A great way to lower your emissions is to lengthen the life of durable goods like household appliances or vehicles by maintaining and/or fixing them to avoid buying a replacement.
However if you have ever wanted to take on fixing a washing machine or car you may have been stymied by not having specific expensive tools for the job at hand. Or you might have struggled to keep up with yard maintenance or spring garden prep because you don’t own costly but infrequently used machines like rototillers, soil aerators or lawn mowers?
Help may be available if your town or city has a tool library. Sometimes conventional libraries may have tools to loan (typically smaller and non-mechanized hand tools) but some, like the LA County Library’s Tool Lending program, also offer larger tools like power washers and sewing machines.
In other communities there may be stand alone tool libraries that make a wide variety of tools available for a yearly membership fee. For example, the tool library in Victoria, BC, Canada, has over 1,300 tools available for rent for a $75 annual membership fee.
Simply Google to find out if there are tool libraries near you and if there aren’t, why not explore whether your local public library has any interest in lending out tools.
You could also canvas folks on your street for their interest in a tool library and maybe you can start an informal lending program of your own.