Innovation : GE
At GE, we're reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of our operations one location at a time. It's adding up. And saving GE a lot of money. It's one way we think one company can make a big difference.
GE World Headquarters, Fairfield, Connecticut
In May 2007, our headquarters began using GE solar panels to generate electricity. Today, GE has more than $2 billion invested in renewable energy as part of our effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Renewable energy is completely emissions-free. Plus it helps our local neighbors. Solar systems work the hardest during the heat of the day, taking pressure off the energy grid during peak periods.
This one installation will generate 190-megawatt hours of fossil fuel free energy annually, reducing C02 the equivalent of 100 acres of trees.
Changing the lights at this 100 year-old warehouse helped reduce its energy consumption 29% in one year. This employee-led effort is one of 84 planned projects to use our new energy-efficient GE T8 and T5 florescent lamps.
GE employees have discovered 5,400 industrial projects to reduce 648,000 MT of greenhouse gases worldwide. In 2006, these projects resulted in $70 million of energy savings for the company.
The relamping of GE’s first 62 locations has already reduced greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent of taking 13,413 cars off the road for a year.
GE Global Research Center (GRC), Niskayuna, New York For 15 years, GE's Pollution Prevention/Energy Efficiency Team has been dedicated to the cost-effective reduction of GE's greenhouse gases and environmental releases. These six engineers and chemists are innovating the next solutions to today's tough environmental issues.
For 107 years, the GRC has been the cornerstone of innovation for GE worldwide. Innovating to solve environmental challenges is one of our key goals: to bring clean energy, air, and water — and improved quality of life — to all of the world's citizens.
The P2/E2 team has identified 150,000 MT of greenhouse gas that can be reduced across many GE businesses.
Nearly three years ago, we launched Ecomagination, a vision and commitment to imagine and build innovative products and services that are as economically advantageous as they are ecologically sound. These solutions can help individuals, companies and countries actively reduce GHG emissions.
At the same time, to make Ecomagination truly sustainable, we set very real, aggressive targets, one of which is to improve the energy efficiency of our own operations and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
We believe that voluntarily working to control emissions can help contain the risk of sudden or restrictive legislation later, which could come at a potentially greater economic cost.
With rising energy costs, we've also found that reducing our footprint has the added benefit of saving on our energy bills. Green really is green!
1% absolute GHG reduction by 2012
With our projected growth, reducing our GHG output by 1% from 2004 might be like reducing it by 40% in 2012.
30% GHG intensity reduction by 2008
Put simply, this means that we can be more profitable while producing less GHG. By the end of next year we will produce 30% less GHG emissions per dollar of revenue.
30% energy use intensity reduction by 2012
This goal means that we will make more money using less energy — 30% less energy per dollar of revenue in 2012.
We're on the way to meeting our goals. For full details of our GHG reduction so far, please see the Ecomagination Report
Ecomagination Report