GE's ecomagination achieves emissions goal, but can it achieve revenue goals?

A day after General Electric Co. (GE) CEO Immelt said growth will be "harder to come by," ecomagination released its 2008 annual report (pdf), outlining achievements and goals. Before I get to Immelt's comments, some of which seem to be at odds with each other, the ecomagination report deserves a more thorough review.

GE's ecomagination unit began operation in 2005, and made several environmental commitments. Today, it gave an update on their progress:

1. Reduce GE's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve the energy efficiency of GE's operations -- GE met its first ecomagination goal by reducing GHG intensity 41 percent compared to 2004. It also reduced its absolute GHG emissions from operations by 13 percent and its energy intensity by 37 percent, generally surpassing its own goals actually set for 2012. This helped GE reducing its costs by over $100 million (the time frame of these cost cuts weren't clear).