As director of General Electric's history-making Ecomagination program, Jeff Renaud sees the brand value in green business. In this SLM interview, Jeff outlines how Ecomagination is unfolding at GE and the impact it's having on brand equity and the companys bottom line.

SLM: First of all, give us a little history on Ecomagination. How did GE come to realize that sustainability presented such a strong market opportunity? What metrics did you use to gauge the consumer interest in environmental performance as a factor in making purchasing decisions?

Jeff: Ecomagination started as a recognition by our senior leadership that there were major trends creating increasingly intense environmental and growth challenges for customers across a majority of GEs businesses. Ecomagination was created as a business strategy in response to these challenges. We believe it is an ongoing opportunity for GE to do what it does best: imagine and build innovative solutions that meet our customers most pressing needs while delivering long-term growth for investors.

SLM: In its "four commitments," Ecomagination represents a blend of the practical (doubling investment in clean R&D, increasing revenues from ecomagination products) and the aspirational (reducing the company's greenhouse gas emissions, committing to greater transparency and communicating a strong sustainability vision to company stakeholders). Why isn't it enough to simply say that GE sees a market opportunity in environmental products and intends to capitalize on it?

Jeff: Actually, we do say exactly that. At the heart of Ecomagination is the belief that financial and environmental performance can work together to drive growth for GE and our customers. A green is green mentality is central to everything we do. We believe that reducing our own greenhouse gas emissions and staying engaged with key stakeholders are key elements of this strategy.

SLM: Setting such ambitious and public! goals for the program ($20 billion in revenues by 2010, for instance) seems a bit risky. What's the benefit of maintaining this level of transparency?

Jeff: We dont believe a business strategy like Ecomagination could be credible and, ultimately, successful without a high degree of transparency. GE is engaging the public and our customers in a free exchange of information, ideas, comments and constructive criticism. When we engage diverse stakeholders were better able to understand our mutual challenges and identify opportunities for improvement.

SLM: A lot of large companies seem hesitant to play up the environmental aspects of their products to protect themselves from criticism that they aren't ''green enough." GE, by contrast, has gone in the other direction. How important is it that GE incorporate Ecomagination into the company's big-picture brand strategy?

Jeff: Were very careful about how we use the Ecomagination brand. We employ a rigorous, third-party audited, certification process to determine whether individual products and services deliver sufficiently differentiated financial and environmental performance to be Ecomagination-certified. Looking at GEs overall advertising and digital media efforts, its clear that Ecomagination is a core element. These efforts are part of our commitment to keep the public informed. We also believe that Ecomagination has had and will continue to have a positive impact on GEs overall brand value.