The consumer pharmaceuticals company GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare made a bold statement and gave an example to other international companies when on Oct. 28, it began installing nearly 11,000 solar panels on the roof of the company’s Regional Distribution Center in York, Pa. Newsweek recently ranked the company as the fifth greenest company in the world.

GlaxoSmithKline expects the three megawatt photovoltaic array to produce 3.4 million kilowatts of energy in a year, which will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being sent into the atmosphere by 3,000 tons annually, according to the company. GlaxoSmithKline’s commitment to reducing their carbon footprint came with a hefty price tag, but in the long run will pay for itself in energy-cost savings and benefits to the environment.

“The total cost of the installation on the roof in York, PA is just under $14 million,” said Bethany Burtyk, spokesperson for GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare. “Four million dollars of which is offset by tax incentives and $1 million of which was provided by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, specifically from the Commonwealth Financing Authority.”

When the project is finished, the almost 500,000 square foot facility will be the first building owned by GlaxoSmithKline to be entirely powered by clean energy from the sun. And the company isn’t stopping there.

“There are two other regional distribution centers that the company plans to equip with solar panels in the coming years. One of them is in Fresno, Calif., and the other is in Memphis, Tenn.,” said Burtyk. “Those facilities are a little bit smaller than the distribution center in York.”

But those facilities make up a major portion of GlaxoSmithKline’s overall energy use. Once the Fresno distribution facility becomes solar powered, the company will be running sixty percent of its North American distribution facilities on solar energy.