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Distribution / Warehouse | Sustainability

United Therapeutics Unveils Net Zero Energy Distribution Center

by United Therapeutics on

United Therapeutics Corporation (Nasdaq: UTHR), a public benefit corporation, yesterday unveiled its new net zero energy distribution center located on the company’s co-headquarters campus in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

“As far as we are aware, this is the first cGMP warehouse designed to meet site net zero energy standards. Achieving this goal required extensive collaboration with the city and county of Durham and with our local electric utility, Duke Energy”Tweet this

United Therapeutics Chairperson and CEO Dr. Martine Rothblatt welcomed North Carolina officials, members of the North Carolina General Assembly, and business leaders to a “cord cutting” ceremony to showcase the new distribution center. Dubbed “Phase Five,” the new building is the second site net zero building on the company’s Research Triangle Park Campus, and the fifth overall in its sustainable portfolio. The 55,000-square-foot facility features a new warehouse designed to meet current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) for pharmaceutical products and boasts a microgrid-based electrical system designed to run without any fossil fuels via battery backup using two Tesla Megapacks. Among other things, the facility will be used to store and distribute the company’s newest drug-device combination product, Tyvaso DPI®, which was launched last year. To store pharmaceutical products, a cGMP facility must meet exacting standards for 24/7 temperature control, making a net zero design an especially challenging goal.

“As far as we are aware, this is the first cGMP warehouse designed to meet site net zero energy standards. Achieving this goal required extensive collaboration with the city and county of Durham and with our local electric utility, Duke Energy,” said Dr. Rothblatt. “We are extremely grateful to all our employees and collaborators who worked tirelessly to design and construct this facility, which is one of the keys to supporting our near-term revenue growth expectations.”

“We’re proud to serve as home to a company known not just for its life-changing therapies, but also for its environmental stewardship—and this innovative distribution center exemplifies how North Carolina corporations can lead the way in sustainability,” said North Carolina Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders. “We greatly appreciate United Therapeutics’ partnership and its continued investment in North Carolina’s life sciences industry.”

Key details for the zero net energy distribution center include:

  • A geothermal system consisting of 40 vertical bores, each six inches in diameter and 500 feet deep. The system uses core earth temperatures to regulate building systems and environmental conditions and is designed to add future capacity if needed.
  • A microgrid with battery backup using Tesla Megapacks that provide 6.2 MWh of battery capacity to support the building through an outage of two-plus days without utility power, using zero fossil fuels.
  • A roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) system includes 1,200 PV panels with 560 kW peak output and 767 MWh of projected annual production and net metering with Duke Energy, the local electric utility. The PV system is connected to the project’s microgrid and can recharge the Tesla Megapack when the building electrical system is disconnected from the utility, allowing the facility to operate for an extended period. This results in a design that does not include a standby generator.
  • Smart building technology, including lighting occupancy sensors in strategic locations, ENERGY STAR-certified office equipment, and regenerative charging lift trucks.

Engineering, architectural, and construction firms for the project include: Hanbury Architects, Affiliated Engineers, Inc., DPR Construction, Stranix Associates, Surface 678, PA, and Cornerstone Commissioning, Inc.

United Therapeutics: Enabling Inspiration

At United Therapeutics, our vision and mission are one. We use our enthusiasm, creativity, and persistence to innovate for the unmet medical needs of our patients and to benefit our other stakeholders. We are bold and unconventional. We have fun, we do good. We are the first publicly-traded biotech or pharmaceutical company to take the form of a public benefit corporation (PBC). Our public benefit purpose is to provide a brighter future for patients through (a) the development of novel pharmaceutical therapies; and (b) technologies that expand the availability of transplantable organs.

You can learn more about what it means to be a PBC here: unither.com/PBC.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements included in this press release that are not historical in nature are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, among others, our revenue growth goals, including our goal of doubling our revenue run rate by the end of 2025, the net zero energy performance and cGMP compliance of our new Phase 5 distribution center, our efforts to innovate for the unmet medical needs of our patients, to benefit our other stakeholders, and to pursue our public benefit purpose of developing novel pharmaceutical therapies and technologies that expand the availability of transplantable organs. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, such as those described in our periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, that could cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results. Consequently, such forward-looking statements are qualified by the cautionary statements, cautionary language, and risk factors set forth in our periodic reports and documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K. We claim the protection of the safe harbor contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 for forward-looking statements. We are providing this information as of June 14, 2023 and assume no obligation to update or revise the information contained in this press release whether as a result of new information, future events or any other reason.

TYVASO DPI is a registered trademark of United Therapeutics Corporation.