Over the 2004-2012 period, absolute operational energy use fell from 59.5 million to 48 million MMBtu.

The company says that in 2012 it identified $7 million in savings from four “energy treasure hunts,” but didn’t say what the hunts found or what changes they recommended.

Waste

We found that GE’s hazardous waste generation rose 7 percent from 34,100 in 2011 to 36,500 in 2012, while non-hazardous waste rose 11.8 percent from 202,000 to 226,000. The company did not say why these metrics rose.

Releases and exceedances

On-site releases counted as part of the toxic release inventory fell from 200,000 pounds in 2010 to 189,000 in 2011. (TRI data always lags by a year, GE notes, because of filing requirements mandated by law.)

In 2012 air exceedances were up 80.9 percent to 38, from 21 in 2011. Water exceedances were up 2.9 percent to 69, from 67 in 2011. Again, the report did not offer an explanation. The company is aiming to cut wastewater, air exceedances and spills by 30 percent, though the report’s progress chart does not give a baseline or target year for this reduction.

Last year the company paid $145,000 in penalties, up from $44,000 the year before.

Ecomagination

The company says it is on track towards its goal of investing $10 billion in Ecomagination technologies – products and services with significant environmental advantages – between 2010 and 2015. R&D investments totaled over $5 billion between 2010 and 2012, with $1.4 billion in 2012, and in that year Ecomagination revenues were $25 billion. The company met a 2015 goal, set in 2010, of growing Ecomagination revenues at twice the rate of total company revenue