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GE Launches Ecomagination to Develop Environmental Technologies

General Electric Company Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt announced ecomagination, a major new initiative to aggressively bring new environmental technologies to market that will help customers meet pressing environmental challenges. GE, the world’s largest company by market value, plans to more than double its investment — to $1.5 billion by 2010 — in technologies that include cleaner coal-fired power plants, a diesel-and-electric hybrid locomotive and agricultural silicon that cuts the amount of water and pesticide used in spraying fields, the report said. The conglomerate aims to achieve $20 billion in sales of environmentally cleaner products by 2010, or double the amount it currently has — a target that would comprise as much as 20 percent of its estimated industrial sales. “Ecomagination is GE’s commitment to address challenges such as the need for cleaner, more efficient sources of energy, reduced emissions and abundant sources of clean water,” Immelt said. “And we plan to make money doing it. Increasingly for business, ‘green’ is green. “Ecomagination is about the future,” Immelt said. “We will focus our unique energy, technology, manufacturing and infrastructure capabilities to develop tomorrow’s solutions such as solar energy, hybrid locomotives, fuel cells, lower-emission aircraft engines, lighter and stronger materials, efficient […]

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NYC Adopts Plan to Curtail Pesticide Use

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected today to sign into law legislation that will top the list nationwide in protecting the largest number of people from cancer-causing and highly toxic pesticides. The will begin restricting hazardous pesticide use on all city land and will require commercial landscapers to give neighbors prior notice before spraying pesticides. The new law requires the City to phase out acutely toxic pesticides and those that are known or suspected to cause cancer or developmental disorders by November 2006, and develop a strategy to utilize less toxic methods in the future on city property. “The new law recognizes that we do not have to poison people and the environment to manage buildings and landscapes,” said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, a Washington, D.C.-based national environmental group. Numerous jurisdictions across the country have adopted a similar law or policy, including San Francisco and Seattle. “New York City stands out among other jurisdictions because of the sheer number of people that will benefit from the new law,” said Mr. Feldman. A report released by NYPIRG and Environmental Advocates in 1998 revealed that New York City accounts for more than a quarter of the total […]

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