ESG Aims for Carbon-Negative Vertical Farm in the U.S.
May 12, 2025 
At the tail end of 2024, Empire State Greenhouses (ESG) announced plans to build ESG Cobleskill, a 385,000–square-foot, carbon-negative CEA operation in Cobleskill, N.Y., in partnership with vertical farming technology provider Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS). The project—originally announced for 2020 but derailed by the pandemic—will incorporate 100 IGS vertical Growth Towers and expects to produce more than 8 million pounds of produce annually.
ESG’s mission is to implement a circular approach to crop production, fully powered by renewable energy produced on site and food-energy-waste (FEW) systems. “Nothing in nature goes to waste,” says Louis Ferro, president and co-founder of ESG. “When I started researching the circularity of agriculture, I heard the term ‘circular economy’ for the first time. It really captivated me, and I realized we should emulate nature as much as possible. Every part of our business should align with that concept.”
The earth-friendly strategy can significantly reduce energy costs, as well—addressing what many consider to be the Achilles’ heel of vertical farm operations trying to operate at scale.
As Andrew Lloyd, CEO of IGS, puts it, “Most vertical farmers strive to do what I call the ‘two miracles at once’ business model. The first miracle is producing a machine that’s capable of growing anything. The second miracle is doing that at sufficient scale to be able to make money.”
Maximizing Profits
“The biggest problem in CEA is energy,” Ferro says. “Our focus is reducing high energy costs, which is killing a lot of these businesses.”
The ESG Cobleskill “GigaFarm”—a term coined by IGS that refers to any system capable of growing more than a billion plants per year—will employ renewable energy and a FEW system, in which biomass will be converted into energy through “gasification.” (The biomass will pass through a gasification system creating a synthetic gas that can be processed to generate heat and power.)
Once ESG Cobleskill is built, it will generate enough power for the facility itself and then some. Ferro explains that excess energy can be sold back to the grid, providing an additional revenue stream. “So, you’re not just reducing costs; you’re creating new ways to make a profit,” he says.
The focus on strict waste management pays off in other ways. The farm’s location in rural Schoharie County, N.Y., for instance, puts it within a four-hour drive of several major markets, reducing food miles and increasing the shelf life of fresh, local produce in the Northeast.
“There’s a lot of energy that’s used in cold storage,” says Lloyd, a step that can be avoided with a largely local supply strategy. “Optimizing the farm to minimize waste, rather than maximize production, makes sense from an environmental perspective and a grower’s perspective.”
The First of its Kind in the U.S.
Targeting 2027 for completion, ESG Cobleskill projects it will bring more than 150 full time jobs to the area, which is also the home of the State University of New York (SUNY) Cobleskill College of Agriculture and Technology. Through a START-UP NY program with the college, according to ESG’s website, the company has been granted a 10-year New York State tax exemption. It was also awarded $5 million by the New York State Regional Economic Development Council to support the growth of the state’s agriculture.
“I think this model will help traditional farming,” Ferro says. “It will stand to develop some good solutions, produce products that are much needed in the local community, and create jobs. All the way around, it’s a win-win for everybody.”
Both ESG and IGS envision a model that can be replicated to bring produce into areas that otherwise don’t have access to fresh produce.
“Our great hope is to showcase the applications of technical farming when it is taken as a holistic approach to sustainable food production,” says Andrew LLoyd, IGS. “Then we can make a proper difference in food security. There have been a lot of projects that are on such a small scale that they can’t tangibly move the needle in terms of where we’re actually sourcing our food.”
This article is a part of CEAg World’s Industry Report: Vertical Farming. Download the full report here: https://stage.ceagworld.com/industry-reports/.