The ESG Blueprint: What Pharma Can Learn from Renewable Energy Leaders

DENVER, CO – November 25, 2025 – For the pharmaceutical industry, the mandate for innovation has expanded beyond the laboratory. Today, investors, regulators, and patients are scrutinizing not just the efficacy of new medicines, but the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of the companies that produce them. As pressure mounts on biopharma to decarbonize its energy-intensive manufacturing and build trust through transparent governance, looking outside the sector for proven models of success becomes a strategic necessity. A recent announcement from the sustainable infrastructure space offers a compelling case study in how to translate ESG commitments into measurable, value-creating action.

PureSky Energy, a Denver-based developer and operator of community solar and energy storage projects, just announced a significant achievement: a score of 89 in its second submission to the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB). This five-point jump from an already strong debut score is more than just a number; it is a clear indicator of a deliberate and successful strategy to embed sustainability into the core of its business operations. For pharma leaders navigating their own ESG journeys, PureSky's playbook offers a blueprint for turning sustainability initiatives into a competitive advantage.

A New Standard for Accountability

The GRESB assessment is globally recognized as one of the most rigorous benchmarks for the ESG performance of real assets, from real estate portfolios to large-scale infrastructure. Its framework doesn't just reward static performance but is designed to measure year-over-year improvement, demanding a commitment to continuous progress. A score of 89 places PureSky Energy firmly in GRESB's top-tier, 5-star category, signaling leadership-level performance.

This achievement is the result of a concerted effort. “Our improved GRESB score reflects the progress we’ve made in strengthening our ESG practices and holding ourselves accountable to the highest standards,” said Jared Donald, CEO of PureSky Energy, in the company's announcement. His statement underscores a critical point: top-tier ESG performance is not accidental. It requires a dedicated framework for measurement, reporting, and, most importantly, accountability. By submitting to GRESB's intensive, data-driven review for a second consecutive year, the company demonstrates a commitment to transparency that builds credibility with investors and stakeholders.

This move from vague sustainability pledges to verifiable, benchmarked performance is precisely the transition the pharmaceutical industry is now expected to make. With vast global footprints encompassing R&D campuses, manufacturing plants, and administrative buildings, pharma's real asset portfolio represents a significant area for ESG impact. Adopting rigorous, third-party benchmarks like GRESB provides a clear and defensible language to communicate progress to increasingly discerning capital markets.

Deconstructing the ESG Dividend

PureSky Energy's five-point score increase was driven by tangible initiatives across all three pillars of ESG, offering specific, actionable lessons. The company’s strategy reveals that leadership in the 'E' of ESG for an energy firm goes far beyond simply generating clean megawatts.

On the environmental front, PureSky has focused on holistic land stewardship. Its projects integrate pollinator-friendly vegetation to support local ecosystems and, in one notable case at its Fort River project in Massachusetts, development plans were adapted to preserve a turtle habitat. This approach of dual-use land management, which also includes agrivoltaics (combining solar generation with agriculture like livestock grazing), provides a powerful parallel for pharmaceutical companies managing large tracts of land around their facilities. It reframes land from a passive asset into an active component of a company’s environmental strategy, capable of enhancing biodiversity and demonstrating responsible stewardship.

The 'Social' pillar is often the most challenging to quantify, yet PureSky has made it a cornerstone of its operating model. The company's focus on community solar is inherently inclusive, expanding access to affordable clean energy to renters and low-to-moderate-income (LMI) households who cannot install their own rooftop panels. This commitment to energy equity is complemented by practices like prioritizing local hiring, partnering with regional businesses, and investing in local schools and STEM programs. This deep community integration builds a strong social license to operate—a concept intimately familiar to the pharma industry, which constantly navigates complex relationships with patient communities and healthcare systems.

Underpinning these efforts is a robust 'Governance' framework. The commitment to issuing annual sustainability reports and participating in demanding benchmarks like GRESB creates a virtuous cycle of transparency and improvement. “As we look ahead, we are committed to driving even greater impact through sustainability,” Donald noted. “GRESB provides us with a valuable framework for improvement.” This public commitment to a continuous improvement loop is a key governance signal that fosters stakeholder trust.

From Green Credentials to Strategic Capital

For any business professional, the critical question is whether these ESG efforts translate into financial performance. The evidence from PureSky Energy suggests a strong positive correlation. Strong ESG credentials are no longer just 'nice to have'; they are becoming a prerequisite for attracting long-term, strategic capital.

In late 2023, the company secured a $150 million revolving credit facility to accelerate its project pipeline, a clear vote of confidence from the financial markets. More significantly, PureSky Energy (formerly Amp US) was acquired in June 2023 by Fiera Infrastructure and Palisade Infrastructure Group, two global funds that explicitly cited the company's long-term, sustainable strategy as a key driver of the investment. These infrastructure investors are not philanthropists; they are seeking stable, de-risked, long-term returns. They see in PureSky's validated ESG performance a proxy for operational excellence, strong risk management, and resilience in a rapidly changing energy market.

This dynamic is directly applicable to the biopharma sector. As large institutional investors and asset managers increasingly apply ESG screens to their portfolios, pharmaceutical companies with demonstrable and well-documented sustainability performance will have a distinct advantage in accessing capital. A strong ESG profile can lower a company's cost of capital, enhance its valuation, and attract a more stable, long-term investor base—all critical components for funding the high-cost, long-horizon world of drug development.

Lessons for the Pharmaceutical Value Chain

The parallels between a leader in sustainable infrastructure and the challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry are clear and compelling. The core lesson from PureSky Energy's success is that ESG leadership is achieved through a holistic, data-driven, and transparent strategy that is integrated directly into a company’s growth engine.

For pharma, this means looking at its entire value chain through an ESG lens. Manufacturing facilities, which are major energy and water consumers, can be transformed with on-site renewable generation and circular economy principles. The vast real estate of R&D and corporate campuses can be managed and benchmarked not just for cost, but for environmental performance and employee well-being. Furthermore, the principles of community engagement and benefit-sharing seen in PureSky's model can inform how pharma companies approach clinical trial diversity, drug pricing and access, and their role as major employers in local economies.

Ultimately, PureSky Energy's story is not just about building solar farms. It's about building a resilient, trusted, and valuable enterprise by proving that financial performance and profound environmental and social responsibility are not competing objectives, but are, in fact, deeply intertwined.