Cooling as a Service with Virtual Cold Chain Assistant

This fact sheet describes 'Cooling as a Service' (CaaS) and the 'Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant' (Your VCCA) mobile application, designed to reduce food waste and increase revenues for smallholder farmers in India through affordable, sustainable cold storage.

• Over 40% of food produced in India is wasted across farm, transport, and retail levels before reaching customers. Implementing cold storage is estimated to increase farmer revenues by more than 35%, supporting the Government of India's goal of doubling farmer incomes.
• The Cooling as a Service (CaaS) model utilizes a mobile application called 'Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant' (Your VCCA), which employs machine learning and physics-based food modeling to provide smallholder farmers access to sustainable cooling without upfront costs.
• For solar-powered, grid-connected cold rooms with 50% annualized capacity utilization and revenues of INR 0.5/kg/day, project and equity returns can exceed 27% and 43% respectively. Within four years, the CaaS with VCCA initiative aims to mobilize USD 200 million for decentralized cold room projects, benefit 1.5 million farmers, and abate 100,000 units of CO2.
• The CaaS with VCCA project is scheduled to pilot in the Indian states of Bihar and Himachal Pradesh during 2021-2022 to demonstrate the value of the app and the economic viability of the business model.

APA

Climate Policy Initiative (2021). Cooling as a Service with Virtual Cold Chain Assistant. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/cooling-as-a-service-with-virtual-cold-chain-assistant/

Chicago

Climate Policy Initiative. Cooling as a Service with Virtual Cold Chain Assistant. 2021. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/cooling-as-a-service-with-virtual-cold-chain-assistant/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Policy Initiative |title=Cooling as a Service with Virtual Cold Chain Assistant |date=4 October 2021 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/cooling-as-a-service-with-virtual-cold-chain-assistant/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climatepolicyinitiative2021cooling, author = {{Climate Policy Initiative}}, title = {{Cooling as a Service with Virtual Cold Chain Assistant}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2021}, month = oct, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/cooling-as-a-service-with-virtual-cold-chain-assistant/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }