A research initiative of the Shannon School of Business, Cape Breton University Principal Investigators: Dr. Kaitlin Kish and Dr. Mary Beth Doucette
About This Project
Cape Breton Island, Unama’ki, is not waiting for permission to adapt to climate change. Across four counties, in Mi’kmaw communities and municipal regions alike, people are building solar gardens on affordable housing lots, electrifying lobster boats, growing food year-round using geothermal energy, and designing trail networks that heal the wounds left by a highway built through the heart of a community. They are doing this largely without a unified framework, often without knowing what their neighbours are doing, and almost always with less funding than the work deserves.
This project, Sustaining Our Island: Unama’ki Collaborative Climate Solutions, set out to find, document, and connect these efforts. Supported by a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (2024), our research team spent two years mapping community-led climate adaptation initiatives across Unama’ki, from Inverness County to Richmond County, from the CBRM to Victoria County, from Mi’kmaw First Nations to rural municipalities.
What we found exceeded our expectations, in both volume and variety. We documented 26 distinct initiatives. We found Indigenous communities leading some of the most technically innovative projects on the island. We found community organizations doing quietly extraordinary work with limited resources. And we found, again and again, that the biggest barrier was not ambition or capacity, it was connection. Groups working in complementary areas often did not know each other existed.
These case studies are our attempt to start changing that and to bring attention to some of the exceptional work being done across the island.
What We Found
The 26 initiatives we documented fall into six broad categories, though many cross more than one:
Community-owned clean energy: From Pine Tree Park’s solar garden serving low-income Sydney residents, to Eskasoni’s solar array powering a cold storage lobster facility, to Inverness County’s low-interest financing program making heat pumps accessible to rural homeowners.
Indigenous-led innovation: Membertou First Nation is building Canada’s first zero-emission lobster vessel. Potlotek First Nation installed a geothermal greenhouse that produces food year-round in a Maritime climate. Eskasoni Renewables is developing community-owned energy infrastructure. These are not pilot projects in the conventional sense, they are working solutions, led by communities for communities.
Infrastructure resilience: Wreck Cove’s $110 million hydroelectric modernization avoided $500 million in decommissioning costs and extended clean energy generation to 2060. We’koqma’q and the Municipality of Inverness jointly replaced aging wastewater infrastructure that was threatening the Bras d’Or Lake watershed. Wagmatcook First Nation is building an active transportation network to eliminate a highway crossing where 23 pedestrians have died.
Food sovereignty and community care: New Dawn Meals on Wheels delivers 20,000 meals a year using reclaimed food and a bicycle delivery network. Potlotek’s geothermal greenhouse grows produce through the winter. These are not peripheral to climate adaptation, in communities facing aging populations and supply chain fragility, they are its front line.
Cultural economy and ecological tourism: Eskasoni Cultural Journeys, the Jajiktek Seawall Trail, and Membertou Heritage Park are building economies grounded in place, culture, and ecological relationship rather than extraction. Jajiktek (named in Mi’kmaw by an Elders advisory committee) will become a 50 km coastal wilderness trail connecting hikers with Mi’kmaw knowledge and northern Inverness County’s extraordinary landscapes.
Large-scale energy transition: From Transit Cape Breton’s electric bus fleet to the Rhodena Wind Project (with Eskasoni First Nation as 51% majority owner) to EverWind’s green hydrogen facility at Point Tupper, the island is home to energy transition projects at every scale. These raise important questions about who benefits, who decides, and what it means to lead a just transition in a place with this particular history.
A Note on Indigenous Leadership
One of the most striking findings of this research is how disproportionately Indigenous communities are represented among the island’s most innovative adaptation initiatives. Mi’kmaw First Nations are not adapting to climate change as a response to crisis, they are doing so as an expression of long-standing values of stewardship, self-determination, and care for future generations. Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing), Netukulimk, and the principle of Msit No’kmaq (All My Relations) are not abstract concepts in these projects, they are design principles.
