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A little Ecomagination goes a long way

October 30, 2015
What could some of the world’s biggest companies achieve by working in concert to improve water and energy efficiency? GE predicts that collectively, organisations such as BHP Billiton, Intel, Goldman Sachs and Walmart, because of the size and reach of their business influence, could drive immediate action. So much so that by 2020 we could see a doubling in resource productivity, a threefold growth in industrial desalination and water reuse, and a massive increase in renewable-energy generation relative to other sources.
To accelerate innovation in sustainable water and energy technology and practices, GE has announced partnerships with eight significant others, under its Ecomagination strategy. You could call it an umbrella, but this isn’t about taking shelter, it’s about changing our climate for the better.

The scope of the partnerships is summarised in this infographic:

/><br /> <br /> <em>BHP Billiton's Nickel West operation includes mines, concentrators, a smelter and refinery. Image courtesy BHP Billiton.</em><br /> <br /> “The mining and resources sector is a vital part of Australia’s economic landscape,” says Geoff Culbert, President and CEO, GE Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. “We must continue to look for innovative ways to help the sector become more efficient and productive while at the same time reducing its environmental impact. We are proud to partner with BHP Billiton in this mission, and to draw on our combined capability and depth of experience to identify real, impactful ways to benefit the sector.”<br /> <blockquote>BHP Billiton has a very active program in addressing climate change.</blockquote><br /> Gary Warden, BHP Billiton’s senior manager of technology adds, “One of the great things is that typically, a lot of the low-emissions technologies we can focus on are not just going to reduce emissions, they will improve our efficiencies and consequently improve the bottom line, so we have that dual benefit.”<br /> <br /> Ecomagination is a GE strategy, introduced in 2005, that has spectacularly delivered on its promise to boost profitability of its own and other businesses while reducing the environmental impact of GE and its customers. GE has so far invested $15 billion in research and development through the program, and has reaped more than $200 billion in revenues attributable to Ecomagination.<br /> <br /> At the same time,  Ecomagination has reduced GE’s greenhouse gas emissions by 31% since  2004, and its water use by 42% since 2006. Innovations such as those incorporated in GE’s <a href=Evolution heavy-hauling locomotives have saved customers around $98 million in fuel over the past 10 years.

The development of global resources—essential to facilitating prosperity for a growing population—has traditionally been an energy-intensive business. BHP Billiton, one of the world’s major producers of iron ore, coal, oil,  gas, copper and uranium, has long sought to increase its energy efficiency and decrease greenhouse gas emissions: “BHP Billiton has a very active program in addressing climate change. Globally, we’re seeing advances in so many different areas—transportation, power supply, management of fugitive methane emissions,” says Winkelman. “The pace of technology change is only going to increase, and we need to be ready to innovate”

Winkelman sees great synergies in like-minded companies working together on big challenges that affect us all. “Engaging in relationships with peers with complementary but different skill sets can only benefit us. Working with a leading organisation like GE, which has a track record in being innovative and delivering solutions, we think, is a good mix of technical ability, and the ability to deliver solutions for the real world.”

GE’s Ecomagination Partnership with Walmart, the multinational retail corporation, centres around accelerating commercial adoption of energy efficiency and renewable energy. A particular focus of the collaboration will be to develop and demonstrate the next generation of LEDs. In Australia, GE’s biggest energy-saving lighting project to date—the transformation of City of Sydney municipal and street lights to LED—has already delivered a 47% decrease in energy used, which translates to roughly $370,000 annual savings on power bills and a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of almost 3,000 tonnes a year. GE estimates that global shipments of LEDs will quadruple by 2020, as other government and commercial organisations make the switch, increasingly with the added networked capabilities of LED infrastructure.

The reduction of energy and water wastage in manufacturing are at the core of GE’s Ecomagination Partnership with technology company Intel. Advanced manufacturing techniques and digital optimisation of processes have been tipped as the accelerators to push in this instance.

Ultimately, GE and its partners in Ecomagination envisage sharing best-practice findings and outcomes with relevant industry sectors, to improve sector-wide economic and environmental performance. Says Warden at BHP Billiton, “We’d like to be a leader in terms of technology development, and we’ll get the early leader advantage, but we also see the value in sharing learnings because we think that if the industry as a whole moves forward then we’ll all actually accelerate much faster than if we’re overly protectionist around intellectual property.”

Top image: BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) coal operations in the Bowen Basin, Queensland. 

Home page image: BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam in South Australia yields uranium oxide, copper, gold and silver. All images courtesy BHP Billiton.