GE Is Rewriting The Book

Now that annual report season has passed, it's time for the corporate citizenship reports. This year, General Electric (GE) joins a growing crowd of big companies, such as Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Gap (GPS), and IBM (IBM), that issue comprehensive statements about their efforts in governance, the environment, and corporate responsibility. And in true GE fashion, its first report -- titled simply "Our Actions" -- is causing a stir. Unusually long at 77 pages, it is packed with the precise metrics and robust goals that define GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt's approach to quality control and staff evaluation. GE wouldn't say how much it spent on the yearlong project.

Investors applauded GE's candor on sensitive topics such as its health-and-safety record. We're told, for instance, that GE paid more than $1 million in air- and waste-emission penalties over the past two years. But analysts said GE could have been more forthcoming about its PCB contamination of the Hudson River and its fight against the federal Superfund law.