A new Quebec application for sharing objects of all kinds pushes a small municipality of Lanaudière to pay half the subscription to all its fellow citizens.
“We want to reduce consumption by promoting this choice that is good for the environment, but it is also an opportunity to forge ties in the community,” underlines Étienne Dupuis, councilor and deputy mayor of Crabtree.
As of now, the municipality located in the MRC of Joliette offers its 4000 inhabitants the possibility of obtaining Partage Club.
The application, which uses geolocation, allows subscribers to lend and borrow items for the short, medium and long term. It is therefore possible to obtain a paddle board for an afternoon, to lend a tent for the weekend or to borrow a bicycle for the summer.
“People are already telling us they can’t wait to subscribe […] there are others who are a little reluctant, but the more of us who use it, the more we will show that it works”, explains Audrey Desrochers, a subscriber to the Partage Club and in charge of the Crabtree green committee.
The one who has already been using the application for several months is behind the idea of implementing it on a large scale in her community.
“I even asked my children to suggest books that they would like to lend to promote the exchange,” she adds.
Borrow free of charge
The application, which has been on the market for barely a year, already has thousands of subscribers in Quebec, but the more people around you use it, the more discoveries there are.
“A lot of people tell us that they subscribed for the economic aspect, but now the environmental and social aspects come back enormously”, underlines Anaïs Majidier, marketing director at Partage Club.
For its founder, Fauve Doucet, the palpable enthusiasm for the application proves to her that an application advocating sharing and limiting abusive consumption was essential.
Faune Doucet, founder of the Partage Club app
“As soon as we started prototypes last year, we had councilors from different municipalities who contacted us to show their interest,” she says.
After a year of use, several members report having saved up to $1,000 by favoring sharing rather than buying.
“People call me to tell me they dreamed of the day when an app like this would exist,” she says.
At the dawn of the beautiful season, Partage Club hopes that the use of the application will become a reflex for people who need specific articles. In particular thanks to the spontaneous requests that can be made on the platform.
“We encourage people to ask, as much as to donate items,” she adds.
With an average response time of 11 hours, many members like Odile Gauthier-Plamondon can benefit from quick help. The Longueuil resident remembers making a call for tools to help her repair her washer, which was quickly answered.
“Not only did a member lend me his tools, but the person came to bring them directly to my home and suggested YouTube videos to guide me,” she recalls.
Currently, the application is offered free of charge for a period of three months. The subscription is then $60 per year. You can find objects of all kinds and accessible for different periods.