Hi, I’m Inés Alberico and I’m the new Campaign Manager for Right to Repair Europe. I’m really happy to have joined this coalition and I’m looking forward to working to push for repair to be affordable, accessible, and mainstream in the EU and beyond.
How did I get here?
I’ve always cared deeply about our relationship with the environment. Early on, I realised that while individual change matters, we need systemic change if we want to see real impact. That’s what led me to study Political Science. I wanted to understand how policy shifts happen, and how to contribute to them.
I started working in campaigns and advocacy in my hometown, Buenos Aires, as a Campaigner for Change.org Argentina. There, I led national and regional campaigns on environmental justice, gender equality, and human rights. During that time I learned that change happens when people organise and build pressure. I was lucky to work alongside incredible organisers and activists, contributing to the adoption of more than 10 national laws.
Global Climate Strike in Buenos Aires, 2019. Credits: Sebastián De La Vega
In 2021, I moved to Erfurt, Germany to pursue a Master’s in Public Policy, where I specialised in environmental and climate policy and the role of social movements in shaping them. After graduating, I joined Reclaim Finance to coordinate the Fossil Free Finance Campaign, a global coalition pushing financial institutions to shift away from fossil fuels. I worked across regions to align strategies, strengthen coalition coordination, and support campaigns challenging major gas expansion projects that were impacting frontline communities. This work focused on securing concrete commitments from financiers to divest and adopt fossil fuel exclusion policies.
And very recently, I moved to Brussels to take on the role of Campaign Manager for Right to Repair Europe; to follow EU policy closely and help ensure that the right to repair translates into meaningful change on the ground.
Why I care about the Right to Repair
For me, the Right to Repair brings together many of the issues I’ve worked on over the years.
It’s about preventing waste, challenging the throwaway economy, and pushing for products that last; reducing resource extraction and emissions in the process. It’s about strengthening consumer rights and giving people more control over the things they own. Above all, it’s about fairness and building an economy that works for both people and the planet.
But what I like most about this movement is that it has always been powered by people: repairers, volunteers, activists, and communities who started repair cafés across Europe and beyond, long before repair became part of EU legislation.
The adoption of the Right to Repair Directive was an important milestone. Now, the focus shifts to implementation at national level and to strengthening repairability rules through instruments like the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation and the Circular Economy Act.
I’m looking forward to working to make repair the norm, not the alternative.
If you would like to get involved in the campaign, go here.
Thanks for reading,
Inés
Welcome to the coalition!
Welcome Inés
Hi Inés,
Right To Repair, is a fundamental. We buy stuff, and use it, often abusing it. When its stops working, we lose something. If there is a route to restoring it’s functionality, generally, we will take it. Dumping it in the bin isn’t just a loss to us, but a cost to everyone. The devil always, is in the detail. There is talk of ‘repairers’, a label that applied to modern technology is somewhat ‘loose’. Micro-electronics hardware is only part of the problem, with surface-mount components that can only be replaced by a skilled technician, with specialised equipment. That implies a knowledge of which component is at fault. This is a minefield. Mobile phone manufacturers do not publish design, nor implementation details of their products. How does a ‘repairer’ know which ‘part’ is faulty? I quoted ‘part’, that could be many things from a single component to a sub-system board, or display.
The typical mobile phone is not designed to ensure future repair. It has one purpose, and that is to make profits for the company. To do that, it is slick, smart, slim, and sits comfortably into our on-the-go lifestyle. The real sadness is, that the precious elements in it will be wasted, when it’s useful life is over, or the owner is a follower of style over substance, and want’s ‘the next best thing’.
I have a history, being 79 years old, I suppose that’s a given. At the age of 11, I was repairing old ‘valve’ (tube for Americans) radios, to augment my meagre pocket money. My career in Electronics, and latterly in System Software Design has been both interesting and satisfying.
Please feel free to contact me, should you wish. Regards, Joe.
Es ist so wichtig, dass auf allen politischen Ebenen aktive Menschen sich für unsere Ziele einbringen. Nur wenn wir uns weiterhin einmischen, wird sich etwas in die richtige Richtung bewegen! Es ist ein mühsamer, aber lohnender Weg. Machen wir weiter!