2010 Report FAQs

Q. What is the purpose of the report?

A. The report serves multiple purposes. Starting six years ago, the report has become a mechanism by which employees, customers, investors, governmental organizations, the media, NGOs and other stakeholders gauge our commitment to responsible citizenship. It is also an important component of our continued presence on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. As our presence outside of the United States increases, there is greater emphasis on economic reporting (via our Annual Report) as well as social and environmental reporting (i.e. “triple-bottom-line reporting”). This report, coupled with the ecomagination, healthymagination and Annual Reports, provides an excellent perspective on the Company’s financial, environmental and social performance.

Q. What is new in this year’s report?

A. This year’s report provides more information on our citizenship efforts worldwide and more perspectives from internal and external stakeholders. It also integrates with a more comprehensive and interactive web component (www.gecitizenship.com).

New information includes:

• For the first time, the report traces at great length the source of GE’s long term value creation, from how we understand global challenges, to our strategy to respond to them as a business, and to the processes, actions, commitments and metrics by which we manage and demonstrate performance. It ends with an essay discussing how these impacts translate into financial performance, and whether this is recognized by capital markets.

• This year’s report features a ten-year retrospective, drawing on perspectives from our expert panel and other thought leaders to understand the global sustainability context, and the expectations and opportunities for the future. A milestone timeline is included to reflect upon the evolution of citizenship along with GE’s own sustainability efforts.
• Expert perspectives from more than 20 global thought leaders on key issues, providing an external point-of-view on topics such as climate change, human rights, labor and supply chain.
• These external perspectives are complemented by the perspectives of GE CEO Jeff Immelt, Board Member Sam Nunn, Senior Vice President and General Counsel Brackett Denniston, Vice President of Corporate Citizenship Bob Corcoran, and CEO of GE India John Flannery.
• GE Priority Matrix is introduced to highlight the areas where GE has an impact and ability to make a difference, either responded by its products and services or addressed by its business operations.
• The report discusses the issue of tax as well as GE’s tax position and policies.
• An extension to the print report, the citizenship Web site is redesigned and relaunched with more than 300 pages of contents and more interactive, user-friendly navigation and narratives that provide the ability to learn about GE’s citizenship strategy and program in detail.
• An animated tutorial has been developed to make the report more accessible to a general audience.

Q. What is the theme of this report?

A. The theme of this year’s report is reflected in its title—Sustainable Growth. The report builds around how helping to solve global challenges, in particular in the areas of energy and climate change and sustainable healthcare, is core to GE’s value creation and sustainable growth strategy.

Q. Why does GE invite external perspectives into its reporting?

A. It is important to present an external voice to dilemmas being faced by the company. Inviting perspectives from global thought leaders is not only an opportunity to engage, but also an opportunity to present a unique view on a key issue.

Q. What is different about the web version of the report this year?

A. www.gecitizenship.com has been redesigned and relaunched with 300 pages of updated contents and more interactive, user-friendly navigation and narratives that provide the ability to learn about our citizenship strategy and program in detail. The objective of the redesign was focused on making corporate citizenship more accessible to a general audience. The Web site includes:

• Audio and video features and perspectives from employees and external global thought leaders
• The site map has been reorganized to be in line with the print report—About Citizenship, Stories, Commitment Areas, which provide the reader a comprehensive look at GE’s citizenship strategies and engagement in locations across the world
• Key performance metrics
• New interactive features such as commenting, polling, rating. Related contents are made searchable by key words and tags, with the result shown by different categories (stories, audio, video, etc.) in one page.

Q. Who was involved in the development of this report?

A. The report content was the responsibility of dozens of subject matter experts across the Company. They include senior leaders in Legal, Compliance, EHS, HR, Communications, Marketing, Finance and other functions in Corporate and all of the businesses.

Q. Who is the audience?

A. Various internal and external stakeholders utilize this report. Internally, it is an important recruitment tool and an excellent resource for employees to better understand our responsible citizenship efforts around the world. Externally, it is used by customers, government entities, NGOs, socially responsible investors, the media and others to review our progress in the commitments we set in last year’s report. These commitments cover environmental, compliance, human rights, public policy and other key issues important to a variety of stakeholders.

Q. What is the Stakeholder Advisory Panel?

A. For the fifth year in a row, GE shared an initial draft of the report with selected external stakeholders, hosting a session at corporate headquarters in Fairfield, CT to discuss in detail recommended improvements and transparency to our reporting. The report quality has been improved as a result of their efforts. The results of that engagement are also available within the report in a commentary the Panel provided the Company.

Q. How does the web add value to the citizenship report?

A. All of the performance data exists online so it can be updated more frequently to create more in-depth, dynamic reporting. This enables the print to focus on key citizenship priorities, dilemmas and opportunities. The Web site also hosts the perspectives from key global stakeholders, feature stories, case studies and country fact sheets which provide further detail on how our citizenship priorities are put into practice around the world. The site is more interactive than ever before and we will continue to update this information throughout the year, to support our ongoing discussion with stakeholders.

Q. How does corporate citizenship align with ecomagination and healthymagination?

A. Ecomagination and healthymagination are both critical components of responsible citizenship. Specifically, the commitments associated with greenhouse gases and water usage in ecomagination, in addition to the Company’s commitment to bringing better health to more people through its healthymagination initiative, are seen by stakeholders as critical to GE’s performance as a global leader in sustainability.

Q. What is the distribution of the report?

A. Hard copies of the report will be distributed to external stakeholders worldwide and employees who request it. The report is also available online at www.gecitizenship.com.

Q. How do I obtain additional copies of the report?

A. You can send a note to citizenship@ge.com. You can also visit: www.gecitizenship.com/reporting/order-a-report.