Ecomagination products and solutions are at work building, powering, moving and curing the
world. Not just imagining. Doing.
Comstock to evaluate the results of the ecomagination Challenge more carefully and decide
on whether and how to continue this kind of activity within GE's energy business, or in other
GE businesses. How should GE measure ecomagination's results in order to justify its
existence and possible future investments? What new processes and structures would be
required to make sure that some of the Challenge's investments would pay off for GE down
the road? Based on the program's results to date, was the program a good investment for
GE and something GE should repeat, or was it a noble experiment that should be
discontinued?
http://cmr.ucpress.edu/content/54/3/140.fulltext.pdf+html
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arnumber=1460346&abstractAccess=no&userTy
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Ecomagination Strategy
Overview
At GE, we believe in progress in taking risks to improve our technology and build a
brighter future for our customers and the world around us. Since the launch of
Ecomagination in 2005, we have seen that it is possible to develop solutions that offer our
customers the capability to enhance resource productivity, reduce environmental impact,
and improve business performance.
In 10 years, we have made incredible progress. What began as a $700 million annual
investment in cleaner R&D has matured into a cumulative $15 billion of investment in
cleaner research & development. By the end of 2014, that investment has yielded $200
billion in revenue from Ecomagination solutions growing at 4x overall industrial GE,
double its target of 2x growth in 2005. The deployment of these solutions at global scale
have driven significant outcomes for our customers and their communities across sectors as
diverse as Power Generation, Energy
Management,Water, Transportation and Healthcare industries. At the same time,
more sustainable practices in our own operations have cut GHG emissions by 32%, energy
intensity by 31%, and freshwater consumption by 45%, saving the company $350M.
Today, we believe that the need for resource productivity is more urgent than ever before,
and that Ecomagination technology is the bridge to solve the toughest environmental and
resources challenges in a faster, cleaner and smarter way. In a world characterized by
increasing change, it will be critical to focus efforts in several key areas to accelerate
towards our common future.
Market & Customer Focus
Since the launch of Ecomagination ten years ago, hydraulic fracturing triggered a
natural gas production boom and alleviated regional resource constraints spurring
billions in economic growth, more renewable energy generation capacity was installed
in the U.S. than all other generation combined and signaled that renewable energy is
mainstream in major markets today, and severe droughts have emerged as an early
sign of growing global water scarcity and impacted local economies and ecosystems.
In the background of these events, the longer-term trends persist. By 2025, the
worlds population is expected to increase by one billion and the middle class is
expected to double, increasing the demand for energy; at the same time almost 2B
people are expected to live in water stressed areas. 1
Deep engagement across the ecosystem - customers, policymakers, academics and
more - and other key players will be key to uncovering new ways to think and act to
drive big breakthroughs and accelerate change across the economy.
Innovation
Technologies such as Wind Turbines, water treatment technologies such as Zeeweed,
our Evolution series locomotive and our advanced jet engines such the GEnx, serve
as a rich foundation to Ecomaginations portfolio of solutions and have helped drive
both growth for the company as well as more efficient and productive operations for
customers.
Looking ahead, Ecomagination is focused on innovation in six key areas: 1) the
development of new natural gas ecosystems for the oil and gas, power generation,
and transportation industries; 2) the deployment of next generation renewables that
are both lower cost and better integrated into larger power networks; 3) increased
efficiency and alternative fuels for global transportation networks; 4) improved
industrial and commercial water reuse and productivity; 5) increased resource
productivity through the deployment of smart machine-to-machine software and
analytics; and 6) more optimal, integrated systems at the home, building, and
municipal levels.
Localization with Global Scale
There is no silver bullet in our shared journey towards a lower carbon and water
intensive future. GE has 7 global research centers and as well as a number of
additional Customer Innovation Centers across the globe and has continues to invest
locally to foster robust talent ecosystems. This focus on localization combined with the
global network of GE will help us to transfer innovation and scale these types of
innovation in a way that can drive massive efficiency and environmental outcomes
globally.
In some of our most recent efforts, developing new gas strategies in China could
greatly mitigate pollution & carbon challenges, and new systems piloted to capture and
deploy flare gas in North Dakota, US is now expanding that could have big global
impacts.
Partnerships
The next industrial era connected and smart, more distributed and powered by
cleaner and less water-intensive fuels is happening now. This transformation is only
possible with disruptive innovation at radical scale both within industry and crossindustry.
