The Institute for Community Sustainability

About the ICS

The Institute for Community Sustainability (ICS) is a London, Ontario-based not-for-profit whose goals include:

Developing and operating programs promoting the protection and preservation of the environment through re-use, reduction, recycling and recovery of waste
Operating a Thing Library, Repair Cafés and related programs in order to preserve household items and to keep them from disposal in landfill
Educating the public on the subjects of reducing waste, reusable and refillable alternatives to single-use products, supporting composting, and living more sustainably

Current Programs

📦Thing Library

⚒️Repair Café

♻️Workshops & Events

Web3 for Community Sustainability

Latest News

Feedback forms for Repair Café and the Thing Library

We’ve created feedback forms for Repair Café and the Thing Library to give you a voice in how we run these programs. Your feedback is crucial to ensuring that programs accurately represent the needs, interests, perspectives, and passions of our community.

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Submit feedback for Repair Café!

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Submit feedback for the Thing Library!

You can also email us at info@communitysustainability.ca with any questions or concerns.

Winter 2025 event schedule

We have Repair Cafés coming up in April, and we’ll also be at Earthfest at Citi Plaza on April 26th.

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Workshops & Events

Our Strategic Plan 2025-2030 is here!

Last year we developed a strategic plan that clarifies our vision, mission, and values, and guides our decision-making and programming for the next five years - and it’s ready to share! Check it out below.

Your feedback is crucial for ensuring that this plan represents the needs, interests, perspectives, and passions of our community. Please consider leaving some feedback!

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Share your feedback through our anonymous form or email us at info@communitysustainability.ca

Download the draft Strategic Plan 2025-2030

Download a high resolution version of the draft Theory of Change

Introducing our new event space at Reimagine Together

We celebrated the launch of our draft Strategic Plan and newly renovated event space at Reimagine Together on June 26, 2024. There was food, music, fun activities for all ages, and generally good energy all around! Thanks to all the wonderful folks who came out to join us. Some highlights below…

A photograph of our newly renovated event space. In the foreground: a chalkboard mounted on a wooden easel. The chalkboard has text that reads “Reimagine Together: Welcome” surrounded by stars. The design is charmingly chaotic — the work of enthusiastic children. In the background: a room with rainbow flooring and mingling people. The atmosphere is warm and lively.

A photograph of folks sitting on chairs as part of a big circle. The room has white walls and rainbow flooring. The people are dressed casually, with handcrafted name tags pinned to their clothes. All of them are looking at something to the right, out of frame (probably a person speaking).

A photograph of someone putting a blue post-it note on a white wall, taken from behind. The person is wearing colourful, patterned clothing and a black wristwatch. Their post-it note is obscured by their hand, but there are other post-it notes on the wall around them: one reads “How to calculate carbon emissions - Emma” and another reads “How to hold emotional space - Joanna”.

We piloted our Human Library program at Reimagine Together. Folks use blue post-it notes to write something they can teach or share and yellow post-it notes for something they want to learn or explore - put them on the wall and then match up!

A photograph of a child holding a handmade badge/pin up to the camera. The badge and the child’s hands obscure the child’s face. The design on the badge is what looks like an orange person holding purple flowers and standing on green grass - the art style is charmingly rough.

Badge making galore at Reimagine Together! Here is one of many excellent designs.

Repair Café - Spring 2025 events!

The Institute for Community Sustainability and London Public Library are running Repair Café events throughout Spring 2025. Join us at one of the following dates: