Green pays big for GE
/If you want to look at a great company by most traditional business school measures, GE gets top billing. Hence, business people should follow their lead. GE's Ecomagination line now has annual sales of $20 Billion. More importantly it is one of the fastest growing business lines in the company so its influence will continue to grow.
Ecomagination is more that just light bulbs. GE is the largest manufacturer of commercial scale wind turbines. GE bought the wind turbine business from Enron in 2002 for $200 million. This year that business will generate $7 billion in sales. Who wouldn't love to grow their business by that much. It generates more cash per month than they paid for the entire business.
Despite being a behemoth, GE can make its green programs work because it is truly committed.
When Ecomagination was launched in 2005 CEO Jeff Immelt knew that it could easily look like greenwashing and appeart to employees and teh public that senior management was not truly committed. To give focus and credibility to the program Immelt pushed for clear metrics. They included:
- Double R&D in the area;
- Quadruple revenue from the products to $20 billion in sales
- Be transparent about the effort to the public
- Run GE under the rules of the Kyoto protocol.
GE is a world leader. Those that are holding back are clinging to a past that is gone. Get on board. Companies like GE will put you out of business otherwise.
