A critical review of the role of repair cafés in a sustainable circular transition

Extending the useful life of consumer products is a critical element in the circular economy. Although commercial repair is an established part of the global economy, the repair is often conducted informally. This means that non-commercial repair ecosystems exist, including the international network of repair cafés, spreading worldwide to over 2000 repair cafés in 37 countries (April 2021). As the first review on this topic, this article investigates and gains more knowledge about repair cafés, and critically assesses their role as a sustainability initiative, i.e., how the concept may translate into a broader sustainability context. A systematic literature review (2010–2020) was conducted, including 44 articles in descriptive and content analyses. The bibliometric data revealed an increase in the number of publications on repair cafés, particularly over the last four years, indicating that repair cafés as a research topic have started to gain attention, and this is likely to grow in numbers. However, the significant number of different places of publication indicates that this is not (yet) a well-established field with defined research channels. The content analysis revealed that the concept has spread to a range of different contexts, beyond the original scope, influencing the mindset and acts of a broad field of practitioners. This indicates a wide range of possibilities for the expansion of the concept of repair cafés, bringing different expectations on calling into question the future role of repair cafés. However, the aims of the people involved in repair cafés span from the altruistic and strategic, over personal gains, to critical consumer, financial and educational aims. This may challenge repair cafés’ future role(s), i.e., ambitions set by the international organisation of repair cafés. Notably, the ambition for actors at the micro-level is to feed in data on repair and achieve ‘collaborative repair’, as the aims of the people involved are complex, and their expectations lack alignment, both vertically and horizontally

Who are the value transformers, value co-operators and value gatekeepers?:New routes to value preservation in a sufficiency-based circular economy

Value preservation is key for the transition from a linear economy to a sufficiency-based circular economy. However, to keep the value of products and materials at the highest level possible over time, different actors such as businesses, designers, consumers, and policymakers must know when value is reduced during a product's lifetime, and how to capture and preserve this value. This study results in a comprehensive mapping of factors with a negative impact on the perceived value of products from a consumer's perspective and suggests new routes to value preservation, as a way of turning the negative factors into positive changes. Next, the paper presents a conceptual model for value preservation. The model identifies new key actors: value transformers (product developers), value co-operators (consumers), value gatekeepers (businesses), and value accountants (policymakers) and suggests important changes to their linear practices, which are needed for the sufficiency-based circular economy paradigm to flourish.</p

From certified environmental management to certified SDG management:new sustainability perceptions and practices

Environmental management has played an important role when organizations’ environmental practice has developed from strategies of cleaner production to environmental management systems and cleaner products. Lately a focus on sustainable development, e.g., through the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) has become an important perspective for organizations that want to integrate environmental and social sustainability. This paper presents a case study of the Danish trade union: The Danish Society of Engineers (IDA), which is both a service organization and political organization. IDA has moved from a strategy of doing less harm by reducing environmental impacts into a strategy focusing on creating a positive impact in the organization and wider society. An important initiative on this journey has been to supplement their ISO 14001 certification with an SDG certification, which enables a much more comprehensive perspective on their sustainability efforts compared to ISO 14001. This study investigates how sustainability perceptions and practices are affected in a service organization when supplementing an EMS with an SDG certification. The study indicates that adding an SDG certification leads to a more comprehensive sustainability strategy and new perceptions and practices of sustainability in the organization, as the wide range of goals and targets within the SDGs provide a comprehensive sustainability framework, which influence more elements of the core business, compared to stand-alone EMS. For service organizations, such comprehensive sustainability perception has a great value potential, as is becomes more relevant for the core business of service organizations compared to traditional EMS and cleaner production. Such SDG certification provides new opportunities for organizations to advance their sustainability perceptions and practices and increases the relevance of certifications for service organizations.</p