Josh Wolfe is best known for his industry-leading expertise in nanotechnology and likewise his focus is often on small, emerging growth companies.

But ironically, one of his core 'buys' is a company that ranks among the biggest of the big: General Electric (NYSE: GE). In his Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Tech Report, he looks at GE and its leading role in "green" technology.

"General Electric disappointed investors when its quarterly earnings recently fell for the first time in 5 years. Profits fell 5.8% to $4.3 billion and revenues rose 8% to $42.2 billion, short of the expected $44 billion.

"Moreover, GE reduced its 2008 annual earnings forecast, citing seizure of credit markets for struggling operations in its consumer and commercial finance divisions.

"'Green' has become transparent at GE. The missing ingredient to BP's green appeal, it seems, was some element of independent accountability. In 2005, when General Electric CEO Jeffery Immelt launched GE's own brand of green initiative, ecomagination, he hired New York consultant firm GreenOrder to keep score.

The Wall Street Journal [subscription required] reports that General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is getting some pushback from customers and others on CEO Jeff Immelt's push to profit from environmentally-friendly products -- its "ecomagination" campaign.

GE cites some impressive statistics to bolster its claim of campaign success. GE expects to sell $14 billion of its self-described environmentally friendly products in 2007, anticipating 10% annual growth in the category through 2010. (I'd like to know how it defines 'environmentally friendly' products.) And GE says it reduced its own greenhouse-gas emissions by 4% between 2004 and 2006, even as revenue grew 21%.

GE's effort to make money by cleaning up the environment is an admirable concept, but its sales of turbines to coal-fired power plants help utilities burn coal which produces carbon dioxide emissions totaling tens of millions of metric tons each year. And GE's utility industry customers don't find it amusing to learn about Immelt's efforts to lobby the U.S. to reduce carbon dioxide emissions since such limits could cut their profits.

General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) ended that day at $35.61, up 19 cents or 0.54% from its close yesterday. GE recently released that it is getting into helping Isotoner refinance (the gloves company), in a $145 million deal.

Of interest to shareholders is GE's 2007 Annual Meeting of Shareowners. This year it will be held April 25 in Greenville, South Carolina. GE will be talking about the diversity and strength of the conglomerate there.

Interested in alternative energy? The Motley Fool's Paul Elliott makes a case for buying GE as a way to get involved in diversified energies, not just the traditional oil and gas. GE is one of the larger alternative energy investors in the world, and although it sounds counter-intuitive, would be a great way to invest in that long term outlook on energy if one were interested. Maybe, but investing directly in an alternative energy company would free you of the general sluggishness that GE seems to suffer as well, for better or worse. Are any readers in GE for the alternative energy investment out there?

General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) ended the day at $36.22, up 5 cents or 0.14%, holding onto its general upward trend this week, and over the last three months where it has gained some 10%. Not bad at all for a slow moving giant conglomerate. Today GE also announced that is has developed a protoype of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell for large power plants, allowing environmental improvements in power plant operation. This is part of GE's ecomagination program.

Tomorrow morning you can visit here to see liveblogging of GE's earnings report starting at 8:30am. GE is expected to announce growth in all of its segments except for, as usual, NBC/Universal.

GE ended the day at $35.02, up 17 cents or about 0.49%. With gas prices dropping blue chip and manufacturing heavy companies like GE might start looking a lot more attractive to investors. Today's blip upwards could be a result of that. But it could also be renewed confidence in GE's traditionally dragging NBC/Universal division as articles like this Reuters article point out that NBC is looking like it has a somewhat decent Fall schedule lined up.

GE may be rolling out a whole new program investing in Australia and bringing its principles of ecomagination there, but investors will be a lot more interested in seeing NBC pull out of its ratings slump to give GE a shot in the arm.

GE ended the day down 3 cents at $32.65. Not much of a movement for the large corporation. Today saw GE adding two new resins to its plastics division.

In order to beef up its plastics appeal, a division that GE is struggling with according to the last earnings report they gave, this new resin was developed as part of its ecomagination initiative. The resins are made from 85% recycled plastic waste and don't release as much carbon dioxide into the air as they are being manufactured.

It's interesting to see how deep GE's ecomagination initiative goes, all the way down to building materials. One hopes GE's marketing these materials in a more eco-conscious age can give the plastics division a bit of an edge, although it is still easier to point to a wind turbine and say ecomagination than it does to a resin.

GE closed today at $33.73, down 14 cents. The market is tensing right now, waiting for tomorrow's Consumer Price Index reports, and this isn't much of a move for GE, just a blip.

