Sustainable off-grid cold storage
A community-led food and climate project
Many community gardens and small farms don’t have access to reliable electricity, yet still grow and share large amounts of food.
In collaboration with OSO Planning + Design and the Halifax Regional Municipality, Common Roots BiHi Park created and tested a solar-powered, off-grid cold storage system to help reduce food waste and improve access to fresh food in community spaces.
The result is a working cold storage prototype at the BiHi farm site, a feasibility study, and a set of open-source resources, all designed so that anyone can use, adapt, and build from them.
Explore the study
The feasibility study shares the full story of the project, from early questions and design decisions to lessons learned, technical insights, and opportunities for replication across other community food settings.
A community food infrastructure gathering
When the build was finished, we gathered at the BiHi farm with community members, growers and partners to share the project, learn from one another, and imagine how off-grid infrastructure can support food access in community spaces. Graphic Recorder Louise Lyman helped us capture what we heard.
Recommendations
The following recommendations are shaped by our experience delivering this project from concept through construction, as well as the insights from the gathering. Together, they point to opportunities that extend beyond a single structure and toward a more resilient approach to local food infrastructure.
- Support decentralized, community-scale infrastructure – Small, replicable food infrastructure like this cold storage can help communities respond more quickly and resiliently to local needs and disruptions.
- Invest in people, not just projects – Long-term investment in community capacity, staffing, and relationships is essential to sustaining food infrastructure beyond short-term pilots or one-time builds.
- Reduce bureaucratic barriers to community food infrastructure – Simpler, clearer permitting and planning processes would allow community food projects to focus less on red tape and more on feeding people.
- Take a holistic approach to food insecurity – Food insecurity cannot be addressed through production alone and requires coordinated support for storage, distribution, land access, processing, and community access points.
- Strengthen local food systems and community self-reliance – Supporting local food systems, farmer-led initiatives, and mutual aid networks helps communities reduce reliance on fragile supply chains.
- Advance coordinated land-sharing and access initiatives – Long-term, secure access to land through coordinated land-sharing efforts is critical for community food projects.
Open Source Design Drawings
All materials are free to download and adapt.
This cold storage was truly a collective effort. We’d like to gratefully acknowledge the support of the NS Department of Energy’s Low Carbon Communities (LCC) grant program, along with contributions from Dillon Consulting, Top Clad Roofing, YWCA Halifax, the NS Liquor Commission, Councillor Shawn Cleary, the HalifACT Climate Action Challenge and HRM’s JustFOOD Community Food Grant stream.
Dalhousie PhD student Lucas Wan designed and programmed the cold storage’s custom cooling controller. Photos and video footage are courtesy of Jordan Newell at Backpack Audio Video.
Above all, we thank the many volunteers who shared their time, skills, and energy with us.
This project was built to be shared
If you’re interested in visiting the cold storage, adapting these designs, or learning more, please get in touch! Reach out to CRUF BiHi at nicola.nemy@ecologyaction.ca and we’ll find a time to connect.