About Us

Our Purpose

The Share Reuse Repair Initiative (SRRI) brings together government, business, and community innovators to build a culture and economy of sharing, reuse, and repair in the Greater Vancouver region in order to prevent waste, support lighter living and enable circular innovation. The SRRI has three key functions: to collaboratively test promising prototypes; to build a more consistent foundation of support through policy, funding, and partnerships; and to amplify existing efforts while catalyzing positive new innovation.

Why Share, Reuse, and Repair?

Enable people to share their things and support shared innovations like cup share, clothing subscriptions, and goods sharing platforms.

Reuse

Encourage people to use things that already exist and support reuse innovation like secondhand goods, refill stores, and products made from waste.

Repair

Help people to repair their things and collaborate with innovators to increase repair opportunities and embed repair into production models.

MakeWay Shared Platform

Share Reuse Repair Initiative is a project on MakeWay’s Shared Platform, which provides operational supports, governance, and charitable expertise for changemakers. The shared platform enables more time and money to go towards achieving greater impact.

MakeWay is a national Canadian charity that builds partnerships and solutions to help nature and communities thrive together.

Our 3 P's

SRRI focuses our work on People, Producers, and Policy.

People

The majority are locked into hyperconsumerist behaviour that defines their identities and participation in society. Many are overworked and anxious trying to keep up with consumer trends, and find that their stuff doesn’t make them happier. It is also isolates them. Previously, communities were brought together by sharing through the Village Effect.
A minority embrace SRR goods and services and create demand for supportive policy and innovation. The demand for change is still not visible or influential enough, however, to push mainstream systems change. SRR items are also not accessible and affordable enough to enable mainstream uptake.

Producers

A minority of start-ups, institutions and businesses in the region produce SRR goods and services. SRR innovation is hard because it requires new models and shifting consumer behaviour - sharing items, refilling containers, buying secondhand goods, repairing - instead of buying new. Clarity is lacking about the ‘right’ innovations to shift the system meaningfully.
The current innovation ecosystem for SRR goods and services is poorly coordinated, lacks relevant capacity building, and has inconsistent policy support.

POLICY

Policy support is inconsistent for SRR. For example, extended producer responsibility policy in British Columbia doesn’t yet prioritize reuse and repair. Right to Repair (R2R) legislation has been passed in 21 US states but not in any Canadian provinces yet due to insufficient cultural and political demand.
Municipal policy and bylaws often inadvertently work against SRR innovations.