While the components have changed 51 times over the last years, one company has far outlasted all others after spending years as part of the index, General Electric GE. GE is distinct from many of the companies which have come and gone from the DJIA in that it has long been a conglomeration stretching across several industries rather than focusing on one area.
Today, climate change presents an unprecedented sea change impacting the global economy in ways that we do not yet fully understand. In order to prepare to compete in a future impacted by climate change, GE launched an initiative in called Ecomagination.
In an effort to promote sustainability, GE is introducing new technology within its water business to improve desalinization techniques and increase global access to fresh water. This strategy enables the company to compete in countries with increasingly strict regulatory environments and take advantage of carbon tax credits.
Within the aircraft engine division, Ecomagination means increasing efficiency to reduce gas consumption in order to make engines more attractive to customers in the face of rising gasoline prices. If GE intends to show its commitment to promoting sustainability and reducing climate change, then it should distance itself from this business line. However, it also presents an opportunity for the company to spin-off this consolidated platform and distance itself in order to preserve its valuable brand.
Web site. Winston, Andrew. And without the focus, without the investment, and without the energy around Ecomagination, I'm not sure we would've gotten there. Or consider our Tier 4 locomotive. Now that the EPA has come out with their new standards, we've worked to design the most efficient engine. It's a reduction from the Tier 3 [model] of 76 percent in NOx emissions and 85 percent reduction in particulates. Makower: When you launched Eco 10 years ago there was great fanfare.
There were ads about dancing elephants and sexy women coal miners and all that. Now we don't see it much. Given that Ecomagination is a marketing play, why isn't it more visible? Frodl: The advertising and branding strategy we have taken is more integrated at GE. I'm sure you've seen the "My Mom" ad with the trees running along with the train. Eco is embedded in there. It's not a specific Ecomagination commercial but it's integrated in the overall GE messaging today.
Makower: I'm sure you do tracking of opinion of both GE and Eco. What's changed? How well has that worked for you? Frodl: We have a lot of brand value with the consumers. And in the survey that we did in December awareness of Eco was far above anything else that GE is currently working on. Makower: That's remarkable considering that in GE was under a pretty dark reputational cloud within the environmental community.
Frodl: Eco is always so much more than just a traditional sustainability program where we're focused internally. We are bringing technology to market to help our customers be as productive as they possibly can. That strategy has been key to our success. It allows us to scale and win the hearts and minds of both consumers and our customers.
Makower: A couple years ago you launched this thing called Industrial Internet. What did you learn from Ecomagination that informed how you rolled out Industrial Internet? Frodl: They were both big bold commitments right? That's what worked for us. Jeff Immelt was out there. We put a stake in the ground.
We've built a software center with 1, employees. I think there were a lot of parallels to best practices because of the success of Eco. These are separate strategies inside GE but they are very much aligned. Makower: Let's look ahead to Get your weekly dose of analysis on rising corporate activism.
By signing up you agree to our privacy policy. You can opt out anytime. I can remember when GE first came out with the Ecomagination initiative back in At the time it was considered a bold, and even somewhat risky, move to double up on its investment in clean tech and make it a strategic imperative for the company. CEO Jeffrey Immelt said there were two reasons for taking this on. First, he saw it as a tremendous business opportunity, and second, he said that businesses needed to step up to the plate and do more about global environmental issues.
Today the company is celebrating the 10th anniversary of that launch with the announcement of a new partnership initiative, dubbed Transforming Tomorrow: Partners for Global Impact. It would seem that Immelt was correct. The good that's been achieved in the course of all that clean-tech deployment is difficult to measure, but without a doubt it has been substantial. Frodl has held this role since One example is the partnership with Statoil, which launched earlier this year, aimed at reducing energy and water usage as well as emissions in oil and gas operations.
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