How are Team Repair a Sustainable Business?
Who are we?
Team Repair are a London based start-up dedicated to making science fun for kids, especially for those who struggle to engage with a traditional STEM education. We ship out gadgets with faults designed into them for students to fix, to instil the wonder of repair whilst teaching a range of curriculum aligned STEM lessons.
Sustainability is at the heart of our mission. It all started with a university project, where we were tasked to create a business that supported the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. These are a set of goals, laid out by the UN in 2015, as a call to action for businesses to protect the planet and prioritise social, economic and environmental sustainability. [1]
Since then, it has been our goal not just to teach about the environment, but to curate activities that inspire a shift in behaviours and nurture a problem-solving mindset. We believe that this will empower the next generation of sustainably-minded engineers.
Here are 4 ways we are a sustainable business!
1) Circular economy model
We operate a circular, rental model! As opposed to the traditional, linear economy system (where we make a product, people use it, then they throw it away), at Team Repair, we use a circular economy model instead.
Linear systems are deeply unsustainable, creating pollution and waste that is damaging to the environment. [2] Naturally, it was paramount to us that we weren't teaching kids about electronic waste, whilst creating more electronic waste!
Therefore, we rent our products to schools. We send kits out in their broken state, then when the kids have fixed them, they send them back to us, for us to re-break! From there, we refresh and re-break the same kits, then send them off to the next school. This way, lots of students can learn about repair and science, without creating any waste.
Keeping resources in circulation for longer is a great way to reduce waste. That’s why we’re proud of our rental model- it keeps negative environmental impact to a minimum.
2) Teaching the sustainable skill of repair
As well as our intrinsically sustainable model, we teach the environmentally conscious skill of repair to kids. Repairing your broken things instead of throwing them away and buying new is also essential in reducing waste.
Suez estimate, ‘more than 35,500 items that could be reused are currently disposed of every day at household waste recycling centres.‘ [3] We believe that the best way to combat the problem of our throwaway society is to teach kids the skills they need to be able to repair their broken items. Studies have found that many people would love to repair their things, but just don't have the skills to do so. [4]
(For more on this check out our article, ‘How to Get Involved With Repair This Summer’).
By teaching the magic of repair to children in a fun way, we aim to equip students with a love of fixing! This will ultimately help to reduce the amount of waste we produce as a society.
3) Inspiring the next generation of sustainably-minded engineers and scientists
We believe that STEM should be taught in a fun way to encourage more students to become engineers and scientists in the future! Our programme provides a practical, experimental emphasis that will nurture a problem-solving mindset. This mindset will be vital for solving the environmental challenges of tomorrow.
Government research suggests that new green jobs will need to be created in order to reach Net Zero by 2050. [5] We believe it is our role as educators to inspire the next generation to think innovatively about how this can be achieved.
The future of technology is green! Lets inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists to be sustainably-minded in order to tackle the climate crisis.
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4) Teaching about sustainability
It is also our aim to inform students about sustainability- knowledge is power! This is realised in the sustainability challenges within our kits. These are extensions that give kids hands-on activities and experiments on themes such as renewable energy and air pollution.
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One example of this is within our Remote Control Car Kit, where students explore the differences between electric and petrol-powered vehicles. They are then encouraged to think about a Green City, and what measures they would put in place to achieve this.
By engaging children with sustainability, we hope to spark their curiosity and nurture a mindset that will enable us to fix the future!
