Case Study 2 - General Electric Company

General Electric Co.

In the year 1876, Thomas Alva Edison opened a laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, where he could explore the possibilities of the dynamo and other electrical devices that he had seen in the Exposition. Out of that laboratory was to come perhaps the greatest invention of the age - a successful incandescent electric lamp. By 1890, Edison established the Edison General Electric Company by bringing his various businesses together. In 1892, the Edison General Electric Company merged with one of its long time competitior The Thomson-Houston Company. From then on, the organization is known till today as the General Electric Company.

Today, GE's leaders through the years have built a diverse portfolio of leading businesses; a stream of powerful Company-wide initiatives that drives growth and reduces cost; financial strength and Controllership that allow it to capitalize on opportunities through numerous cycles; and a set of common values that allows it to face any environment with confidence.

General Electric Company also recognizes the critical importance of social responsibility and the environment which have the potential to be affected by its products and processes. GE places an emphasis on clean energy and energy efficiency, on scarcity and the rise of regulatory pressure. The CEO of GE, Mr. Immelt later came out with a theme, making GE the big company best known for espousing greenness. So far, “Green is green” has become a company mantra. And GE was among the ten companies that launched the United States Climate Action Partnership. The platform for which GE was able to be green was through promoting green products by its Ecomagination initiative

The world's environmental challenges presented an opportunity for GE to do what GE does best: imagine and build innovative solutions that will benefit its customers and society. Ecomagination to GE is a vision and commitment to harness their global capabilities, technology leadership and market knowledge to take on some of the world's toughest problems as well as to accelerate company growth while doing so. GE believes that through Ecomagination an environmentally driven business strategy can benefit society as well as our bottom line.

To realize this initiative, GE has established several commitments. Its first commitment is to double their investment in R&D. GE is investing in tomorrow's energy technologies, to allow it to explore continuous improvement of existing products while searching for the next big breakthrough. One example can be found in the area of water use and purification, where GE scientists are investigating new membrane materials and innovative advanced separation technologies. These allow for further treatment and better performance of on-site wastewater reuse and recycling for the industrial, agriculture and municipal sectors. Its second commitment is to increase revenues from its Ecomagination product. GE's ecomagination initiative is founded on a solid business strategy: to increase revenues for GE by providing solutions for customers that help improve their operating performance and environmental impact. To ensure ecomagination products are met with the highest degree of integrity, every prospective product is evaluated against an eco-performance metric called the Ecomagination Product Review scorecard. This metric assures that the products can significantly improve the environmental performance, operating performance or value proposition of our customers.

Its third commitment is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. GE has pledged to reduce its emissions and improve the energy efficiency of its operations in three ways. They will reduce absolute emissions 1% by 2012, reduce the intensity of these emissions 30% by 2008, and will improve energy efficiency 30% by the end of 2012. In ways big and small, GE has already identified many opportunities to help meet its energy targets. Some of these include adding solar panels to more than 20 GE facilities, including GE headquarters, and the launch of a company-wide eCO2 Site Certification program to promote and reward imaginative solutions for greenhouse gas reductions. Its final and fourth commitment is to keep the public informed about its Ecomagination initiative through websites, Ecomagination reports and to be as transparent as possible in its Ecomagination processes. The picture shows GE’s aviation engine upgrade which is energy saving and emits less greenhouse gasses for commercial planes.

Another significant milestone for GE was for being named as an ENERGY STAR(R) Partner of the Year for its commitment to making and selling energy-efficient products that save consumers money on energy bills by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). GE Lighting has been honored for its leadership in manufacturing and promoting products that carry the ENERGY STAR label. The company has also kicked off its "GE and You...Saving America Energy Campaign" to promote energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs, as well as the new GE Lighting Auditor (GELA) -- which is an online tool that quickly and simply measures the following three elements of lighting in a home, school or business:
1. The dollars currently being spent on energy;
2. The total dollars that could be saved by using energy-efficient products;
3. Which energy-efficient, replacement light bulbs should be used.
To conclude, General Electric Company has also taken steps to be greener and energy efficient in their processes and activities. The Ecomagination initiative has contributed and is still contributing towards the betterment of the society as well as the environment through its products.