Biotech companies are addressing climate change through innovation—from carbon neutral facilities to agricultural innovations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. BIO was on the ground at the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai to deliver the message that biotech is climate tech.
Biotech companies are addressing climate change through innovation—from carbon neutral facilities to agricultural innovations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. BIO was on the ground at the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai to deliver the message that biotech is climate tech.
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Theresa Brady (00:52):
The most recent United Nations Climate conference, the 28th Conference of the Parties, or COP28, in Dubai, was historic. It closed with an agreement among nearly 200 countries on a plan to make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. BIO was there to deliver the message that biotech is climate tech. We shared how our member companies are addressing climate change through innovation. Today, we talk with one of those companies about their remarkable sustainability efforts, and we talk with BIO's climate policy director, who was on the ground at COP28. I'm Theresa Brady, and you're listening to I Am BIO.
(01:54):
This year marks the 39th consecutive winter with above-average global temperatures. We just had the warmest January on record, and nearly every day we hear about another mega storm, wild fire, drought, or flood. So it's no wonder that everyone is talking about climate change. Our first guest is doing more than talking about it. He and his company are taking concrete action with a commitment to reaching net-zero emissions through innovation in their facilities.
Andy Campbell (02:26):
My name is Andy Campbell. I am the associate director of corporate real estate for United Therapeutics.
Theresa Brady (02:34):
Andy oversees the development and construction of all new facilities to keep the company's scientists working. Andy shares the personal experience that led to the creation of United Therapeutics.
Andy Campbell (02:47):
United Therapeutics was born in the mid-90s when our CEO Dr. Martine Rothblatt's daughter was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension. At the time there was really no good therapies for the disease, and to date, the only cure is a lung transplant. And being a parent and doing what any parent would do, she dedicated her life to saving her daughter's life. And so United Therapeutics is really dedicated to that goal. To date we have five treatments for pulmonary hypertension and also a therapy for a small cell cancer chondroblastoma. But ultimately, United Therapeutics' long-term goal is to develop a unlimited supply of transplantable organs.
Theresa Brady (03:35):
Andy says the company's focus on sustainability is integral to its mission on improving the health of both people and the planet.
Andy Campbell (03:43):
One thing that Martine has always guided us in the corporate real estate group is that our mission as a company is to save people's lives and that we cannot do that if at the detriment of the environment. Since our founding, we've always had sustainability at the forefront of our developments. We've always worked towards trying to develop the best facilities and the greenest facilities that we could.
Theresa Brady (04:11):
Last year, United Therapeutics made an exciting announcement. They unveiled the first net-zero cold storage warehouse that meets good manufacturing practices, or GMP. To store pharmaceutical products, a GMP facility must meet exacting standards for 24/7 temperature control, making the company's achievement all the more impressive.
Andy Campbell (04:36):
Our facility here in Research Triangle Park is a very critical piece of our supply chain logistics. Bringing raw materials in, sending finished medicines out to our patients, and being able to store a large enough backlog to ensure that no matter what happens we'll always be able to meet the needs of our patients is very, very important for us. And so, as we continue to grow, we recognize that being able to expand warehousing and logistics in-house was really important to us. It allows us to kinda control our own destiny. And so when the idea came up to expand those capabilities, we really wanted to push the envelope on what was possible in the world of net-zero energy.
(05:23):
So for this particular facility, we've actually pursued net-zero operational carbon, meaning that over the course of the year we are generating as much electricity on site that we will be using through the facility and doing so without any carbon generation behind it. The most critical parts of that are notably no diesel or natural gas generator backup. Given such a critical GMP facility and understanding the importance of what is stored inside, making sure that we're able to meet that critical resiliency and reduce any risk of loss was very important. Knowing that we wanted to reduce our carbon footprint on this facility and even eliminate it, we had to come up with some creative solutions.
(06:17):
So what we were able to do is partnering with Tesla and the, their Tesla Megapacks, along with roughly half a megawatt of solar on our roof connected through a micro grid we're able to actually operate completely disconnected from the grid for days if not weeks at a time, depending on the weather outside.
Theresa Brady (06:39):
The new warehouse in Research Triangle, North Carolina brings to five the total number of net-zero facilities operated by United Therapeutics. One of those buildings has an intriguing nickname, the Unisphere. It's the largest site-powered net-zero commercial building in the US. Andy explains the vision for the Unisphere and how it became a reality.
Andy Campbell (07:04):
The Unisphere is our headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. It is a ground-breaking achievement in every way, shape, or form. Martine and, and the way that she really challenges us came to us with this idea of a site net-zero energy office building, which to date is really unheard of and many people thought could not be done. In fact, one of my favorite stories on the project is, as we were going through the design process we understood that we were gonna need geothermal wells under the footprint of the building in order to reduce our heating and cooling loads.