In 2015 GE is inventing a new industrial era, and we are committing to extending and
expanding the Ecomagination strategy to 2020. As a part of this effort, we are investing an
additional $10B in R&D in cleaner technologies and business models for our customers,
and committing to reduce our own GHG emissions and freshwater use by an additional 20
percent compared to our 2011 baseline, both by 2020. In addition, we are expanding the
focus of Ecomagination beyond individual technologies to working with industry partners to
develop and scale global solutions to some of the worlds toughest challenges such as how
to maximize renewable energy integrated into the electric grid; how to extract energy from
waste water and reduce water wasted in energy; how to improve the environmental
performance of the natural gas economy; and how to build an industrial internet that
maximizes resource productivity.
http://www.ge.com/aboutus/ecomagination/strategy
Company Information
GE imagines things others dont, builds things others cant and delivers outcomes that make
the world work better. GE brings together the physical and digital worlds in ways no other
company can. In its labs and factories and on the ground with customers, GE is inventing
the next industrial era to move, power, build and cure the world.
Leadership
http://www.ge.com/about-us/leadership/jeffimmelt
PLC
GEs technical resource for product life cycle evaluation is the
Ecoassessment Center of Excellence (COE). For more than
seven years, the COE has been applying expertise in life
cycle management (LCM) and life cycle assessment (LCA).
LCM is a systematic approach to managing product-related environmental
impacts throughout a products life cycle. Our goals are to identify the most
promising opportunities for improvement; create and maintain momentum
toward real change; and incentivize game-changing products, technologies and
solutions.
LCA is a quantitative method to determine what is green. It generates results to
help understand environmental impacts across the life cycle of a product;
identify the most impactful materials, processes and activities; design new
products/processes with reduced impacts; evaluate trade-offs; consider burden
shifts; and communicate life cycle environmental benefits.
+PLUSPAK polymer bottle achieves these benefits through its patented design
and pharmaceutical-grade polypropylene composition, which result in smaller,
lighter and safer packaging than glass. A detailed cradle-to-grave LCA
study1 comparing the +PLUSPAK polymer bottle with glass bottles found that
using polymer rather than glass bottles lowers environmental impact of contrast
media packaging:
sanitizing chemicals, process water and ultra-pure water needed for washing
and sterilization of traditional processing equipment. The insights gained
through this detailed LCA study are helping our customers evaluate and
optimize their biotherapeutics process technologies with an eye toward
increased productivity and reduced net environmental impact.
http://www.gesustainability.com/building-thingsthat-matter/resource-productivity/product-lifecycle/
General Electric
Ecomagination as a CSR Initiative
General Electric (G.E.) has a rich history of being in the center of public discourse regarding the
intersection of corporate strategy and environmental concerns. During Jeffrey Immelts tenure as Chief
Executive Officer, G.E. has taken a proactive approach to coupling corporate social responsibility with
organizational profitability in its Ecomagination initiatives. Critics abound with some investor groups
questioning the utility of Immelts approach for shareholder returns while other stakeholder groups
question G.E.s motives and methods. This case study reviews G.E.s past CSR efforts and the more
recent Ecomagination program and its efficacy and sustainability. The case was developed from public
sources.
Abstract:
This case is about US-based diversified
conglomerate General Electric Company
(GE) and its environmental initiative
Ecomagination that was launched in mid2005. Through this initiative, the company
invested liberally in renewable energy and
cleaner technologies.
It also promoted energy-efficient
Ecomagination products through its
marketing campaigns. Besides, the
company set targets for reducing its
greenhouse gas emissions and for
increasing the energy efficiency of its
operations. Industry observers noted that
the strategy had been successful for GE as
it was able to make good money.
GE, which had set a target of investing US$ 5 billion in Ecomagination research and
development (R&D) by 2010, surpassed the goal on June 24, 2009, one year ahead of
schedule. The company was also on its way to achieving the US$20 billion mark in revenues as
it had already generated US$18 billion in revenues from Ecomagination products in 2009.
Some analysts lauded GE's Ecomagination strategy saying that the company was addressing
global issues such as climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy conservation,
while at the same time making money. However, its critics felt that Ecomagination was a
business savvy move to resurrect GE's image as an environmentally friendly company. They felt
that the initiative was over-hyped and that GE was pursing profits in the name of clean
technologies. Some even called it greenwashing. However, GE continued its commitment to
Ecomagination and expected Ecomagination revenue to grow at twice the rate of total company
revenue by 2015. This would give Ecomagination an even larger share of total company sales.
Issues:
Understand how GE employed CSR as a strategy with its Ecomagination initiative.
Understand the importance of sustainability (especially environmental sustainability), and the
role that renewable energy and clean technologies could play in this regard.
