The combined ORDS data has been used and analysed for various purposes – from right to repair policy consultations, to campaigning and activism, to journalism, to individuals simply learning how to do data science on an interesting data set.
Anyone can engage in this analysis – the ORDS datasets are open and downloadable. If you have found something interesting in the data, please get in touch.
In October 2024, taking insights from our latest dataset, we have published a detailed report: “The rise of community repair: the people and the data building a movement“. It’s 15 years since the first Repair Café in Amsterdam, and 7 years since the founding of the Open Repair Alliance, and community repair has grown and spread around the world since then. The report delves deep into the data we’ve collected over the years, offering insights into the growth of community repair worldwide as well as the barriers to repair that we still face and the need for stronger legislation to support repair.
Insights by product category
We’ve produced a number of pieces of analysis of the ORA data, which have been fed into right to repair policy consultations.
Other insights and uses of the data
Reports from ORA members
- Analysis of Repair Monitor results (Repair Cafe International)
- How repair can affect CO2 emissions (Repair Cafe International)
- Statistics on repairs (anstiftung)
- The environmental impact of consumer electronics & repair (The Restart Project)
- The environmental impact of repair (The Restart Project)
- A journey into our repair data (The Restart Project)
- Why computers break: what our data shows (The Restart Project)
Reports from other organisations
The ORA data has also been used in reports from other organisations.
- Reparability Scoring System – Product relevance scoping study. Undertakes a scoping study to identify product groups under the ecodesign framework that would be most relevant for the implementation of an EU-wide product reparability scoring system. (European Commission Joint Research Centre, 2025).
- Reparatur von Klima- und Einzelraumheizgeräten : Kurzstudie zur Relevanz des Reparierbarkeits-Index (R-Score). A decision-making aid to better assess the potential introduction of a reparability index for air conditioning and local space heating applianceswithin the framework of the Ecodesign Directive (Wuppertal Institut, 2024).
- Imaging equipment and its consumables. Preparatory Study for Ecodesign. Assesses the environmental impact of imaging equipment and identifies and evaluates design options with the potential to reduce the impact; also proposes ecodesign measures. A preparatory study by the JRC is the first step in the process through which the EU Commission proposes mandatory legal requirements for products. (European Commission Joint Research Centre, 2024).
- Lifespans and the circular economy. This series of articles examines the potential benefits of lifespan extension across different product groups and explores the technological, economic, social and policy changes which can help realise these benefits here in the UK. (UKRI Circular Economy Hub, 2023).
- Extending the Life of Consumer Electronics. Provides estimates of the benefits of extending the lifespans of three widely used consumer electronics in the UK – smartphones, laptops and tablets. (UKRI Circular Economy Hub, 2023).
- A guide to public data resources for a circular economy modelling & measurement framework. (UKRI Circular Economy Hub, 2023).
- An overview of Europe’s repair sector. Provides an evidence-based update on the status of the repair sector in Europe. (European Environment Agency, 2022).
- Long Live the Machine: How ecodesign & energy labelling can prevent premature obsolescence of laptops (ECOS, 2020).