GE Gears Up to Flex Its Muscle in the Green Building Market
ecomagination program aims to give consumers and developers the tools they need for energy efficient buildings

by Zach Mortice
Assistant Editor

Summary: GE’s ecomagination program will market GE products and services to residential and commercial developers intent on making energy efficient homes and businesses. The ultimate goal is for these structures to reduce emissions, energy use, and indoor water use by 20 percent. The company plans to use its wide array of building and infrastructure services to consolidate expertise across the green building industry.

General Electric is targeting home builders and developers with an initiative to improve building efficiency and sustainability. Begun in May and unveiled to a group of trade and consumer publications at a conference at GE’s Lighting and Electrical Institute in Cleveland last week, the ecomagination program uses GE’s dominant market position and wide brand recognition level to create a single resource for builders and developers to go to for energy-efficiency information, resources, and products. The initiative is part of a larger marketing focus at GE to quantify real dollar amounts and resources saved by consumers of sustainability technology.

The initiative is part of a larger marketing focus at GE to quantify real dollar amounts and resources saved by consumers of sustainability technology

“The value proposition is [that] every month your mortgage and utilities are less than if you had built a standard home,” says Patrick McElhaney, GE’s Business Development Manager for the ecomagination Homebuilder program.

20/20/20
So far, there are few specific details on how builders will take advantage of the program, but a few developers are already committed to using ecomagination products and services. One development, called Wither’s Preserve in Myrtle Beach, S.C., will build 2,000 energy efficient homes on 900 acres. This planned New Urbanist community will also use GE services and products for mixed-use commercial sites, including hotels, restaurants, and shopping centers, says Catherine Gutowski, GE’s Residential Sales Development Manager.

Broadly defined, the goal for all residential and commercial ecomagination certified structures is a 20-percent reduction in three areas: emissions, energy use, and indoor water use. In terms of energy use, the program mandates that appliances be ENERGY STAR-rated and that at least half of all lighting fixtures use GE Compact Fluorescent Lights, which use 75 percent less energy than a standard incandescent bulb and can last up to 16 times longer. Optional solar panels can be added that are able to provide 20-30 percent of a home’s electricity needs. Restrictors on water fixtures reduce water needs, as well as (of course) GE manufactured appliances. It’s estimated that the Homebuilder program can save consumers $600-1,500 annually on utility bills.

The goal for all residential and commercial ecomagination certified structures is a 20-percent reduction in three areas: emissions, energy use, and indoor water use

All of these systems can be observed and controlled by a wall-mounted dashboard control system. This is the quintessential embodiment of GE’s strategy to “dollarize” in concrete terms the amount of money their systems save consumers, says Heather Wilson, ecomagination’s marketing manager. This device can organize how much money has been saved over a day, week, or month, and it can express savings in terms of how much equivalent carbon dioxide was not expelled, how many miles not driven, or how many baths not taken as a result of efficient technologies.

GE will follow LEED® certifications for its commercial ecomagination projects, but because the focus for the Homebuilder program is solely on home performance, LEED approval isn’t an explicit goal. “LEED works into some areas that we don’t,” says McElhaney. “We focus on home performance, which is where consumer interest is and where consumer benefit is.” McElhaney says these home performance measures can achieve 70 percent of LEED criteria.

Linking experts
An obstacle GE will have to contend with will be overcoming the perception and reality that building green is expensive. They’ll have to demonstrate that an investment in sustainable systems can pay consumers and developers back, says McElhaney. “Every month the cash flow is positive,” he says.

GE has to demonstrate that an investment in sustainable systems can pay consumers and developers back

Making up part of these money-saving features are discounted interest rates for homes with energy efficient features from GE’s mortgage and financial services wing. With these lower rates, McElhaney says, “[Consumers] can afford to buy more home because they are saving with energy efficient technology”—a concession to home buyers’ tastes for bigger and bigger houses, which is not particularly consistent with the desire to reduce carbon footprints and environmental impact.

The company’s vast building and infrastructure capabilities, which are especially applicable to commercial developers, Gutowski says, make GE able to assemble service experts that can coordinate many aspects of development all by themselves, from alternative energy to security, electrical distribution, lighting, and appliances. Gutowski says this “one key quarterback” is “going to be the one point of contact, and we’re going to link our experts to the customer’s experts.”