• Financial Times, Thursday, May 24, 2007 1 PM

At an event with California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today, General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt will announce that the company has doubled sales from environmentally friendly products such as wind turbines, water-purification systems and energy-efficient appliances to $12 billion over the past two years.

News of the sharp rise in revenues from "ecoimagination" -- the marketing campaign launched in 2005 to highlight GE's focus on green issues -- comes as companies are scrambling to take advantage of opportunities presented by climate change. Executives at GE say its "ecoimagination" sales show that, far from being a drag on earnings, such strategies can benefit the bottom line.

The company is expected to use the Los Angeles event to showcase forthcoming products, including a prototype for the world's first diesel-electric hybrid locomotive. GE will also reveal that last year it invested $900 million of its $3.7 billion annual research and development budget on green projects. It has pledged to raise R&D spending on eco-projects to $1.5 billion by the end of the decade.

Read the whole story at Financial Times »