GE's Corporate Citizenship Focuses on Sustainability Efforts That Benefit People, Planet, Economy

(3BL Media) September 24, 2012 - GE focuses its citizenship efforts on creating solutions to some of the world’s toughest global challenges. Launched today, www.gecitizenship.com  aims to illuminate the Company’s widespread citizenship efforts throughout its businesses and around the globe with a focus on People, Planet and Economy.

“Citizenship is embedded in our business strategy and in our culture,” said Bob Corcoran, GE’s Vice President of Corporate Citizenship. “GE is rigorous and deliberate about addressing social, environmental and economic issues. Our new website is an open window on how citizenship works at GE.” 

Designed for the CSR community, employees, customers, socially responsible investors, NGOs and consumers, the goal of the site is to inform and engage key stakeholders around GE’s citizenship priorities including: health, education, the environment, community building, human rights and rule of law.

Highlights include:

• A review of technology’s role in addressing sustainability issues is the focus of the main feature article titled: “Sustainability: A Technological Challenge.”  This story captures highlights from a stakeholder discussion GE convened with experts in public policy, research and civil society, including three dimensions of the challenge: which problems should technology tackle, what are the costs – financial, environmental, social - and how broadly accessible are the solutions.

• The GE Foundation’s Developing Health Globally™ (DHG) program aims to increase access to healthcare for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations. A feature article on the new site reports on how DHG is driving improvements in healthcare delivery in sub-Saharan Africa, including the transformation of emergency care in Ghana. Additional information about GE’s philanthropic efforts can be found in the website’s Community Engagement section.

• “GE’s Approach to Conflict Minerals” is another feature that offers an overview of this human rights issue and an outline of the steps the company is taking to support conflict-free supply chains while supporting local development in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Additional information about GE’s public policy efforts can be found in the Economy section of the site’s Focus Areas and in the Reports, Policies and Positions section.

Housed in www.gecitizenship.com is GE’s most recent Citizenship Report that covers progress against commitments, data and metrics for the 2011 fiscal year.  This is GE’s eighth Citizenship Report and its first digital-only version. 

To sign up for more information about GE’s corporate citizenship initiatives and practices, visit:  http://www.genewscenter.com/webuser/register.aspx