(07:42):
When we went to the local jurisdiction for permitting, turned out that there was a law in the State of Maryland that did not allow for wells in your basement, which if you go back and you think about the idea of a drinking well in your basement, it absolutely made sense, just for cleanliness and health code requirements. Understanding that geothermal wells is a close-looped system, are a completely different animal, we were able to work with the Maryland Well Drillers Association and representatives in Minneapolis to be able to actually change the law to allow for geothermal wells under the footprint of the building.
Theresa Brady (08:18):
Andy says United Therapeutics is pushing the envelope on what people think can be done. The company just broke ground on yet another net-zero facility. It's an embodied-carbon GMP manufacturing facility in North Carolina's Research Triangle being built with decarbonized materials.
Andy Campbell (08:38):
The most critical part of this facility and what makes it able to be zero-embodied carbon is through the use of mass timber structure. When we first started doing research into this project, sat down with mass timber vendors, sat down with architects, engineers that have used this product in the past, whether it was office buildings, apartments, homes, what have you, and told them that we wanted to do it in a GMP manufacturing facility, they looked at us like we were crazy. Fortunately we've got some really good partners, uh, in our architect and contracting teams and are, are really pushing forward to make it happen. I think everyone that we work with really understands what the mission is and what the critical need of pushing forward sustainability is. And so we really have this buy-in top to bottom and across the board that is making it able for us to really change the future of what's possible.
Theresa Brady (09:37):
Changing perceptions of what's possible is a big part of the company's goal. Nothing would make Andy happier than to see other companies copying United Therapeutics' playbook.
Andy Campbell (09:47):
As a public benefit corporation, our mission is not just to our stakeholders, but to our patients, our people, and the environment as well. And knowing that we can make these commitments to improve the environment, to improve society as a whole is really important to us. As I mentioned on our Unisphere project in Silver Spring and being able to change the regulations for geothermal wells, uh, that [inaudible 00:10:16] to the local code agency, since then, that same code agency is pursuing geothermal wells under the footprint of their own building. This is something that they would have never ever been able to do. When we first sat down and talked to them, it was impossible to accomplish, but now because of the change that we've impacted, they have been able to follow in our footsteps and really better themselves as well.
Theresa Brady (10:39):
The United Therapeutics story is just one example of how biotech companies are taking the lead in building a more sustainable, resilient world.
(10:53):
When we come back from the break, we'll talk with BIO's climate policy expert about other examples of biotech leadership in addressing climate change.
(11:11):
Thousands of people download and listen to the I am BIO podcast, from biotech industry leaders to folks who are just interested in science and learning more about biotech solutions. Do you want to reach these listeners with your unique message? We are now offering opportunities to advertise on our podcast. Visit bio.org/podcast to learn more.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
We have climate change, limited natural resources, water scarcity, and we now have available seeds that can really help address all of those issues. But it's so important to have drought-tolerant maize and anything else that helps lessen the inputs while also helping the environment.
(12:07):
If we really want to keep flying, we need to do it with a low carbon approach, and sustainable aviation fuel is the way to do it.
Theresa Brady (12:15):
As I mentioned, the United Therapeutics' story is just one great example of how biotech companies are moving toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. There are many more. Other companies are coming to the table with innovative technologies to capture and reuse carbon, cut methane emissions, and more.
Tamra Spielvogel (12:33):
I'm Tamra Spielvogel, I am the climate policy director for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. From setting science-based targets at a company level to switching alternative chemical inputs, to changing manufacturing processes, the entire biotechnology industry is coming to the table to meet climate challenges head on. We see that leveraging of biotechnology innovation is going to be key in order to enable advances in climate adaptation, mitigation, and resilience.
Theresa Brady (13:02):
There are many examples of biotech companies addressing climate change through innovation. In a previous episode of I Am BIO titled Green Fuels Have Taken Off, we talked with Dave Kettner, President and General Counsel at Virent, about the first passenger flight fueled 100% by the company's sustainable aviation fuel.
Speaker 6 (13:23):
Virent is an early-stage company that is working to commercialize our technology, which we call the BioForming process, for converting sugars from plants into renewal fuels and chemicals. One of those renewable fuels is sustainable aviation fuel. It's greener because what we're doing is we're recycling the carbon from the atmosphere, pulling that carbon through plant resources, and then letting the plants and Mother Nature kind of do its thing to take that carbon, turn into a useful material that ultimately we can turn into jet fuel.
