Ecomagination: taking on big challenges

7th May 2008
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The environment and climate change are topics high on the global and local agenda. For a company such as GE, which employs over 300,000 people worldwide and serves customers in 100 countries these issues are also vital. With products and services ranging from aircraft engines, power generation, water processing and security technology to medical imaging, business and consumer financing, and industrial products, providing customers with more energy efficient, less emissive products is a high priority. However, another strong theme for GE is to deliver these environmental efficiencies in a way that supports and builds its business, and the businesses of its customers. GE’s ecomagination strategy, which it launched in 2005, is helping in this effort.

Regarded at the time as a trailblazer for business and the environment, ecomagination is not just regarded by GE as an environment strategy but a key business strategy. GE CEO Jeff Immelt talks regularly about the need to combine the development of environmentally advantageous products and solutions with a strong financial bottom line, and ecomagination is helping GE to achieve this.

Ecomagination — an approach to tackling climate change

Ecomagination has two key strands. Firstly, GE now has over 60 ecomagination certified products and services. The certification is carried out by an independent agency, Green Order. In order to be ecomagination certified, each product must meet two strict criteria — it must bring the customer a strong environmental benefit, as well as an operational one, whether higher revenues or lower costs.

A second important strand is the four key commitments GE made to shareholders and other stakeholders when it launched ecomagination. The first was to double annual investment in cleaner research and development (R&D) from $700m (USD) in 2005 to $1.5bn in 2010. During 2007, GE invested around $1.1bn in cleaner R&D, well on its way to meeting the 2010 target.

The second commitment was to increase revenues from ecomagination products to at least $20bn in 2010, with new targets thereafter. Today, GE has a strong portfolio of ecomagination products with a good order backlog and a robust pipeline and is on track to meet the $20bn target in 2009, a year ahead of schedule.

The third commitment is to improve GE’s own environmental performance in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and improved energy efficiency. The goal is to lower greenhouse gas emissions one per cent by 2012 in absolute terms, even though strong growth is predicted for GE operations. This is being achieved by improving company-wide energy efficiency by 30 per cent and reducing the intensity of company greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent. To date, GE has exceeded its internal goals, bringing the added benefit of lowering its own energy costs.

The fourth commitment is to keep the public informed about progress and the actions it is to taking, as well as to be transparent. GE is doing this by publishing an annual ecomagination report and using advertising, communications and the www.ecomagination.com website.

Ecomagination in the UK

In the UK, GE has over 18,000 employees across more than 50 major sites, and there are many good examples of ecomagination initiatives across the business here.

Take aviation as an example. As one of the most heavily regulated industries in the world it is never far from the headlines and since the 1992 Kyoto Protocol, the emissions from global air travel have been the subject of heated debate. GE makes jet engines, and commercial airlines and airfreight customers are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the GEnx, or next-generation aircraft engine, which comes into active service in 2009.

By incorporating GE’s most advanced combustion technology ever, this will be an engine that produces fewer emissions and consumes up to 15 per cent less fuel than the legacy models.

The GE90-115B engine is the most powerful, commercial aircraft engine ever built; yet it can meet some of the most stringent airport noise requirements, including Heathrow in London. On a per-pound of thrust basis, this engine ranks as one of the quietest.

The GE Caledonian’s engine repair and overhaul facility in Prestwick, Scotland has been selected to be the only GE service centre in the world to service the GEnx. The team is actively preparing for the first engines to arrive, with intensive training and preparation of tooling and facilities.

Energy saving is another critical area. One of GE’s four ecomagination commitments is the 1:30:30 greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan for GE sites around the world. The aptly named Treasure Hunt toolkit was developed to show sites how to identify where they were wasting energy and how best to go about reducing their carbon footprint.

In December 2006, the Maynard Centre, Cardiff became the first GE Healthcare site in the UK to hold an Energy Treasure Hunt.

The team of 24 volunteers identified 27 potential energy saving actions ranging from big to small and feasible to impossible. The biggest savings were found to be in ventilation, heating and lighting, with potential savings of £115,000 amounting to around 8.5 per cent of the site energy bill.

The annual savings achieved are equivalent to 900 tonnes of CO2 or taking 180 cars off the road for one year. The team has now implemented many of the recommendations and made 74 per cent of the identified savings.

GE is also at the forefront of the lighting industry with the GE Consumer and Industrial business. GE’s compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) can drastically reduce energy consumption for residential and commercial customers by 70 to 75 per cent compared to traditional incandescent bulbs.

GE makes over 70 models of energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs, all of which are as good as traditional incandescent bulbs in brightness and features.

Indeed, GE’s energy saving light bulbs were ranked 1st, 4th and 10th CFL products in the November edition of Which? magazine, published by the independent consumer watchdog.

In the energy field GE Energy’s Jenbacher gas engine division is one of only a few companies in the world to exclusively focus on gas engine technology, using in many cases alternative feedstock to generate this gas. In the UK, Jenbacher’s authorised distributor and service provider is Clarke Energy Ltd, based in Liverpool. Clarke Energy has installed more than 550 Jenbacher gas engines in the UK since 1989.

One of the most popular Jenbacher gas engines in the UK is an application to generate power from landfill gas. At Arpley landfill site in Warrington, 14 Jenbacher containerised gas engines generate power and supply it to the national grid. Since the plant started up in October 1999, some 725,400 MW hours of power have been generated. Arpley was, at installation, the UK’s largest landfill gas-to-energy project and is expected to operate for up to 30 years.

Projects like this are crucial if the UK is to meet its target of 65 per cent recovery of waste by 2015 through recycling, composting and energy from waste.

An ongoing imperative

The ecomagination initiative has not just been the preserve of GE’s industrial businesses in the UK. For instance the GE Commercial Finance fleet management business has developed a set of tools called ‘Clear Solutions’ to help fleet managers develop more environmentally friendly car fleets.

In 2007, GE’s global revenues from ecomagination hit more than $12bn and are growing. The initiative has been commercially very successful However, in the UK and elsewhere the company is also seeing other benefits. New technologies GE has developed are helping to bring cleaner air and water to people in many developing markets. Renewable energy technologies developed by GE scientists are helping to reduce the use of fossil fuels. GE’s involvement in developing these new technologies is also helping GE recruit new graduates and scientists, who want to be involved in these developments.

One interesting ecomagination launch in the UK has been a campaign called ‘myecomagination’. Designed to make ecomagination personal for UK employees, it allows them to measure their own personal carbon footprint, reduce it and save money. In 2007, Green Wizards were established at 40 UK sites to rally employees and implement carbon reduction schemes from recycling to biking to work to switching off lights and turn down heating. Every employee got an energy saving light bulb and free workshops were held with the Energy Saving Trust who provided advice on making your home more energy efficient and saving money over time.

So from large-scale initiatives helping to reduce the emissions of thousands of jet aircraft across the world, through to smaller scale projects with employees, ecomagination is helping GE in the UK, and elsewhere in the world, reduce environmental impacts but also grow its business and help its customers grow with new innovations and technologies.

Filed Under: Climate Change, CSR
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