GE Reports | Your source for what's happening at GE.

The second largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam, Rotterdam boasts the largest port in Europe — and until recently held the title for the largest port on earth. However, it also has another sizable distinction — its CO2 emissions are equal to those of New York, a city with a population more than 10 times greater. Due to that oversized carbon footprint, the Port of Rotterdam, which encompasses about one-third of the greater Rotterdam municipality, has just partnered with GE to find innovative technology solutions that will help turn the bustling commercial hub into a sustainable one.

Their ship’s come in: The agreement is closely tied to GE’s ecomagination and healthymagination initiatives, both of which help meet sustainability goals. Under ecomagination, GE develops solutions and technologies that are energy-efficient while healthymagination works to drive costs out of the system while simultaneously improving quality of care and increasing access. Pictured above is the Port of Rotterdam, seen when the Emma Mærsk is being unloaded. When launched in 2006, it was the largest container ship ever built. Photo: Vincent Jannink/AFP/Getty Images.

A drive for cleaner energy is revving up in Brazil. In the Amazon, an ambitious project aimed at replacing power plants running on heavy fuel-oil with new, cleaner-burning natural gas engines from GE’s ecomagination line of more energy efficient technologies is underway. While near the eastern coast, two new power projects will mark the debut of GE’s wind turbines in the country.

A new group of GE Healthcare’s high-tech products just reached a key milestone — being certified as ecomagination products within the company. To join GE’s ecomagination portfolio, the technologies must complete tough environmental and operational tests that measurably show performance benefits for customers when compared to baselines such as competitors’ best products; the installed base of products; and regulatory standards. A third-party then verifies the claims. In essence, the healthcare technologies not only do their day-jobs — helping save lives — they simultaneously aid healthcare companies and hospitals in reducing costs and waste while positively impacting the environment. With today’s announcement, GE’s ecomagination portfolio of more than 85 products now includes two new healthcare products and three product categories, including the Centricity Enterprise Electronic Medical Record (EMR) solution.

Brazil’s federal energy company, Petrobras, is using sugarcane-based ethanol in a gas turbine system to produce electricity on a full commercial scale — the world’s first such project. They marked the occasion with a celebration today at the plant, which uses two GE gas turbines — one of whose combustors has been modified by GE to enable the use of ethanol.

While the team at GE Global Research was hard at work building Santa’s high-tech sleigh of the future, the folks in GE’s lighting business have been busy stringing up holiday cheer from Paris to Washington. On the famous Champs Elysees this year, “a glittering forest of fuchsia” lights adorn more than 400 trees for two kilometers — and an additional 120 trees are decorated with 30,000 flashing lights to represent the “light from falling stars”. Meanwhile, across the ocean in Washington, D.C., GE’s design of the 2009 National Christmas Tree this year has made it the most energy efficient in history — with LEDs using about 6,000 watts compared to last year’s 18,000 watts.