Cooling as a Service with Virtual Cold Chain Assistant

The document outlines a CaaS model using the 'Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant' (Your VCCA) app to provide smallholder farmers in India with sustainable cooling facilities without upfront costs. The initiative aims to reduce food waste, which currently exceeds 40% of food produced in India, and increase farmer revenues by over 35%. A pilot program is scheduled for 2021-2022 in Bihar and Himachal Pradesh to demonstrate economic viability. The model targets the benefit of 1.5 million farmers, the abatement of 100,000 units of CO2, and the mobilization of USD 200 million for decentralized cold room projects within four years.

• India experiences food waste of more than 40% of produced food across farm, transport, and retail levels. Implementing cold storage is estimated to increase farmer revenues by more than 35%.
• The CaaS model, supported by the 'Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant' (Your VCCA) app, uses machine learning and physics-based food modeling to allow smallholder farmers to access cooling via servitization, removing upfront costs.
• The project targets significant scale within four years: benefiting 1.5 million farmers, abating 100,000 units of CO2, and mobilizing USD 200 million for decentralized cold room projects. For solar-powered cold rooms, project and equity returns could exceed 27% and 43% respectively, based on specific revenue and utilization assumptions.

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} }