EPA Recognizes GE Healthcare Among Nation's Leading Green Power Purchasers
This purchase demonstrates a proactive choice and a leading commitment to switch away from traditional sources of electricity generation and support cleaner renewable energy alternatives.
Today, the EPA updated each of its National Top Partner lists, highlighting some of America's largest green power purchasers. GE Healthcare / Headquarters currently ranks No. 28 on EPA's Fortune 500 List. Each list highlights EPA Green Power Partners that have completed the largest annual voluntary purchases through January 8, 2008. EPA's updates its Top Partner Lists quarterly at http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/toplists/.
GE Healthcare is purchasing green power in support of EPA's Fortune 500 Green Power Challenge. The 13-month campaign concluded at the end of 2007 with GE Healthcare's purchase contributing to EPA exceeding its 5 billion kilowatt-hour challenge goal. GE Healthcare's purchase ranks No. 28 among participating corporations. EPA also announced today the kickoff of its second Fortune 500 Green Power Challenge, which will conclude at the end of 2009.
"GE Healthcare's commitment to the environment, health and safety is embedded within our corporate vision and culture," said Mark Colananni, Global Facilities & Real Estate, GE Healthcare. "This is a natural fit with our company-wide Ecomagination Initiative and our goal to be a good neighbor in Wisconsin. We take our role as a global citizen very seriously, viewing it as a fundamental point of honor, responsibility and commitment."
Green power is electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, biogas, biomass and low-impact hydro. These resources generate electricity with a net zero increase in carbon dioxide emissions, while offering a superior environmental profile compared to traditional power generation sources. Green power purchases also support the development of new renewable energy generation sources nationwide.
"EPA applauds our Fortune 500 partners for protecting our environment by purchasing green power," said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. "By voluntarily shifting to renewable energy, GE Healthcare Headquarters is proving you don't need to wait for a signal in order to go green."
According to the U.S. EPA, GE Healthcare's green power purchase of nearly 16 million (kWh) is equivalent to avoiding the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of nearly 2,000 passenger vehicles per year, or is the equivalent amount of electricity needed to power nearly 2,000 average American homes annually.
In March of 2007, GE Healthcare installed the largest solar electric photovoltaic (PV) system in the state of Wisconsin. This innovative Solar Array System, measuring 318 feet long by 69 feet wide, has been installed on the roof of the company's Waukesha headquarters and supplies the building with 114,360 KWH/year for the estimated 25-year life of the solar panels. The Solar Array system generates enough electricity to supply 12 households per year; reduces green house gas emissions by 107 metric tons/yr; adds 26.5 acres of forest per year and removes 19 cars per year due to greenhouse gas reduction.
Since March 2005, GE Healthcare has purchased renewable energy from We Energies Energy for Tomorrow renewable energy program, where customers can choose to have some or all of their electric use sourced from renewable energy sources.
We Energies provided partial funding for this large-scale solar array project to encourage the development of solar electricity generation. In the same spirit, We Energies will continue to monitor output of the GE Healthcare' solar PV system and provide information to further promote the educated use of solar PV systems.
About EPA's Green Power Partnership
The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that encourages organizations to buy green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with purchased electricity use. The Partnership currently has hundreds of Partner organizations voluntarily purchasing billions of kilowatt-hours of green power annually. Partners include a wide variety of leading organizations such as Fortune 500 companies, small and medium sized businesses, local, state, and federal governments, and colleges and universities.
http://www.epa.gov/greenpower
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.
GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries.
http://www.gehealthcare.com
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