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Published in:
2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
18. Social Innovation Repair – The R.U.S.Z Case: A Systemic Approach Contributing to the Unplanned Obsolescence of Capitalism
Authors : Sepp Eisenriegler, Greta Sparer
Published in: Factor X
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
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Abstract
Repair and Service Centre R.U.S.Z (Reparatur- und Service-Zentrum R.U.S.Z) is a social business and a service for consumer protection and sustainability. In 1998 it started as a work integration social enterprise for long-term unemployed persons creating and using the business model of a sustainable repair shop. R.U.S.Z founded the success story Repair Network Vienna with some 80 SME members. It was among the initiators of the Austrian umbrella organization RepaNet and its EU equivalent RREUSE, which gather social enterprises with activities in re-use, repair and recycling. These networks help making advocacy work successful. Today, R.U.S.Z is Austria’s biggest independent repair centre for electrical and electronic appliances for all kinds and brands and a centre of excellence for the fight against planned obsolescence, for consumer protection and social businesses. Moreover, R.U.S.Z is working for the transformation of the current linear economy into a circular economy.
R.U.S.Z’ primary objectives are resource efficiency and social inclusion. R.U.S.Z provides repair services for household appliances, consumer electronics and IT. It sells certified, high-quality used equipment as well as new washing machines that were diagnosed in the in-house R&D department as particularly durable and easily repairable. From 1998 to 2007, R.U.S.Z was commissioned by the Public Employment Service Austria (AMS). R.U.S.Z was successfully transformed into a not-for-profit private enterprise in 2008. Today, it operates on a cost-recovery basis and employs more than 20 former long-term unemployed people. R.U.S.Z has been leading many initiatives to replicate its model and also lifts the barriers it is facing, both in Austria and Europe by initiating changes in national and EU policies.