Sustainability Group Project

1. Sustainability Group Project By: Francisco Alvarez Alissa Effa Daniel Meek Brian Morris

2. General Electric GE is currently ranked #6 on the Fortune 500 list and ranked #12 on the Global 500. GE is the second most profitable corporation in the Fortune 500. GE employs approximately 327,000 individuals. About half of its $176.7 billion in revenue comes from outside the United States. Products and services include appliances, aviation, consumer electronics, electrical distribution, energy, finance, healthcare, lighting, media & entertainment, oil & gas, rail, security, and water.

3. Overall

4. Website QualityRating 62.5%

5. AccessibilityRating: 0 1 2 • GE’s website is extremely accessible to both the public and to the corporation’s stakeholders. • GE’s accessibility is so effective that they have been NFB-NVA Certified (Non-Visual Accessibility from the National Federation for the Blind) • GE strives for its products, services, and websites to be accessible to everyone, and urges its customers to provide feedback so they can continually update their services to meet the needs of their customers. • GE Accessibility Statement

6. AccessibilityRating: 0 12 GE only receives a rating of 1 for their accessibility because they do not have an easily accessible direct link to their sustainability report. Although their sustainability efforts are displayed through the site. The easiest way to get to the report is to either find it on the site map or through the search bar on the website, both of which are easily accessible on the site.

7. InteractivityRating: 0 1 2 • As is true for every publicly traded company one of the main concerns is to take care of their shareholders.Regarding the interactivity of the company GE makes this relatively simple for both investors and customers alike. • The Investors page allows new and current investors to contact specific employees within the company through email, as well as opportunities to invest in GE. • The contact information for customers is very extensive, they provide information for every division of the company. • GE Contact Information

8. MultimedialityRating: 0 1 2 • GE’s website, http://ge.ecomagination.com is on the cutting edge of a multimedia website. The entire website is interactive from the images to the videos, and the animations. • The download section has countless interactive downloads, full of media that teaches as the user learns. • All the sub-sites have pictures that lead into what they are talking about and connects with the visitor and gives the visitor relation to the contents of the website.

9. PersonalizationRating: 0 1 2 • GE allows each person to be apart of their corporation. They have massive amounts of data online for the stakeholders to view, including graphs to download and charts to read. • The website is constantly updated with news on GE and their next step towards a greener, better Earth. • News feeds are available for users to be up to date, and they inform public relations to the public and employees.

10. Content QualityRating 75%

11. CompanyProfileRating: 0 1 2 • GE is an American multinational technology and service conglomerate. GE is the world’s 3rd largest company. GE turns imaginative ideas into products. From jet engines to power generation, GE has been producing quality products since 1878 by its founder Thomas Edison.

12. CompanyProfileRating: 0 1 2 • GE can capitalize on the problems of others: airlines whose slim profits depend on getting a few more turbine revolutions out of a gallon of aviation fuel; railroads feeling the pinch of pollution controls; utilities that must decide now how much to spend to comply with carbon dioxide limits a decade from now. • GE is unleashing 45 Green products.

13. SustainabilityReportingRating: 0 1 2 • Held environmental exceedances (air, spills, wastewater) essentially flat year over year while production and number of manufacturing sites increased. • Is on track to achieving 1-30-30 goals and reaching 4 percent GHG reduction in first two years of program.

14. SustainabilityReporting • Operations, in 2006, used approximately 34.7 billion gallons of water of which 17.4 billion gallons were for non-contact cooling purposes. • Operations, in 2006, generated approximately 74.2 thousand metric tons of hazardous waste and 391.3 thousand metric tons of non-hazardous wastes.

15. Topical InformationRating: 0 1 2 • GE provides the latest news and press releases at http://ge.ecomagination.com/site/index.html. Information is organized chronologically beginning with the most current. Two ongoing items included on their Press Releases page are GE’s Green Harvest Grows to $14 Billion and GE Unveils Aggressive Water Reduction Target (which is a pledge to reduce their water usage by 20% in the next four years). • The GE website includes a Downloads tab where video and ZIP files can be found relating to recent events about their Ecomagination Project. • An Advertising Tab provides TV ads, online ads and print ads pertaining to their ecomagination project. This provides everyone information about the current steps GE is making on work towards their ecomagination project and reporting on sustainability. Click for Ad

16. Topical Information • The final tab found under News and Information is called Explore. Explore is a fun way to learn about things being done today to work toward a greener Earth. There are interactive games that revolve around environmental projects or ideas, information on “Certified Green” houses, credit card information about a card that gives back to projects working toward reduction or avoidance of gas emissions, a blog to discuss research and development in technology, and other fun, interactive ideas to help educate the public about environmental issues and research. Explore Page

