WP: GE Determined to Show 'Ecomagination': Program Sets Pollution Targets

[DeepModem Mom]

GE Determined to Show More 'Ecomagination'
Program Sets Pollution Reduction Targets

By Greg Schneider
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 10, 2005; Page E02


General Electric Co. yesterday announced a new company-wide environmental initiative, pledging to decrease pollution from its products and to double research and development spending on cleaner technologies.

GE is the biggest addition to a growing list of corporations seeking to be seen as "green," and one of only a few business titans to call for broad action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that many scientists say lead to global warming.

"I think is something we need to start figuring out and taking proactive steps to make improvements on," GE chairman and chief executive Jeffrey R. Immelt said in a recent interview.

Immelt announced the initiative -- dubbed "ecomagination" in a play on the company's "Imagination at Work" slogan -- yesterday in a speech at George Washington University. The plan calls for increased spending to develop new technologies such as wind-power generation, diesel-electric hybrid locomotives, more-efficient aircraft engines and appliances, and advanced water-treatment systems.

The company pledged to spend $1.5 billion a year on such research by 2010, more than double the $700 million it spends today. Immelt said GE also aims to double the revenue goal over that period for products that provide better environmental performance, to $20 billion a year, and expects more than half of its product revenue to come from such products by 2015....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/09/AR2005050901169.html

[izzybeans]

1. This is obviously a wait and see type of thing.

My father works for a plastics manufacturing plant for GE. It used to be one of the biggest polluters in the Midwest. They've cut back drastically but it still sits pretty high on the list. He trusts this new CEO (Emelt) more than Welch on such issues. So I'm skeptical but I will give them the benefit of the doubt and wait and see.

[Ernesto]

2. GE Announces Environmental Initiatives

Morning Edition, May 10, 2005 · General Electric announces a major investment in so-called green technology, in a move that may pressure the energy industry to develop policies to limit the levels of carbon dioxide and other environmentally harmful agents produced by their businesses.




http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4645606

[Coastie for Truth]

3. Two interesting sidelights

1) GE has always been in the lead of fuel cell technology.

2) GE is funding some very interesting university work on fuels from bio-mass.

[Ernesto]

4. Well I'm sure they have plenty of dough

War pays pretty well, you know.

[Coastie for Truth]

6. The fuels from bio-mass project

and more particularly funding the university work on synthesizing fuels from bio-mass grew out of a "Department of Environmental Resources" issue. They had to clean up organic chemical waste, and in the process they found some "bugs" that converted biowaste to fuels.

Serendipitous. (The right chemist, with the right imagination, on the right project, at the right time, and the right place --> that's the way penicillin and statins were discovered)

But, they were clever enough to realize that this discovery might be worth something.

[reprobate]

5. Remember the First Rule of Corporate Communications: They LIE!