More on Ecomagination

While the term will make any English language aficionado cringe, General Electric's Ecomagination platform had reported a stellar initial twelve months: revenues over $10 billion and a reduction of over 250,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations (see Pablo's post).

Some commentators have argued that GE is merely repackaging existing business initiatives under a new label, but a closer inspection of the accompanying report indicates otherwise. Many companies struggle to integrate 'greening' or CSR initiatives into business strategy: GE is using Ecomagination as a focal point to overcome that, from R&D to bringing new products to market. Readers of the report are not immune to its reach either: to encourage reading on-line, GE will plant a tree at one of its facilities for the first 2,500 downloads (just don't press the 'print' button afterwards). Next step - moving the company down The Toxic 100 perhaps - it came it at number 4 on the latest edition (albeit based on 2002 data).

Postscript: IFC's ELI (energy efficient lighting) story is a good accompanying read to the Ecomagination report.

Update: Clean Break has more.