Theresa Brady (14:01):
And here's Michael Kopke, Chief Innovation Officer at BIO member LanzaTech, talking about how his company recycles carbon into a wide range of commercial and consumer products.
Speaker 7 (14:13):
We built a process around a carbon-fixing microbe that's called Clostridium autoethanogenum. You can imagine the process a little bit like a brewery, but instead of yeast that feeds on sugars, we use this Clostridium microbe to feed on gases. The gases can be, for example, off-gases from industrial plant like a steel plant. To do this we have developed specialized power reactors and highly trained [inaudible 00:14:39] microbes. Using this process we can make ethanol, which is the basis for fuels but also are the key building blocks for various consumer goods like apparel, packing, cleaners, detergents.
Speaker 8 (14:51):
Is it possible to feed a growing population while reducing agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint, making farming more sustainable? Biotechnology is one tool that can help. A combination of biology and engineering, biotechnology borrows some of the same mechanisms that nature has used for millennia to develop healthy plants, animals, and micro-organisms that are well-adapted to stressors in their environment. These tools, often described as genetic engineering and genome editing, are being actively used to develop essential food crops that are more resilient to climate change and use fewer natural resources.
Theresa Brady (15:42):
Agriculture and food product was a big focus at this year's COP, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and how to feed our growing world. Tamra says it was important for agricultural biotechnology companies to be part of that conversation.
Tamra Spielvogel (15:59):
The opportunity that this particular COP presented was one where we were able to see ahead of time the interest that was growing in agriculture and environment as well as in health. And we knew that this would be a good opportunity and it would be a playing field where we saw interest in innovation, interest in technology, interest in what that role can be in meeting the goals of climate change. If you have a goal in mind, you're also gonna have to think about three or four other goals in mind. So if you're talking about food security, you need to talk about agricultural productivity. And by doing that you're inherently bringing into the conversation biotechnology and biotechnology innovations. Because in order to maintain the sustainable growth in our productivity to make sure that we're able to continue to feed the population that is both growing and still in need, we need to be able to make sure that we're not using resources more than we need to. And those changes are coming from biotechnology.
(17:08):
So if you care about ending hunger and food insecurity across the globe, then you have to care about what we are doing in technology innovations as well because you can't do one without the other.
Theresa Brady (17:23):
Another big focus at this year's COP was reducing methane emissions. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, methane is a potent greenhouse gas with more than 28 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. Developing plant-based protein options is a big part of the climate solution. Other examples include fruits and vegetables with a longer shelf life, such as genetically-engineered non-browning potatoes and apples that stay fresh longer.
Tamra Spielvogel (17:53):
Often discussed is the agricultural sector with regards to methane emission reduction. And there are various ways you can address that, including changes to how we farm certain products like rice, also looking at things like food waste reduction because one thing that you don't often see in the food waste conversation is a focus on how do we reduce the occurrence of waste on the farm during the production and transportation process. Because if we can look at how to minimize on-farm waste, we are in turn then reducing issuance of things like methane emission from the food waste decomposition. So if we are making healthier products in terms of things that are more resistant to disease or if we are making things that will last longer before rotting sets in, those types of innovations in plant agriculture are going to make sure that we have an impact in food waste reduction.
Theresa Brady (18:53):
Tamra says COP28 was productive, with world leaders signing onto ground-breaking declarations. And it was productive for BIO to be in the room where it happens.
Tamra Spielvogel (19:03):
As we look at COP28, some of the key outcomes for the industry are very much tied to initiatives that the UAE presidency undertook in the sense that this was the first COP that had thematic days devoted to health and to agriculture. And we saw two declarations come out with over 140 countries endorsing them. It's evident that we are seeing an understanding of the role that biotechnology can play.
Theresa Brady (19:31):
Biotech companies are at the forefront of driving new and innovative technologies to address climate change. They are making their own facilities and supply chains more sustainable. They're developing technologies to produce more food with fewer resources. They are developing crops that can withstand climate-induced heat and drought. They are helping us grow fruits and vegetables that stay fresh longer and reduce food waste. They are making biofuels and bio-materials to reduce our use of oil. And biotech companies are even helping us capture and reuse carbon from the atmosphere.
(20:14):
I wanna thank Andy and Tamra for sharing how biotech companies and biotechnology are creating a healthier planet and a more sustainable future. And thank you all for listening.
(20:26):
I'm Theresa Brady, and I produce this episode with help from Linfinity and Courtney Gastineau. It was engineered and mixed by Jay Goodman, with theme music created by Luke Smith and Sam Brady. Make sure to subscribe, rate and/or review this podcast. And follow us on X, formerly Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, @iambiotech. And subscribe to Good Day BIO at bio.org/goodday.