The repair business is an essential part of Doughnut Economics. A repair poster helps people find them.
As the doughnut model clearly demonstrates, humans must tackle several problems simultaneously. We must reduce chemical pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as make sure that all people can have a good life. One example of this approach is to work with and promote the repair business, thus creating more jobs and putting less pressure on the earth's ecosystems at once.
The Green Party in Kristiansand, Norway, has developed this repair poster to make it easier for people to find businesses who can fix whatever is broken. By november 2020 we have found 67 different repair companies in Kristiansand, a small town with 110.000 inhabitants, These companies can fix all sorts of things, inkluding cellphones, computers, clothes, lamps, shoes, furniture, doors, fishing rods, lawn mowers and instruments.
The poster is distributed online. We also have a paper version which is distributed in cafes, liberaries and in the repair shops.
There are two benefits of making a repair poster. One is that we make it easier for people to find the repair businesses, who mostly are small and have zero marketing budget. (this poster generally makes the repair people really happy). The other benefit is that green activists get to speak with all the repair people in our community, get to know them and have a dialogue with them about their jobs and what type of support they need.
How to find them: The search for small repair businesses is time-consuming and inspiring. Web search only takes you so far. You will need to ask around, some of the repair people knows of other repair people, and your friends might have some ideas.
Make sure to ask all the repair businesses if they would like to be exposed on a poster or on the web. Around 10 companies in Kristiansand politely declined. Some people said they were planning to retire within a year, so the poster should focus on younger people who needs new customers. Some companies said they have enough to do, so thanks but no thanks. And some companies are competent and able to repair stuff, but it is not their core business and they would prefer not to be listed on a poster like this. This should of course be respected. We register those companies in an unpublished file called "Secret service".
Other organisations have made repair posters elsewhere, see link to Moss, Norway (Future in Our Hands). Friends of the Earth Norway has made a national search engine for some types of repair shops. (It doesnt really matter if you cant read Norwegian, you get the point anyway.) Friends of the Earth in Kristiansand has produced a Google map based on the data on the repair poster (link below).
Please get in touch if you also work to promote repair shops.
