The Sustainability Club is a network of around thirty companies invested in the circular economy, for which eco-design, repair and reuse are leitmotifs to combine ecology and economy. Accompanied by the association Hop (Stop planned obsolescence), he publishes a report on the circular economy in the age of sobriety, knowing that the rise in power of this reuse economy is not without creating some friction and worries.
The document, rather optimistic, demonstrates that it is globally possible to meet the challenges linked to the development of the circular economy, and that the transition to an economy that would not be based on the overconsumption of new products is really possible. “It is not only a question of disseminating new economic models of eco-design, repair or reuse, but also of identifying and giving priority, within these sectors themselves, to the most socially and locally virtuous practices. It is also a question of thinking in the long term about the difficult transformation of business models based on the sale of goods in volume towards new levers of value creation based on sustainable services”summarizes Hop.
However, as this report highlights, this will require bringing together around common objectives – both economic and societal – all players, from the manufacturer to the consumer. It will be necessary, for example, to succeed in finding the right balance (implied, that which is sustainable from an environmental point of view) between the market sector and the social and solidarity economy.
A transition without turning back
Taking as a starting point theend of abundance“, a phrase that has become famous uttered by President Emmanuel Macron during the last summer, the Sustainability Club insists on this paradigm shift without turning back. “There is no longer any doubt that tomorrow’s society will have to make better use of resources and energy. Faced with this requirement, economic players must reinvent themselves to find more sober and sustainable economic models. the lifespan of products is one of the major axes of the transition towards more responsible modes of production and consumption”can we read in the introduction.
This necessary and inevitable transition is perfectly documented, whether through the second life to be given to products, the support of consumers in the maintenance of their equipment, the birth of new industrial sectors (such as those of reconditioning), the rise of a more sustainable financial world or even the interest of eco-design in all sectors, including textiles. But it is finally the second part of the report which is the most interesting, once all of these concepts have been assimilated. She is interested in the tensions that may exist in the context of this transition, particularly around the relocation of know-how or local synergies to be invented.
Services at the heart of the transformation
This report focuses, among other things, on the creation of value by the service. That is to say the way in which the economic actors will have to seek to perpetuate their activity by compensating for the drop in sales of new products by the emergence of new services such as maintenance and repair. From an economic point of view (and from that of employment), this is an essential problem for the years to come, even if this trend is not yet sufficiently illustrated in practice.
“The evolution towards a service-based economy is noticeable within more and more companies, from all sectors, which are diversifying their activities and developing a range of services with a view to adding new levers of value creation. The Leroy group Merlin, for example, has set itself the ambition of becoming the “Google of DIY”, in the words of Thomas Bouret, the general manager of the brand in France, with the desire to cover all the needs of its customers, from design repair projects”illustrates the report.
The biggest players place their pawns
Another point of tension mentioned: access and equitable sharing of “deposit“, name given to all the products to be repaired and reconditioned. But also the “battle“for access to spare parts, which is a very important chapter of this report, with the risk of seeing the large manufacturers arrogating “stranglehold on repair”.
Apple is a very good example of this risk, the firm seeking – according to experts – to increase its control of the repair market through its self-repair program. “The closed circuit operation of major brands via approved partners runs counter to the development of a real right to repair”sometimes even illegally since the Agec and Reen laws prohibit “any agreement or practice whose purpose is to limit the access of a repair, reuse or re-use professional to spare parts, instructions for use, technical information or any other instrument, equipment or software allowing the repair some products”. The price of spare parts, beyond their availability, is also a crucial issue.