How Green is General Electric?

In 2005, General Electric announced their “ecomagination” campaign to go green by reducing emissions and energy use that contributed to global warming.  Their goals were very clear: invest $1.5 billion annually in “clean” technology research by 2010, double revenue on products that had a “significant” environmental advantage to customers and reduce their own emissions by one percent by 2012.  It is now 2009 and Social Yell wanted to check up on GE to see how they’ve been handling their very public goals. 

As it turns out, we’ve been witnessing their progress all along…through advertising.  Their “ecomagination” campaign is just that, an imaginative campaign that has green washed us all.  Considered to be the world’s largest company by Forbes, GE also remains one of the world’s largest polluters.  Their claims to go green have been hidden behind images of wind energy and big bucks going to solar power plants.  Asked about their green initiatives, GE stood behind their biggest goal of transparency.  Thanks for the transparency, GE, but where have all of your green flowers gone? 

It is also difficult to back an all-encompassing corporate giant like GE when their most touted goal is to reduce their own emissions by one percent in 7 years.  ONE percent?  That just doesn’t seem like enough effort, especially since it is hiding behind glossy, “green” advertising.  Their own website says that “health is everything,” a popular slogan behind their latest effort, the “healthymagination” campaign.  It appears that much of what they do is brainstorm campaigns, rather than focusing on actually helping people. 

Rather than hunting and gathering for their green efforts in the dark, I would personally like to see GE proudly put them on display in the light of day.  Practically owning interests all over the map, General Electric has the power to change the world.  However, if they only focus on personal revenue (during this economy, GE has been dropping like a rock on the DOW), GE will lose their chance to make a difference.    

Have a different opinion?  Yell about it today at the hot debate on Social Yell!

Ashley Strickland is a senior at the University of Georgia. She is a summer intern for SocialYell and blogs about health, social equity, consumer advocacy, charity, sustainability and just about anything green.