News & Insights

Why this matters now

Pharma facilities are among the most utility-intensive buildings in the industrial world. High air change rates, demanding water quality requirements, and complex process loads drive significant energy and water consumption. With sustainability commitments rising and utility costs climbing, owners are looking hard at how to reduce consumption without affecting product quality or compliance. The opportunity is real, but the engineering has to be precise.

What leaders are weighing

Pharma leaders are weighing aggressive utility optimization against the constraints of validated systems and tightly controlled environments. They are deciding how to handle air change rate reductions, water reuse, central plant upgrades, and controls optimization while protecting quality and regulatory posture. There are tradeoffs around change control, validation impact, and how to coordinate sustainability work with planned shutdowns. Quality teams want defensible packages. Operations teams want predictable performance. Sustainability teams want measurable progress. The right work satisfies all three.

How Salas O’Brien is helping clients respond

Our pharma team helps clients identify and execute power and water savings without disturbing the quality and compliance systems they depend on. We bring deep mechanical, controls, water systems, and commissioning expertise together with regulatory awareness. We help leaders prioritize among options, model impacts, and sequence work around production and validation cycles. Hear Allen Koester and Cyle Graber discuss how pharma owners are getting more out of their utility systems.