International Repair Day
In an increasingly wasteful society, it’s important to know how to repair things instead of replacing them. Start small, and see what broken bits you can salvage.
Position your brand as a sustainability champion by sponsoring or hosting repair workshops that extend product lifecycles and build customer loyalty among eco-conscious consumers.
- Host a 'Repair Café' event featuring your products and expert repair tips
- Create DIY repair guides and tutorials for common household items
- Partner with local repair communities to showcase sustainable consumption
- Launch a 'Right to Repair' campaign highlighting product durability and repairability
International Repair Day is a relatively recent initiative, with the first event taking place in 2017. It was dreamed up in collaboration with the Open Repair Alliance, an international community of businesses and organisations that have banded together to work towards a world where electronic products are sustainable and easier to repair.
Initially, Repair Cafes were set up by other like-minded electricians, handy people, and DIYers, such as the Repair Café Foundation. The Foundation helped local environmental and waste reduction-minded people set up cafes that would make the tools and volunteers available to help fix all kinds of goods.
As Repair Cafes grew more popular, so too did the notion of making the effort to create a more sustainable and repair-minded approach towards electronics in the wider community. That’s when the first International Repair Day was announced.
Since then, International Repair Days have gone on to include people starting up Repair Cafes and Restart Parties. International Repair Days have also been used to bring attention to movements like the Right to Repair, intended to encourage manufacturers and lawmakers to have more electronic products come with the information and resources needed to fix them.
International Repair Day has also taken off across social media, where people joining in are encouraged to share their own repair stories and show electronics that they’re proud to have fixed up.