GE banks on being friend of environment

Rachel Layne

Monday, May 9, 2005 | 11:04 a.m.

General Electric Co., the world's largest company by market value, is betting that being environmentally friendly is good for business.

Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt will announce plans in Washington, D.C., today to double its research and development spending in the next five years for "cleaner products" including jet-engines, power generation and locomotives, the Fairfield, Conn.-based company said in a statement.

General Electric expects the spending increase to double sales from businesses that use wind turbines to create power, treat water and reduce greenhouse-emitting gasses. The push is part of company wide program called 'ecomagination' that also includes goals for the reduction of greenhouse gasses by General Electric facilities and increased energy conservation.

"We will link with customers to improve the environmental performance of important industries," Immelt told shareholders at the company's April 27 annual meeting in Cincinnati. "We will deliver the cleanest locomotives, the most energy-efficient engines, power generated from renewable sources and open up new sources of clean water."

The program is change from environmental stances of the company in the past. General Electric had opposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to dredge New York's Hudson River of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, that its plants deposited in the river until they were banned by the federal government in 1977. The company agreed in 2002 to fund a $460 million clean up of the river.

Shares of General Electric were unchanged at $35.85 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading on May 6. They've dropped 1.8 percent this year.

General Electric, the world's largest maker of turbines for power plants, locomotives, jet-engines and medical imaging equipment, have its products measured by GreenOrder, a New York City-based environmental consulting firm.