When broken house appliances get upgraded, the old ones end up in landfills —disposing of old appliances or selling broken devices on a secondary market shall not be the user's responsibility. It's the brands' mission to move from waste-generating offerings to the circular economy.
One of our investors at Fairown reached out on Facebook for repairmen recommendations because his dishwasher broke down. After the long debate, some suggested buying a new one or order pieces and fixing it himself. Such topics and discussions made us ask ourselves how Fairown solutions shall help brands provide and replace the appliances at the right time. Secondly, consumers shall use house appliances before they break and become waste losing retail value to zero.
From linear to a circular economy
In addition to this, we realized that broken appliances are rarely repaired or refurbished. In the electronics sector, those products tend to end up in landfills while being replaced by new ones. This product's life cycle stresses scarce resources and contributes to climate change by increased production.
A great example of circular economy
Bosch CEO highlighted that the company focuses on product subscription and circular economy. Something so natural and evident as appliances subscription is becoming a reality. It feels like a long-awaited move from a consumer perspective, and other appliance brands need to take the same path.
They have created a Blue Movement, the rental service for Bosch appliances in Netherland. The environmentally-conscious Dutch people can finally have their appliances as a service without worrying about upfront cost or a need for the repairman.
How Blue Movement works
You can rent a high-quality Bosch product for your home from €7.99 per month.
Their subscriptions include delivery, installation, repairs and service. Consumers pay a fixed monthly fee and there are no hidden costs.
Bosch collects your old appliances after the subscription period ends and replaces them with new ones.
Huge environmental impact
If appliances will behave like iPhones, every third appliance will be on a subscription in 2024. For example, considering that Bosch produces 60 million dishwashers, imagine what kind of environmental impact this change would bring.
But wait. Such a solution is only available in the Netherlands. And according to the public sources, they established this movement in 2017 and launched this page https://www.bluemovement.com/nl-nl in Autumn 2020.
So it took three years to reach one market.
In the greater picture, the change is too slow. We need to team up to initiate a shift in consumption and provide "Blue Movements" in other industries and other markets as soon as possible.
We believe that, similarly to Bosch, many other strong businesses can scale without depleting the planet's resources.
At Fairown, we dream of having happy customers who can enjoy what the world offers while still being mindful and aware of how waste is managed.