General Electric has come a long way from its rough past when it was discovered that the

company
had deliberately spilled toxic chemicals into the Hudson river between the 1940s and 1970s (The
New York Times, 2016). The company has however changed its ways of operating, choosing in
contrast to focus on cleaner technology and more innovative ideas. Some people were sceptical
when GE first decided to launch its ecomagination strategy in its bid to reduce carbon emissions in
the environment (The Drum, 2016). According to the Financial Times (2012) when the
ecomagination project was launched in 2005 its main aim was to increase its profits two-fold whilst
at the same time using environmentally friendly products in its operations.

The ecomagination project has so far been a success by cutting down on its energy consumption and
reducing the company’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than 30% between the period of 2005-
2014 (The Drum, 2016). The company has also seen a steady growth in its revenues from
ecomagination products since it decided to set a goal of increasing its revenues at twice the rate of
the company’s revenue in the next five years (Anonymous, 2011). In its first year the company
managed to add 22 new products from its ecomagination projects and raked in around 18 billion in
revenue (Anonymous, 2011).

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authCount=1

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34

http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=191358e4-c1bd-4c44-b52f-
6dd59c98a042%40sessionmgr4008&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWNvb2tpZSxpcCxzaGliJnNpdGU9ZWhvc3
QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=17587834&db=iih

http://journals.sagepub.com.ezproxy.northampton.ac.uk/doi/abs/10.1525/cmr.2012.54.3.140

References
Anonymous, 2011. GE Publishes 2010 Ecomagination Annual Report. Professional Services Close - Up,
24 June.

The Drum, 2016. General Electric: ‘We overcame our sceptics with Ecomagination’. [Online]
Available at: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/11/21/general-electric-we-overcame-our-
sceptics-with-ecomagination
[Accessed 5 January 2018].

The Financial Times, 2012. Case study: GE’s innovator community. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/7cdb9512-9da7-11e1-9a9e-00144feabdc0
[Accessed 5 January 2018].

The New York Times, 2016. G.E. Spent Years Cleaning Up the Hudson. Was It Enough?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/nyregion/general-electric-pcbs-hudson-
river.html
[Accessed 5 January 2018].