This research takes place on Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaw People. We are grateful to the communities who shared their work with us, and we recognize that documenting this work is a responsibility, not just an academic exercise.
The Case Studies
The following case studies were developed from fieldwork conducted between 2023 and 2025. Each includes a narrative overview, analysis of adaptation contributions, discussion questions for educational use, and a glossary of key terms. Full pedagogical versions with teacher notes are available through the CED Resources website (link to come).
Note: The list of case studies is currently under construction.
Victoria County
| Initiative | Community | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| Wreck Cove Hydroelectric Life Extension | Wreck Cove | Infrastructure resilience |
| Wagmatcook Elder’s Housing Project | Wagmatcook First Nation | Aging in place, Indigenous housing |
| Wagmatcook Active Transportation Network | Wagmatcook First Nation | Mobility, community safety |
| Jajiktek – the Seawall Trail | Inverness County / Mi’kmaw-led | Cultural tourism, ecological stewardship |
| Big Spruce Brewing | Nyanza | Agritourism, circular economy |
| Victoria EV Infrastructure | Victoria County | Clean transportation |
| Victoria Sustainable Tourism Initiative | Victoria County | Rural economic resilience |
Inverness County
| Initiative | Community | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| Rhodena Wind Project | Creignish / Eskasoni First Nation | Indigenous-led renewable energy |
| Clean Energy Financing Program | Inverness County | Household energy transition |
| We’koqma’q Waste Management Initiative | We’koqma’q First Nation | Indigenous-led environmental stewardship |
| Whycocomagh–We’koqma’q Wastewater | We’koqma’q / Whycocomagh | Infrastructure resilience, reconciliation |
Cape Breton Regional Municipality
| Initiative | Community | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| Pine Tree Park Community Solar Garden | Sydney | Energy equity, community ownership |
| L’Ektrikel Walipotl – Zero-Emission Lobster Vessel | Membertou First Nation | Indigenous marine innovation |
| Eskasoni Cold Logistics Solar Project | Eskasoni First Nation | Energy sovereignty, food systems |
| Eskasoni Cultural Journeys | Eskasoni First Nation | Cultural economy, ecological knowledge |
| Membertou Heritage Park | Membertou First Nation | Cultural revitalization, sustainable tourism |
| New Dawn Meals on Wheels | Sydney | Food sovereignty, aging, circular economy |
| Transit Cape Breton Electric Bus | CBRM | Public transit, emissions reduction |
| CBRM Home Energy Assessment & Retrofit | CBRM-wide | Household energy transition |
| CBRM Community Climate Adaptation & Land Banking | CBRM-wide | Housing, flood resilience |
Richmond County
| Initiative | Community | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| EverWind Point Tupper Green Hydrogen | Point Tupper | Large-scale energy transition |
| Potlotek Geothermal Greenhouse | Potlotek First Nation | Food sovereignty, clean energy |
| Potlotek Physical Activity Strategy | Potlotek First Nation | Community well-being |
| Arichat & Petit-de-Grat Water Treatment | Isle Madame | Rural water infrastructure |
| Pondville Beach Revitalization | Isle Madame | Coastal access, civic advocacy |
| Richmond Active Living Strategy | Richmond County | Social resilience |
About the Research Team
Dr. Kaitlin Linden is an Assistant Professor at the Shannon School of Business, Cape Breton University. Her research spans ecological economics, community economic development, and rural well-being. She is research co-lead of the Economics & Well-Being stream of Homeward Bound NS and teaches at the annual Ecological Economics Summer Institute at the Haida Gwaii Institute, UBC.
Dr. Mary Beth Doucette is the Purdy Crawford Chair in Aboriginal Business Studies at Cape Breton University. An Indigenous scholar and member of the Unama’ki community, her research focuses on Indigenous governance, community economic development, and reconciliation in business education.
This project was supported by a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (2024) and builds on a previous SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant exploring community perceptions of net-zero transition in Unama’ki.
Partner organizations include: Atlantic Coastal Action Program Cape Breton, New Dawn Enterprises, Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design, and Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources.
