Announcing Our Final Grants for 2025
We’re excited to announce our final grants for 2025. These five projects will help communities move towards low-carbon solutions while improving affordability, enhancing emergency preparedness and building the local economy. From scaling low-carbon modular housing to advancing deep retrofits in African Nova Scotian communities, each one offers a meaningful step forward for local climate action.
These grants were made under two streams: the “Acceleration stream”, which awards up to $75,000 to projects advancing low carbon solutions along with other community benefits; and the “Catalyst” stream, which provides up to $10,000 to smaller projects through a simplified application process.
Acceleration Grant Awards
Halifax Chamber of Commerce has been awarded $50,000 to pilot Simply Sustainable, a program that helps small businesses cut energy waste and access clear guidance on rebates, incentives, and retrofit pathways. This grant builds on earlier research that the Chamber conducted with support from HCi3.
JD Composites, a Nova Scotia-based company that manufactures structural panels made from recycled PET plastic bottles, has been awarded $50,000 to advance Prefab Homes Nova Scotia. JD Composites will complete the technical and financial modeling needed to scale low carbon modular homes from prototype to mass production Each home is estimated to cut embodied emissions by 37 t CO2e over standard modular construction and diverts approximately 450,000 PET bottles from landfill.
Ecology Action Centre, in collaboration with Volta Research, has been awarded $75,000 to develop A Framework for Resilient Neighbourhoods, which will engage specific communities in HRM, particularly those with high energy poverty rates, in designing local, resilient energy systems that keep communities safe during power outages. Findings will inform the design of neighbourhood energy models and community comfort centres powered by solar, battery storage, and/or vehicle-to-grid technologies, supporting net-zero goals, local economic growth, and climate-ready communities.
North Preston Medical Society has been awarded $50,000 to advance construction design planning for a deep retrofit of the North Preston Day Care Centre, targeting major reductions in energy use and emissions while creating job-shadowing opportunities for African Nova Scotian youth.
Catalyst Grant Award
Delmore “Buddy” Daye Learning Institute, based in Halifax, has been awarded $10,000 for Solar Pathways to Intergenerational Resilience, a community-led project installing solar lighting and off-grid charging in Black communities in Guysborough while building local skills through youth- and Elder-led solar workshops and storytelling. The installations will improve night-time safety and provide off grid charging during outages. The Institute will create a replication playbook that can be used in other communities, including in HRM.