UVic Sustainability Project opens lending library and free store for UVic community members
Photo by Declan Snowden.
The UVic Sustainability Project (UVSP) is a student-run organization that works to “reconceptualize what sustainability is” through the recognition that environmental justice is intertwined with social justice. The UVSP runs services for students, staff, and the UVic community, including workshops and campaigns on environmental and social justice issues.
In September 2025, the UVSP opened a lending library and a free store.
Both the lending library and the free store can be found at the UVSP office, which is in room B020 of the basement of the Student Union Building (SUB).
The library, like a traditional library, has items that UVic community members can borrow, and it was designed to promote education on sustainability. However, it’s not just limited to books. The UVSP library also offers practical items, such as a sewing machine, a tent, camping cookware, a tool kit, garden equipment, like gloves, shovels, rakes, and cooking equipment, such as a crockpot.
Their library features guides to foraging, mending, and other practical skills UVic’s students can use to be more sustainable.
The library also has a canning kit — for canning food and jams — as well as mason jars, and a megaphone.
It took inspiration from other lending libraries, but was made to be accessible to the UVic community. It is intended for UVic students, faculty, and “anyone who considers themselves part of the UVic community,” A-C Barrios-Stewart, communications officer at the UVSP, said.
Many of the library’s items were donated, or sourced through places such as Facebook Marketplace. Anyone interested in donating items to the UVSP can send an email to uvspcommsofficer@uvic.ca.
So far, Barrios-Stewart said that not many individual UVic community members have made use of the library.
“Quite a few of the different advocacy groups use our tools for [events] they’ve been [working on], like the GEM, for example, had a mending workshop, and they used our sewing machine… but everyone’s welcome to use [the library].”
“I’m hoping there will be more conversation [about the library] and more community building, especially if people use [the library] for community events,” Barrios-Stewart said.
The UVSP said they intend to release a catalogue of the items in the library on their website soon.
Community members interested in helping maintain the lending library can also contact the UVSP to get involved, including helping sanitize items, assisting in advertising, or mending damaged items.
The UVSP free store can be found right outside their office on a shelf, and includes items that have been donated, but aren’t suitable for the lending library. These items can be kept and do not need to be returned, unlike the items in the library. Barrios-Stewart said things such as toys, books, stickers, and buttons have gone up in the free store.
“We understand that there’s a lot of barriers for people accessing things and having their own agency, so we hope that this can at least help people break those barriers.”
Going forward, the UVSP hopes the lending library and free store will help build community on campus, and that more people will utilize it.
