IRVING, Texas — A pharmaceutical manufacturing facility built by Fluor Corporation in Berkeley, California, has become the first industrial facility in the Western United States to receive LEED v4 Platinum certification—the highest level of recognition for sustainable building practices under the U.S. Green Building Council’s rating system.
The facility, owned by Bayer and designed as a launch site for advanced cell therapies, also earned the 2025 Facility of the Year Award for Social Impact – Unmet Medical Needs from the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE). The award highlights the facility’s role in supporting treatments for conditions such as neurological degenerative disorders and cardiovascular disease.
Fluor, a global engineering and construction firm, led the design, procurement, construction management, and qualification for the 144,000-square-foot site. The building includes 30,000 square feet of cleanroom space dedicated to the development and production of next-generation cell therapies.
“This project is a milestone not just for Bayer but for sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing as a whole,” said Richard Meserole, President of Fluor’s Advanced Technologies & Life Sciences division. “By delivering Bayer’s first fully electric pharmaceutical plant on an aggressive timeline, we’ve demonstrated how sustainability and innovation can go hand in hand to meet urgent patient and client needs.”
The facility achieved LEED v4 Platinum status through a range of sustainability measures, including a 52.6% reduction in energy costs through LED and high-efficiency lighting, rooftop solar panels, heat pump systems, and water-saving technologies that eliminated 100% of process water use. The project also incorporated high levels of recycled and sustainable building materials, efficient stormwater management, and several design innovations to minimize environmental impact.
The Berkeley facility is the second major project Fluor has completed for Bayer at its biotech campus. In 2021, Fluor delivered Bayer’s Cell Culture Technology Center, a biopharmaceutical manufacturing plant that uses single-use technology to support flexible and efficient production.
Together, the two projects represent Bayer’s continued investment in cutting-edge biologics and environmentally responsible infrastructure, positioning the company to meet both scientific and sustainability goals.
