You can read the news reported in the article in the url below that GE’s “green sales” rose by 15% from 2006 to 2008 in two different ways. The optimist will see it as evidence of the potential market for sustainability related products and, therefore, further support for the business case for CSR:
“Sales of products labelled by General Electric as "environmentally friendly" rose to $14bn last year … from $12bn in 2006.”
The skeptic, however, is more likely to question the underlying growth and the way in which GE classifies a product as ‘green’:
“GE's Ecomagination products are independently audited to ensure they are environmentally friendly, but the definition the company uses means products not usually thought of as green, such as jet engines, can be included if they are more energy efficient than their predecessor or rival products, and nuclear reactors are included as they produce energy without carbon.”
Such a skeptic might continue to argue that, while sales in GE’s ‘green’ sector have increased by 15% since 2006, the number of products the firm classifies as ‘green’ has increased by 38%:
“In 2006, there were 45 product lines under the brand; last year, this rose to 62 lines, an increase of 38 per cent.”
A skeptic might conclude, therefore, that this casts the “buoyant” sales in a different light and wonder whether the figures demonstrate anything other than creative accounting.
Take care
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther
Buoyant GE sees 'green' sales up by 15%
By Fiona Harvey in London
474 words
28 May 2008
Financial Times
London Ed1
26
http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto052820080125501937
