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Socially Responsible Companies Do Good

What’s a socially responsible company? It is a company that serves. It serves its customers by selling something of value, its workers by providing good jobs, its owners by generating profits and all of us by making the world a better place. Any list of America’s most socially responsible companies is, inevitably, subjective. Even if we could agree on how business can best repair the world — by curing disease, alleviating poverty or curbing global warming — there’s no way to quantify goodness or compare companies in industries that have little in common. FORTUNE’s America’s Most Admired list identifies big U.S. companies that are admired by their peers for social responsibility. Here’s a look at some of them, and the practices that have earned them acclaim: UPS. Tops on our Most Admired list of top ten socially responsible firms for the third consecutive year, Big Brown does good for its workers, the environment and, not least, the global economy – by delivering 14.8 million packages a day to more than 200 countries. It’s no exaggeration to say that if UPS were to shut down, much of global commerce would grind to a halt. The $42.6-billion-a-year Atlanta-based company is a leader […]

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FuelCell Selected by DOE to Develop Solid Oxide Fuel Cell System

FuelCell Energy, Inc. (NasdaqNM:FCEL) has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as a prime contractor of a third project team to develop a coal-based multi-megawatt solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system. The total project award for the 10-year, three-phase Fuel Cell Coal-Based System program is approximately $85 million. The project is subject to negotiation of a final agreement. The program’s goal is to develop a multi-megawatt SOFC power system, 100 megawatts and larger, with at least 50 percent overall efficiency in converting energy contained in coal to grid electrical power. This compares to today’s average U.S. coal-based power plant with an electrical efficiency of approximately 35 percent. Other program goals include capturing 90 percent or more of system’s carbon dioxide emissions and meeting a cost of $400 per kilowatt (exclusive of coal gasification unit and carbon dioxide separation subsystems). “Coal technology development is a keystone of the President’s new Advanced Energy Initiative,” said Wayne Surdoval, DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory’s Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA) Technology Manager. “The clean and efficient use of coal is vital to our nation’s energy security. Research conducted under DOE’s Fuel Cell Coal-Based Systems Program should ultimately lead to fuel cell […]

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GE Energy Completes Record Year in Wind Energy Sales

GE Energy (NYSE: GE) delivered 1,346 wind turbines worldwide during 2005, completing the year with revenue exceeding $2 billion – more than a 200% increase over 2004’s total – the company reported today at the 2006 European Wind Energy Conference & Exhibition. GE’s 2005 wind revenue also was more than 400% higher than in 2002, GE’s first year of wind operations, underscoring wind energy’s continued growth in global popularity. “We are seeing an incredible growth in demand for wind turbines as more countries seek to expand their renewable energy production to help reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and improve their energy security,” said Robert Gleitz, who was appointed general manager for GE’s wind business in the spring of 2005. Wind energy is a key component of GE’s corporate-wide ecomagination initiative to aggressively bring to market new technologies that will help customers meet pressing environmental needs. “For example, in 2006 GE is expanding its line of wind turbines by launching its new multi-megawatt turbine platform in Europe, followed by a similar U.S. and Asia commercial roll-out in 2008,” Gleitz said. GE’s multi-megawatt units build on the experience learned from the company’s global fleet of over 4,000 megawatt-plus wind turbines. Evolving from […]

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