 |
|
||
 |
|||
| Improve Your World | Home | About Us | Sitemap | Search | Contact Us | ||
|
|
||||||||
| Also see : Corporate Social Responsibility |
| Please help us in making this a comprehensive resource section for those directly connected or affected by this issue e.g. citizens, NGOs, government officers, students, teachers, researchers. Please directly upload or email us relevant content. This can include lists, articles, photographs, research papers, links to websites, etc. Please volunteer as an expert panelist to whom we can direct queries from our website visitors |
| Home >> CSR >> Newspaper & Magazine Articles |   Email this Page |
|
|||
|
When Gorillas Go Green
GE HAS A NOVEL BLUEPRINT FOR BUILDING BUSINESS VALUE INTO SUSTAINABILITY ...T R Vivek
AT A TIME WHEN MOST LARGE corporations across the world are still paying mere lip service to sustainability, and climate change, there are thankfully some exceptions such as GE, DuPont, BP who have turned “green” issues from being peripheral, yet unavoidable corporate social responsibility obligations to a cornerstone of their future business plans. And the incredibly quick commercial success the $175-billion General Electric has tasted in its ambitious plans to turn every part of its gargantuan operations environmentally sustainable is proof that green begets greenbacks.
In 2005, after a company wide soul searching CEO Jeff Immelt unveiled GE’s commitment to clean energy products and processes called Ecomagination. The plan according to Immelt then, was to focus on the company’s key areas like energy, technology, manufacturing, and infrastructure capabilities to develop tomorrow’s solutions such as solar energy, hybrid locomotives, fuel cells, lower-emission aircraft engines, lighter and stronger materials, efficient lighting, and water purification technology. The portfolio of Ecomagination products have brought in revenues of close to $15 billion and long-term orders and commitments from its clients worth nearly $50 billion. According to Immelt, in the 130 year history of the company, no new initiatives have generated such financial results so quickly.
“When we announced Ecomagination, GE had two options. We could have sat back and become victims of environment regulations, or become change agents. At GE we like the bar set really high,” says Lorraine Bolsnger, VP, Ecomagination. Bolsinger, a 25-year GE veteran, who was in India recently and who drives this initiative across product lines all around the world for the company.
Under this initiative the company plans to introduce more clean technology products and services and attain revenues of $20 billion by 2012. And according to Bolsinger, GE could hit the target a year sooner. They already spend close to $1billion on R&D for Ecomagination products and would increase it to $1.5 billion by 2010.
To be sure, it’s a giant business opportunity that’s making GE bet so big on Ecomagination. According to its internal estimates, the global market for just three sustainable energy technologies wind power, solar photovoltaics, and fuel cells will be an eye-popping $100 billion in the next 10 years compared to the current $ 20 billion.
High Energy THAT’S NOT COUNTING the energy efficiency technology market aimed at reducing power consumption. GE has identified 17 products worth $10 billion in annual sales, including jet engines, locomotive engines, consumer appliances, plastics and water treatment plants as part of the Ecomagination platform where it could embed a greater amount of eco-friendliness. GE has a put in place a system for certifying process and a scorecard for product that can be part of the Ecomagination platform. This provides the company a consistent standard to evaluate a product’s potential for Ecomagination branding and also provides an important sales tool to quantify the environmental benefits of a product. The scorecard also helps the R&D teams and GE’s clients to evaluate Ecomagination’s efficacy.
“When you look at where the world needs to be by 2050, we have to have 80 percent lower (greenhouse gas) emissions. Our jet engines will be 15% more efficient, our locomotive engines will have 40 percent lower nitrogen oxide emissions. And this is just the beginning,” she adds. In the absence of this i n i t i a t i v e , Bolsinger says that GE’s emissions in the past three years would have gone up by 30%. Instead they are actually down by 1%. In these years, GE’s energy costs too have come down by $100 million.
But are customers, a lot of them small and mid-size companies in emerging markets whose current priority is to drive topline growth and expand capacity, ready to fork out a substantial premium for green products? “Customers aren’t dumb. They do extensive lifecycle analysis for every little piece of machine they buy. They understand that the commercial paybacks even on a two-year time horizon is pretty high with our new product line. The awareness and desire to use green technology in India is very good, in fact better than China. Very soon most of our customers will say we don’t want anything but an environmentally friendly product. Cheap but dirty will not be acceptable,” explains Bolsinger. In India the national carrier Air India, a large repeat customer for GE, is the latest convert to Ecomagination products.
With Ecomagination being closely integrated with GE’s brand, realistically how many of its products can be turned green? “Yes it’s difficult to make a greener credit card, but Ecomagination will be part of our DNA. We already have brown and green asset valuations. There really is no end to this,” say Bolsinger. |
| Also see : Corporate Social Responsibility |
