Treasure Hunts

At more than 300 sites around the world, GE employees have conducted “Treasure Hunts.” An Energy Treasure Hunt is a process leveraged from lean manufacturing, developed by Toyota and refined by GE, designed to identify projects and opportunities to reduce energy use.

To date, participating GE facilities have identified opportunities to reduce energy use by 20% and, overall, the Treasure Hunts have contributed to more than $150 million in savings and the reduction of more than 250,000 metric tons of CO₂.

Inspired by these results, GE, in collaboration with Environmental Defense Fund, launched an ecomagination Treasure Hunt initiative with select partner cities, universities and private industries to help uncover similar savings.

The 2010 partner sites included Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan and the famed Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium.

Roosevelt Hospital

Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan was the first site to take advantage of the program. In just three days, hospital employees found opportunities to save $2.1 million in annual energy use and cut carbon pollution by more than 7,500 metric tons annually. By involving employees in the process, the program also fosters a sense of personal commitment to using energy efficiently.

The work at Continuum Health Partners’ Roosevelt Hospital relied on the same type of process that GE uses internally. During the Treasure Hunts, team leaders worked with on-site staff to apply technology expertise and process improvement tools to identify, quantify and recommend enhancements to sources of energy waste—including electricity, natural gas, water, wastewater, compressed air and steam.

Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium

The famed Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium was the site of Orlando’s second energy Treasure Hunt, and the results were impressive; it uncovered ways to reduce the stadium’s energy spending by 50% annually.

Performed over two-and-a-half days—before, during and after the annual Florida Classic football game on November 20—the Orlando facility’s employees and GE technical experts studied the Florida Citrus Bowl’s energy usage at three different periods: at rest, at start-up and in full usage.

The Treasure Hunt process actually began weeks in advance, with a team from GE Capital’s Access program—which shares tools and insights from across GE’s divisions to help other businesses tackle tough problems. Over the past 10 years, Access GE has completed more than 8,000 projects for approximately 6,500 companies globally. Using GE’s lean processes, the Capital team guided Orlando’s sustainability staff through a planning process, which included calculating the Citrus Bowl’s energy spending and usage to determine a baseline.

Overall, the ecomagination Treasure Hunt identified 25 potential savings opportunities. In addition to the cost savings, the suggested improvements could reduce the stadium’s carbon dioxide emissions by 617 metric tons, the equivalent of eliminating 118 cars from the roads or eliminating 25,708 propane cylinders used for home barbecues.