ENVIRONMENT | Protecting our natural resources
12 March 2008
Corporate Executives on Going Green
Rick Wagoner, GM (General Motors Corporation) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
“The key as we see it at GM is energy diversity — being able to offer our customers vehicles that can be powered with many different sources of energy. We must — as a business necessity — develop alternative sources of propulsion, based on alternative sources of energy, in order to meet the world’s growing demand for our cars and trucks.” (2007, Geneva Motor Show)
H. Lee Scott, Wal-Mart President and CEO
On the motivation behind the corporation’s setting long-term sustainability goals: “I think two things happened. One, as we [looked] at our responsibility as one of the world’s largest companies, it just became obvious that sustainability was an issue that was going to be more important than it was, let’s say, last year and the years before. I had embraced this idea that the world’s climate is changing and that man played a part in that, and that Wal-Mart can play a part in reducing man’s impact. We recognized that Wal-Mart had such a footprint in this world, and that we had a corresponding part to play in sustainability.” (2006, MSNBC interview)
Chad Holliday, DuPont Chairman and CEO
“DuPont is committed to creating innovative materials that help builders and architects produce sustainable ‘green’ buildings that cost less to operate, are easier to maintain, and provide better comfort year round. At DuPont we are proud of a decade of reducing our environmental footprint. We have come a long way, certainly in reductions of waste and emissions, but also in recognizing the impact of our operations on global issues such as climate change. We define this direction as sustainable growth — the creation of shareholder and societal value while decreasing our environmental footprint along the value chains in which we operate.” (DuPont Web site)
Steve Ballmemer, Microsoft CEO
Explaining that PCs and other technology still consume far too much electricity, Ballmer said: “The lowering of energy consumption is as important for us as new uses of software and IT for the environment.” (2008, CeBit Technology Show in Hannover, Germany)
Steve Jobs, Apple CEO
“It is generally not Apple’s policy to trumpet our plans for the future; we tend to talk about the things we have just accomplished. Unfortunately this policy has left our customers, shareholders, employees, and the industry in the dark about Apple’s desires and plans to become greener. Our stakeholders deserve and expect more from us, and they’re right to do so. They want us to be a leader in this area, just as we are in the other areas of our business. So today we’re changing our policy.” (Apple Web site)
Jeffrey Immelt, (GE) General Electric Chairman and CEO
“We looked across our company and recognized that a focus on environmental technology could be a big business initiative for the company. The concept we worked on at the time was this notion that green is green. In other words, the time had come that, through technology, we felt like we could create a good business initiative to focus on conservation and greenhouse gas emission reduction and do good business at the same time.” (2007, interview with VerdeXchange News)
Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Company President and CEO
“Ford Motor Company is committed to producing a full range of fuel-efficient vehicles that emit fewer greenhouse gases, without compromising customers’ choices for interior room, performance, or safety. We are focusing on sustainable technology solutions that can be used not for hundreds or thousands of cars — but for millions of cars, because that’s how we can truly make a difference.” (2007, Los Angeles Auto Show)
The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. government.
