Celebrating our Purpose on Earth Day

Today all around the world, we celebrate Earth Day. It is clear that the awareness it is meant to raise is more important now than ever before, as we face the ravages of climate change. We also experienced a shift over the past year, slowing down to look at what is important in our lives. For me, taking action to protect the planet for ourselves and for future generations is a key priority. While Earth Day is just one day each year, its purpose is timeless – to build the world’s largest environmental movement to drive sustainable transformative change for people and the planet.

Our mission at Renewable Energy is to work with our partners to make renewable energy affordable, reliable, and accessible anywhere in the world, and is completely aligned with the aspiration of Earth Day. Today, I hope you will think about what that really means in your business and personal life. Our focus is crucial - we are helping our customers deliver energy that is affordable including to areas that are impoverished, to the estimated 770 million who are without reliable electricity and doing it in a way that ensures it is sustainable. We are unleashing limitless energy for the parents who would otherwise be forced to care for their children without electricity, for the schools and teachers who do not know if they will have power from one day to the next, for the hospitals that must have reliable electricity to treat patients, and for so many critical situations like these. Being in a position to make change for good and have an impact on the planet is a great reason to come to work every day!

With a significant transition accelerating from fossil fuel-based energy production to renewable energy sources, as governments and citizens around the globe work to address the alarming climate change crisis, our business is in a unique position to be at the heart of the solution.

I know that many of you feel, as I do, that we must do as much as possible to accelerate decarbonization efforts everywhere and we are doing that by harnessing innovation to help our customers drive the energy transition forward. Our technology is key, whether it is developing the world’s most powerful and efficient onshore and offshore wind turbines that enable us to compete, advancing hydro pumped storage or batteries that will store excess wind and solar power that is generated when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining for periods of higher demand, or investing in grid automation software and other equipment (e.g., HVDC) that helps move renewable power from where it is generated to where it is consumed. 

Like me, leaders across GE have been communicating throughout the week about how GE Renewable Energy is working to address climate change. Yesterday’s announcement from our Grid Solutions business showcases how serious we are about addressing climate change through our technology. We have allowed some use of g3, our game-changing alternative to sulfur hexafluoride (SF?), to Hitachi ABB for use in their high-voltage equipment. This is a monumental step for our business and the planet, as we are accelerating the electrical transmission industry’s shift away from SF? - the world’s most potent greenhouse gas.

Within GE Renewable Energy, we should be proud of the strides we continue to make towards maintaining our Carbon Neutral commitment to decarbonize many parts of our operations. Decarbonizing energy is the single biggest lever for the world to meet its carbon neutral goals and we have a very large part of the solution in our portfolio. We are gaining a lot of learning that we can share with our customers who are going through a similar transition. Our commitment serves as an internal catalyst for a more sustainable world and I think we can all be pleased at the progress we are making.

I hope that you will take a moment today to reflect on how fortunate we all are to work in this industry and to unleash limitless energy!

Jér?me