In a move that recognizes a growing scarcity of fresh water supplies world wide, General Electric (NYSE: GE) has committed to reducing fresh water use 20% by 2012.
"There is going to be a price on water that is going to reflect its scarcity, and today it doesn’t," Lorraine Bolsinger, vice president of GE’s Ecomagination green-business push, said in a phone interview with Reuters. "We’re going to see that change over time, certainly in the emerging markets."
The company’s new commitment is one of the most aggressive corporate water reduction targets to date and is expected to save 2 billion gallons of fresh water–enough water to fill more than 3,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
"Harnessing our technologies and global capabilities, GE’s commitment sets the standard for water footprint reductions," said Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO, GE. "We will use our broad portfolio to reduce water consumption, ensure long-term supplies and increase operational returns at GE facilities around the world."
Selective GE sites will decrease water use by applying process efficiencies and/or reusing highly treated wastewater for a variety of commercial and manufacturing needs, such as boiler feed water, cooling tower make-up, heat exchangers and manufacturing processes. GE will use the same portfolio of water-saving solutions to help reduce municipal, industrial and agriculture customers’ fresh water use.
Today GE and Pentair, Inc. (NYSE: PNR) announced they are considering a joint venture to combine some of their water technology business.
In a separate release, GE reported that revenues from its portfolio of energy efficient and environmentally advantageous products and services crossed $14 billion in 2007, up more than 15% from 2006. Also, the company’s "cleantech" fund passed $1 billion for the first time.
In 2005, GE set an original goal to grow revenues from ecomagination products from $6 billion in 2004 to $20 billion in 2010. With today’s progress report, the company forecasts it will surpass $20 billion by 2009 and is consequently raising the annual ecomagination revenue goal to $25 billion by 2010.
While the success, of GE’s ecomagination products is undeniable, on the downside the company was recently listed as one of the most toxic companies in the U.S. by researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts.
The company has pledged to reduce the intensity of its greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2008, and improve energy efficiency 30% by the end of 2012.
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