Decade in Review
The past decade has seen an acceleration in practical action by business. Companies have invested in eco-efficiency to find ways to “do more with less,” they have adopted ambitious environmental and social performance targets and managed them as...

Milestones in Citizenship
One cannot effectively plan for the future without looking at our evolution and the lessons from the past. Dating back to 1999, this timeline outlines milestones in the citizenship field in areas including reporting, standards, human rights...

Human Rights Training
In 2010 we produced a 20-minute training video to educate business leaders on human rights in business contexts, advise why human rights are important to the Company, identify the legal and reputational risks, and call them to action on steps they...

UN Human Rights and Business Dilemma Forum
In December of 2008, GE joined the UN Global Compact. In this same year, the GE Foundation awarded a grant to the Foundation for the Global Compact to develop a resource to help responsible businesses successfully navigate some of the human rights...

Global Business Initiative on Human Rights
GE’s experience in joining the Business Leaders’ Initiative on Human Rights (“BLIHR”) was invaluable in framing our approach to this topic. When BLIHR’s charter expired in early 2009, GE and other member companies were eager to form a new...

UN Global Compact
The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) is both a policy platform and a practical framework for companies that are committed to sustainability and responsible business practices. As a multistakeholder leadership initiative, it seeks to align...

Engaging on Human Rights
It is one thing to support human rights in principle, but for a global organization like GE, only actions will ensure the respect of human rights and promotion of them throughout business operations, both in interactions with external stakeholders...

Human Rights Principles
GE promotes respect for fundamental human rights, and views it as a key component of responsible corporate citizenship. In addition to supporting the fundamental principles contained in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, we have joined with...

Frameworks
Frameworks provide guidance to corporations in managing, planning and reporting on their citizenship performance around topics such as governance, organizational strategy, materiality and stakeholder engagement. At GE, we utilize the Global...

Performance Against Commitments
Each year we make commitments to help us drive progress and accountability. Below are the commitments we made in 2009. Click through to see the progress made in 2010 and our commitments for 2011.