Sunday, April 22nd was Earth Day. Time for companies to take stock of what can be done and to applaud what's already being done Earth-wise...


This year's Fortune 500 Ranking of America's largest corporations has been published. What I focused on is the "Most Admired Companies of 2007."
Fortune's survey was conducted by the Hay Group, which polled over 3300 executives, directors and securities analysts to find out which companies they most admired. Apparently, two of the primary reasons given for this year's winners: innovative, new ideas, being green and/or pushing green initiatives forward.
Drum roll, please: General Electric came in at #1, garnering Fortune's coveted "most admired" billing... for being green. This is quite a departure for a company with a dubious environmental past, but shows what can be done when a corporate giant reorients its thinking, and its priorities.
GE's "Ecomagination" campaign was cited for three reasons, and I quote:
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"Supercharging revenues. . ."
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". . .while doubling its $700 million R&D budget to come up with solar-energy hybrid locomotives, lower-emission aircraft engines, more efficient lighting, and ever more sophisticated water-purification systems."
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"GE has also managed to conserve energy corporately. The corporate behemoth "cut its own energy bills by about $70 million last year, partly by installing new lighting in more than 100 of its plants, and reduced its greenhouse-gas emissions by about 150,000 tons."
While the top 20 picks include many notable companies, I've chosen to focus on GE for this blog post. If you wish to view the entire list, please go to Fortune's Internet partner, CNNMoney, and see it here.
According to an article in DM News, back in July 2005, Mickey Khan writes: "Once criticized for its environmental record, GE plans to invest $1.5 billion yearly through 2010 in research on cleaner technologies. Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy efficiency are other goals. On the financial side, GE intends to double revenue from eco-friendly products and services from $10 billion last year to $20 billion in 2010. That's where GE's online efforts are central to communicating its vision and progress."
These kinds of projected investments and revenues are hardly chump change. It makes us realize that Jeffrey Immelt and company are serious about this. It also signifies that companies, large and small, from the most established to start-ups, can all do things to conserve energy, save money and increase revenues in the bargain. What's not to like about that?
Not only is GE putting environmentally friendly practices in place; the company is developing eco-friendly consumer and industrial products, as well. GE's compact fluorescent light bulbs, featured in one of the company's Ecomagination advertising spots for example, use 75% less power than regular bulbs. They last for years, and consumers are encouraged to switch over to save money and energy. That's clearly a win-win proposition.
Kudos to GE. They're setting a highly visible example–one that should have an impact--as one of the world's largest companies. To read more about the company's commitment to embracing and developing green technologies, check out their site.
Do you think this makes other companies follow suit in their own practices, as well as the products and services they offer? Can you think of other companies that should be cited, large, small or local to you, due to their eco-friendly practices? We'd like to hear from you. . .