CHALLENGE
Enterprise organizations like Rockwell Automation face increasing pressure to deliver sustainability and community impact that is real, measurable, and credible. Traditional food systems offer limited transparency, little local connection, and rely on fragmented distribution networks that make outcomes difficult to verify or scale.
Many initiatives rely on pilots or short-term programs that generate attention, but fail to integrate into daily operations or scale across multiple sites to address long-term community needs.
Rockwell needed a simple solution that could deliver local food access, measurable impact, and ongoing operations within their existing space . They set out to move sustainability beyond commitments and into permanent, operational infrastructure.
APPROACH
Fork Farms partnered with Rockwell Automation to deploy on-site food production as permanent infrastructure at its Clock Tower Farms facility. Using a modular, enterprise-ready indoor growing system—integrated with Rockwell’s automation technology—the farm serves as both a food production hub and a live showcase of advanced manufacturing in action.
To ensure long-term success, the model brings together key partners across the value stream. Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin plays a central role in operating the farm and distributing food into the community, enabling consistent impact without requiring Rockwell to manage day-to-day production.
In partnership with Feeding America, Fork Farms also established a sustainable funding model in which local organizations purchase 35–40% of the farm’s harvest for their own food service needs, generating reliable revenue to cover annual operating costs while the majority of fresh produce supports hunger relief. The result is a one-time investment that launches a fully managed, financially self-sustaining farm, delivering lasting community impact without additional funding requests.
This approach brings sustainability into daily operations with transparent, trackable outputs while aligning technology, operations, and community distribution into a single, scalable system.
IMPACT PANEL
LOCATION: Rockwell Automation
FACILITY SIZE: 7,300 square feet
INSTALL: Flex AcreTM system
OUTCOME
- On-site food production integrated into daily operations, producing 200,000 pounds of fresh food annually - enough to provide a side salad for more than 38,500 people each week
- Meaningful community impact delivered within a sustainable budget, with measurable gains across water, energy, and emissions, including 5.9 million gallons of water saved and 5.5 acres of farmland conserved.
- Scalable, reliable model powered by Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, with streamline distribution from harvest to community that eliminates storage, reduces delays, and maximizes freshness.