17. Historical InformationRating: 0 1 2 GE’s environmental solutions program began in 2005. The company has been in business for over 125 years and felt it was important to develop a business plan and strategy that could incorporate sustainability into the mix, thus the start of Ecomagination. The company achieved approximately 15% growth in ecomagination revenues from 2006 to 2007. An article found at http://www.portfolio.com/executives/features/2008/04/14/Brilliant-Issue-Game-Changers#page3 states: “When General Electric announced the debut of its Ecomagination program, skeptics derided it as an empty gesture. Yet the effort has blunted criticism from environmentalists and proved to be an effective business strategy—much as C.E.O. Jeff Immelt promised. Unveiled in mid-2005, the initiative vowed to increase revenue from green products, improve the company's energy efficiency, and decrease greenhouse-gas emissions. So far, so good. G.E. sold $14 billion worth of Ecomagination products in 2007—from low-energy appliances to L.E.D. traffic lights— and reduced emissions by 4 percent. Other big companies have taken notice.” Jeff Immelt

18. Social DimensionRating: 0 1 2 Social dimension includes the impact the company and its policies and procedures have on its surrounding. Effects on the community, adherence to environmental and labor law, health, hazardous waste and emissions, etc. all directly relate to a corporation’s social dimension. GE’s website clearly shows how GE is working towards contributing to communities around the world. The website provides information on volunteerism, including charity donations, disaster relief funds, river cleanup, reforestation, etc. GE employees volunteer over 1 million hours of community service every year. The development of new campaigns seeking green solutions products has enabled GE’s status for social accountability to noticeably grow according to CSR industry observers.

19. Social Dimension GE identified its 4 key areas that can lead citizenship efforts: Ecomagination Emerging markets Compliance and governance Environment, health and safety “It’s one thing to believe in volunteerism theoretically. But it is quite another to actually be down in the trenches, doing the work. The GE volunteers aren’t afraid to free up their time, roll up their sleeves, and help the people in their communities who need them most.” — Bob Corcoran, VP, Corporate Citizenship

20. EnvironmentalDimensionRating: 0 1 2 • The environmental dimension is the impact to living and non-living natural systems by a company; this includes the ecosystem, land, water, and air. • The impact can be related to inputs or outputs. • 64 products and services focused on the environmental dimension.

21. EnvironmentalDimensionInputs • Energy – GE has a robust energy initiative with 25 products and programs. • The “H System” which is the first turbine capable of increasing the efficiency to 60% and provides electricity to 300,000 homes. • Water - GE provides 11 different products & programs. • One such product is the OSMOImprovement Technology, “which removes over 99% of salt contaminants (TDS) from brackish water sources in industrial plants.”

22. EnvironmentalDimensionOutputs • GE also has products and services for the outputs (emissions, effluents, and waste) which are in direct correlation with the inputs. For example, GE Energy Financial Services and the AES Corporation partnered to form Greenhouse Gas Services, LLC. Together they will invest and develop projects that reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions. The expectations are to produce at least ten million metric tons of GHG credits annually by 2010.

23. EnvironmentalDimensionOverall • GE explains its environmental dimension with good detail of each product. Their products page is divided by All Products, Water, Energy, Transportation, Lighting, For the Home and Finance. • When clicking a product a window pops up with an Introduction, Benefits, Detailed Information, Links and Downloads, and Gallery. • The diversity of products & services allow the continued possibilities for both adaptation & future use by people thus assuring environmental sustainability.

24. EconomicalDimensionRating: 0 1 2 • The economic dimension is described by as the impact on economic conditions of its stakeholders and on economic systems at local, national, and global levels. • There are four categories when looking at the economical dimension: Customers, Suppliers, Providers of Capital and Public Sector.

25. EconomicalDimension • Customers – GE has a program that helps fund customers that want to affordably obtain and install energy-efficient products for their home called the “Money Energy-efficient Home Improvement Loans.” • Suppliers - GE supply companies with sustainable products that also save revenue. For example, “if an airline were to replace a fleet of 20 aircraft with Tech Insertion engines it would save nearly $384,000 in fuel costs each year, compared to today’s CFM56-5B and –7B engines.”

26. Economical Dimension • Providers of Capital -GE offers The Earth Rewards Platinum MasterCard from its GE Money division. This credit card provides an easy way for cardholders to help earn greenhouse gas emissions credits to reduce their personal carbon footprint. Up to 1% of net purchases is set aside each month & will be used to buy carbon offsets every year on Earth Day. • Public sector – GE has created a whole-home solution that benefits the environment and your wallet. Designed to lower overall household energy consumption, emissions and indoor water consumption.

27. Economical DimensionOverall • The economical dimension is closely related to the environmental dimension as many of the products and programs are helping the environmental and the consumer’s wallet as well. • On the benefits window, the operating benefits tab is the economic benefit of that particular product or program. In the detailed information window, some products and programs explain how the consumer would cut costs using that particular product or program.

28. Strategy& PolicyRating: 0 1 2 • The Commitment page is easily accesses at the bottom of every page. This section is divided into five pages which are Revenues, R&D Investment, Reduce GHG Emissions, Improve Water Use and Inform the Public. • On the individual products page, they also have a strategy for each of their products that are explained in the Environmental Benefit and Operating Benefit.