Understand the role leading players such as GE can play in addressing global issues such as
climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy conservation and also benefit in the
process.
Analyze the Ecomagination strategy of GE
Understand the reasons for the criticism faced by GE for its Ecomagination initiative and
discuss and debate whether this was an attempt by the company to indulge in greenwashing
http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Business%20Strategy/BSTR387.htm
Ecomagination Challenge
"Improve the way we create, connect, use!"
Renewable energy holds extraordinary potential for helping us create the energy to
meet our growing needs. But many forms of renewable energy are highly variable
in their output. This is where a more intelligent grid comes in, integrating and
managing renewable energy sources.
GE is developing technologies that protect the quality of power, compensating for
voltage fluctuations and managing output intermittency. They want to provide
utilities with better information about energy production, transmission, consumption
and energy system health to help them protect equipment and ensure safe, reliable
power.
Making the best use of the energy created by renewable resources is critical to a
reliable supply of affordable energy. What kinds of technologies or processes do you
think will maximize the penetration of renewables into the grid?
The U.S. should have the most efficient grid in the world. But we dont. Our grid
wastes energy at every point during every day. The solution is to connect advanced
power generation to a more intelligent and more efficient grid -- that then connects
with consumers.
GE is looking at different grid technologies that help lower delivery losses and those
that anticipate and monitor demand. Reducing losses frees up grid capacity,
reduces the need for infrastructure capital expenditure, and protects consumers
from steep rate increases. Reducing voltage eliminates the over-delivery of energy,
so customers are not paying for unused energy.
In terms of technology, processes and policy, what do you think are the best means
to help us realize greater gains in grid efficiency and outage management?
https://prezi.com/-j3yihwywoo4/copy-of-ge-casepresentation/
GE Analysis
a) Political
As a multinational company, General Electric has to deal with political systems of different
nations. In spite of some of the countries presenting favorable environment for business
survival and growth, others present difficult conditions. Tax systems and regulations also
differ across countries and so does the level of government intervention in business activity.
For example, in United States, the Internal Revenue Authority requires companies to submit
tax returns annually on April 15 (Dibb & Lyndon, 2004). Government intervention is minimal
and the business environment is much favorable. Political stability can also be said to be
reasonable so that business survival is highly probable. These conditions may not apply in
other countries such as China and Singapore where government control over businesses is
high.
b) Economic
Fluctuations in interest rates, exchange rates and money value greatly affect activities and
operations of General Electric. Factors such as deflation and inflation as well as
government spending in different countries in which General Electric has ventured often
influence business productivity and profitability. The economic impacts caused by the
current economic crisis are being felt all over the world. General Electric has recorded
decreased sales mostly due to lower lending rates by banks. In addition to that, prices of
inputs have also risen considerably.
c) Social-Cultural
Norms, culture, religion and social set-ups often determine how a business should conduct
itself in a particular country or environment. In the different countries which General Electric
has ventured into, the company is faced by different social-cultural challenges which
influence its corporate culture to a very large extent. The culture in a particular country
determines the working hours, employment policies, procedures for appointing managers
and the type of goods to be produced. Similar to other multinational companies, General
Electric has to contend with such issues and deal with them effectively.
d) Technological
Technology in the modern world is advancing at an enormous pace. Innovative products are
always being introduced using more advanced technology each day. Older technology is
therefore getting outdated at a very high rate across all sectors in the economy. Aimed at
outdoing competitors, many companies have turned to innovation, research and
development which have brought about improved levels of technology. The rate of
technology advancement globally varies with each country that General Electric has
invested in as they vary in terms of resources available. Among the countries with the
highest rate of technology advancement are United States and Japan which General
Electric has ventured into (General Electric, 2009).
Conclusion
As a result of multinational companies having to deal with different sets of political,
economic, social-cultural and technological aspects, designing a PEST analysis exclusive to
General Electric was almost impractical. It is however notable that there are some factors
that are universal among countries. Technology constitutes one of these factors and a
closer look at the PEST analysis reveals that technology is advancing at a very high pace
globally. Multinational companies like General Electric must therefore be on the lookout to
ensure that their technology is up-to-date when new forms are introduced in the market.
Some economic factors such as global crises which lead to increase in interest rates and
decrease in bank lending capacity are also universal. Conducting a PEST analysis aids a
company in understanding the business environment better so as to facilitate the better
planning and resource allocation to maintain high productivity and profitability.
http://hubpages.com/business/PEST-Analysis-ofGeneral-Electric-Company
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