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GE’s New Urban Forest Honors Grid Solutions Patent and Engineering & Technology Award Winners

The energy transition towards sustainable and renewable energy sources is accelerating worldwide. At GE’s Grid Solutions, concern for the environment is at the core of everything we do. Our aim is to help our customers reduce their energy-related greenhouse gas emissions through various methods of decarbonization.

On March 5, 2022, Claudia Blanco, GE’s Grid Solutions Chief Engineering Operations Leader, joined a team of volunteers in planting 75 cork oak trees to celebrate the 75 Grid Solutions engineers who won a 2021 Patent and Engineering & Technology award. This year, trees were planted in recognition of each winner, rather than sending the usual physical award to the winners across the globe. Winners will be able to geo-locate their newly planted tree and follow its growth thanks to Exploramas, the company in charge of planting each tree, assigning it to the awardees, and providing its GPS coordinates.

Located in Mijas, Spain - an area devastated by fires - GE’s Urban Forest will contribute to mitigating the impact of global warming as cork oak is a tree species with one of the highest carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption rates.

This forest is one example of Grid Solutions’ contribution in support of decarbonization, with an aim to plant more trees in the coming years. GE’s Urban Forest is located in close proximity to one of GE’s sites in Spain, which is now responsible for the care of this forest. Once the trees are fully grown, it is estimated that the forest will offset the equivalent of 337.5 tons of CO2 annually.

“It’s a unique gift that we all benefit from and highlights GE’s commitment to the energy transition,” said Claudia Blanco, Chief Engineering Operations Leader at GE’s Grid Solutions. The initiative also supports the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG13 which is related to climate action. Adopting measures to restore forests softens the impacts of climate change, thus improving our quality of life. The forest will also serve as a home to other wildlife, including animals and insects, generating a new ecosystem and preserving biological diversity.

For a full list of winners, please click here.

To learn more about GE’s Clean Grid commitment: https://www.gegridsolutions.com/cleangrid/