RepairClinic.com is a perfect tale for this time: the combination of environmental sustainability, economic thriftiness and a growing business in Southeast Michigan. The company, founded in Canton in 1999, aims to be an easy and convenient online resource that helps do-it-yourselfers fix their own home appliances -- thus keeping them out of the landfill. Parts and information are available on a variety of home appliances, including washers, dryers, refrigerators, stoves, ovens and dishwashers.RepairClinic. com was recognized as one of Internet Retailer’s "Hot 100 Best Retail Web Sites" for 2008 and boasts more than 1.2 million customers across the U.S. "2008 was our best year ever, and 2009 [is looking] better than that," says president Chris Hall, who co-founded the company with CEO Larry Beach. "People are fixing things more than in the past."Obviously, frugality plays a role in that increase in home-handiness. Hall estimates that typically, 75% of the cost of appliance repair is for the technician, while 25% is in parts. By empowering consumers with the proper instruction and correct parts, RepairClinic.com can make repair a more affordable option, prolonging the life of a machine.Meanwhile, that old appliance is reused -- one of the three main principles of environmental stewardship, along with recycle and reduce.One environmental downside to appliance repair in general is that newer equipment tends to be more energy efficient, particularly when it comes to washing machines, notes Hall. But he points out that refrigerators made in the past decade are all relatively efficient because most major strides were made prior to that, that the efficiency of gas stoves has remained relatively constant, and that improvements to dishwashers have mostly been with how well they clean dishes.Bottom line? "It is more efficient and economical and more ecologically friendly to fix appliances than to throw them away," says Hall.Source: Chris Hall, RepairClinic.comWriter: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
