General Electric Corp. released its 2005 ecomagination report (titled "Taking on Big Challenges"), revealing that revenues from energy efficient and environmentally advanced products and services reached $10.1 billion in 2005, an increase from $6.2 billion in 2004 — reflecting a doubling of orders received to $17 billion. A key component of the progress was reflected in GE's renewable energy efforts, especially its growing wind power business.
Introduced in May 2005, ecomagination is a GE initiative to more aggressively bring to the market new technologies that will assist customers in meeting difficult environmental challenges. The company describes it as "a business strategy to help meet customers' demand for more energy-efficient, less emissive products and to drive growth for GE — growth that will greatly reward investors." The initiative is designed to benefit not only GE's customers, but also the company's overall business health and society at large (via the improved environment).
The report reiterated the previous report's goals, stressing that GE intends to double its investment in "clean" Research and Development from $700 million (2005 level) to $1.5 billion by 2010; and increase revenues from ecomagination products to at least $20 billion by 2010 (a reachable goal considering the growth from 6.2 to 10.1 billion during the first reporting period). Among the eco-technologies being worked on in order to meet the goals set forth in the report: renewable energy initiatives (wind energy, photavoltaics, biofuels, geothermal and waste heat), hydrogen energy, and a solid oxide fuel cell program.
As part of the company's commitment to "keep the public informed" on its progress toward meeting the ecomagination goals, GE intends to issue updates on an annual basis — the 2006 report was the first such update.
