Learn more about how the Thingery offers a quick and effective model for starting an equipment lending library.
What is a thingery?
A Thingery is a community supported equipment-lending library in a modified shipping container.
Each Thingery site becomes a share, reuse, and repair hub for the community it serves. We do this by pooling donated equipment, offering repair workshops, and facilitating the lending of equipment.
Why have a Thingery?
Thingeries connect neighbours, offer skill-building workshops, and reduce material waste through sharing.
As our project expands to new regions, we will connect these communities to create a network that fundamentally changes the way the world consumes.
Empower Communities
From our pricing to our workshops, every aspect of The Thingery contributes to an inclusive space to learn about and access equipment.
Create Communtiy Resilience
A tight-knit community is a strong community. Our workshops facilitate networks and skill-sharing, boosting connection and confidence. Thingeries can also be part of your neighbourhood safety plan.
Reduce our Ecological Footprint
Each Thingery plays an active role in lowering an individual's ecological footprint by diverting equipment from the landfill and decreasing the need for individuals to purchase new equipment.
“I attended your fantastic ‘Intro to Tools’ session this past Sunday. I found the session very empowering, as I never had the opportunity to learn about power tools.”
–Workshop Participant
about our pilot program
Our 1 year pilot program is the first step in establishing a region-wide network of equipment lending libraries.
benefits of our pilot project
Made to Pilot
Each Thingery site has been custom built to meet the local requirements of municipal regulations. They are approved by structural engineers, seismically rated and ready to be permitted.
Scalable
Ater the 1 year pilot program is successful and the region is ready to create a complete network of Thingeries in every neighbourhood, adding them to the network is simple.
Highly participatory
A Thingery pilot is more than just a few shipping containers – it’s a site that is designed by the community, the inventory is sourced and curated by the local community, and workshops are taught and attended to by the local community.
Integrated
Throughout our 1 year pilot program in your region, we’ll be continually researching and reporting on the site activity and usage.
We’ll present a report on how The Thingery can be integrated into the local public library, tool libraries and maker spaces.
Timeline
why us?
Now that you know what a Thingery is, what it can do for your community and the world, we’re going to tell you why we’re the right team to help get you started.
Experience
We know a lot about the circular economy and public space making. We know because we’ve done a few things.
impact
We believe that now is the time to invest in the public infrastructure of the future - infrastructure that helps communities become more resilient and lowers their ecological footprint.
Team
The Thingery has put together an amazing team of programmers, designers, and architects to work on our growth into new regions.