being discarded, including in the Netherlands. In Europe, we spend 12 billion euros each year replacing items that could have been repaired. This not only places a heavy burden on the environment, but also increases our dependence on other countries for raw materials. Promoting repair brings major benefits: 261 million tons of CO₂ reduction, 30 million tons of raw material savings, 35 million tons less waste, and 4.8 billion euros per year in growth and investment (European Commission Research, 2024). Repair extends the lifespan of products, strengthens our strategic autonomy, and reduces environmental impact — whether it concerns (office) furniture, machines, tools, toys, bicycles, or clothing. The European Right to Repair and the Ecodesign Regulation has brought attention to the R-strategy Repair. More frequent repairing and reusing requires collaboration between all partners in the chain. Knowledge of design, legislation, consumer behavior, and economics (business models) is needed.

Last year, this Thesis lab included more than 20 organisation; municipalities, repair cafés, start-ups and established companies. This year a call for assignment will be sent out again so organizations can submit a real-world question, with an academical rigorous basis.

PRELIMINARY THEMATIC FOCUS, from website last year, here. See also this interesting LinkedIn post.