Ecomagination
GE launched ecomagination in 2005 to meet customers’ demand for energy efficient products, but the ultimate goal from the beginning was to drive growth and reward investors. It just so happens that along the way GE has enhanced its reputation as a company focused on sustainability. In 2006, the company invested more than $900 million in cleaner technology research and development and created 45 ecomagination-certified products (resulting in $12 billion in revenues for 2006). In 2008, GE was planning its three-year ecomagination anniversary event in Beijing when, on May 12, 2008, a major earthquake devastated the Sichuan province of China. The company quickly switched gears and focused its anniversary event on China’s earthquake-related water crisis. And last year GE took ecomagination to new frontiers—and new levels of media awareness—by launching the ecomagination Challenge, a Web-based platform to crowdsource ideas for a smarter electric grid. In 10 weeks, GE received nearly 4,000 ideas and created a community of 74,000 people across 150 countries. —SG