East Brown Cow Wins Climate Performance Award from ClimateWork Maine

East Brown Cow is thrilled to announce that it has been awarded the Climate Performance Award from ClimateWork Maine. The award was presented to East Brown Cow’s President and CEO, Tim Soley, amid hundreds of business leaders at the ‘Summit on Maine’s Economy and Climate Change’ in Augusta on May 8. It is a testament to East Brown Cow’s trailblazing work implementing climate-friendly actions across its operations. 

Now in its second year, the Climate Action Awards are given to three Maine businesses that are proven leaders in sustainability and eco-friendly practices. The Climate Performance Award is awarded to a business that is making a positive impact on our environment through its commitment to implementing climate-friendly actions in its operations or through its supply chain. In 2024, the inaugural Climate Performance Award was given to Wyman’s of Maine. 

East Brown Cow has spent decades pioneering sustainable practices in Greater Portland. It is one of 20 Maine companies that took the ‘On the Pathway To 100% Clean Energy’ pledge. For more than 20 years, it has used LED lighting across its more than one million square feet of office, retail, parking, and hospitality space in Portland. East Brown Cow was the first business to introduce publicly accessible charging stations in downtown Portland. For the past seven years, its team of maintenance staff has been driving electric vehicles. It has built six solar arrays, including one on the roof of the Old Port Square Parking Garage. 

In 2024, East Brown Cow expanded its sustainability measures and invested in an offsite solar farm in Sidney, Maine. The 11-acre parcel has 4,928 solar panels, which will offset nearly 3.2 million pounds of carbon dioxide each year. Today, East Brown Cow is offsetting approximately 98% of the energy it consumes across its one million square feet of buildings.

Jeff Marks, Executive Director of ClimateWork Maine, commended the way that Tim Soley, President of East Brown Cow, has always been an early adopter and helped to transform Portland into a more sustainable city. “East Brown Cow was not only among the first real estate developers to embrace clean, efficient energy systems in Portland, but also to recognize their environmental benefits and cost savings as strategic opportunities,” said Marks. “Their investments inspire others to follow and showcase their commitment to community sustainability and resilience.”

“It’s a tremendous honor to accept this award on behalf of everyone at East Brown Cow,” said Tim Soley of East Brown Cow. “It’s in our DNA to be focused on energy efficiency, alternative sources of energy, and the intentional choosing of fuels. And as we look ahead to the coming decades, we’ll continue to innovate in every way we can. We believe that greater responsibility comes with greater capacity.” 

Dan Weeks, Vice President of Business Development at ReVision Energy, who nominated East Brown Cow for the award, said: “As a real estate developer, East Brown Cow is leading the way to expand their real estate portfolio while continuing to model innovative solutions in renewable energy. Tim Soley’s leadership demonstrates that commercial real estate can be both a force for economic vitality and a leader in environmental responsibility. Through the five solar array projects that we have built together, East Brown Cow now can offset a substantial portion of its carbon footprint, while also contributing energy to Maine’s power grid—an investment not just in their company’s future, but in the future of the state.”