Good news for GE today lay in a report about their electricity production area. The energy division of GE had a rough first quarter, but is showing 10% growth for 2006 in profits. Not shabby. They attribute this to their new coal gasification process that produces a cleaner burn, as well as GE's new launches into nuclear technology. Alternative energy sources are paying off for GE here.

GE ended the day at $34.55, up 33 cents, a neat feat considering that the rest of the market took a dive for the second day running. Despite some awkward news for its NBC division about a potential strike, GE has a run of good news it's reporting.

The first piece is that GE is breaking ground on the world's largest solar panel power plant, another big victory for their Ecomagination campaign. For GE it is a major cross-company focus that pays off by letting them pull to the front and create large alternative energy projects with their backing. GE was in the news yesterday for a large wind turbine deal as well.

GE also showcased technology that will go into upcoming LCD screens, something we're not going to see less of around the world anytime soon, demonstrating that GE's materials division is going strong. Not a bad day for the conglomerate, everything else considered.

GE closed today at $34.22, down 44 cents. Again, many suspect this is thanks to interest rate worries. Meanwhile GE's Ecomagination reeled in a positive result for the company: GE announced today several wind turbine sales to LA and Hawaii.

GE Energy sold 80 turbines to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and in the right, gusty conditions, they're all capable of pumping out 1.5 megawatts of power each They'll be installed near Mojave, 110 miles north of LA. The Hawaii deal is not as big, with only 14 of these wind turbines sold, but that still makes almost 100 wind turbines added to the board for GE's Energy division. Not a bad day for renewable energy.

GE is pushing forward to make alliances with developing countries. As predicted by its CEO, China and India would be two main areas GE would be seeking to make major inroads. It isn't a surprise that GE has struck a deal with China to invest $50 million in a partnership agreement with the Chinese government.

What is really interesting is that GE's partnership is for developing green technologies, another byproduct of the Ecomagination process. The money being used is for energy effeciency and water filtration technologies. GE makes $5 billion in revenues from China, they're hoping that will double by 2010 ...

They're big, sometimes a mile long, and they belch smoke. Normally you think of locomotives as relics of an era that passed along with the cowboy on the open range and women in hoop dresses. Locomotives remain mainly in the realm of fascinated kids and hobbyists with a lot of room in their basements. Trains don't exactly get people as excited as hybrid cars or other new technologies, but they are an example of another niche GE is sliding into and getting some amazing results.

GE's transportation section just hit a major milestone, delivering their 1000th Evolution Series locomotive. The first Evolution locomotive rolled off the assembly only 17 months ago. It's a blistering pace. This particular engine chuffed its way to BNSF railway for delivery.

GE finished out this Tuesday at $34.05, down 28 cents. An interesting downtick considering all the news popping up lately about GE initiatives.

The last few days have been busy for GE. The company delivered the 1,000th Evolution series locomotive, a milestone achievement for its more effecient series of locomotive, an effort which keeps the booming freight rail market in mind. GE is also focusing on developing ties in the global market, with $250 million being invested in the Indian health care market, an area GE think is going to be booming throughout the entire world.

Also of note is GE's $50 million investment in working with China in green technologies, a move which the folks at Worldchanging are keeping a close eye on, as GE is currently the very few major congomerates to be betting on a greener future in a vocal and public way.

Lastly, GE's Finance division jumps into the new media angle by partnering with eBay to offer a credit card. Now you too can dig yourself further into debt thanks to the efforts of both old and new, large and small companies, working together, hand in hand ...

GE's Ecomagination advertising isn't new. By working on green technology it is showing it believes more and more companies will buy green technologies, both as a way to demonstrate to customers that they are interested in taking care of the environment and to save money by having more fuel efficient technology in place.

But how is GE doing itself when it comes to the environment?

In a recent citizenship report GE has some good news. Despite growing operations, GE's emissions have remained flat over the last year, in keeping with its goal of actually reducing emissions by 2012 while continuing to expand. Because GE grew over the last year, its emissions intensity has actually gotten more efficient, with 74.26 tons of emissions being put out per million dollars in 2005. That's a drop from the 82.64 tons the year before and equals an almost 10% increase in efficiency.

Today GE released its report on how the Ecomagination initiative is doing for GE. Now that we're in the middle of higher gas prices, and ecological concerns out in the public, Ecomagination seems a preternatural move on the part of GE. Now the pitch that green technology is not just a conscientious move, but a simple money saving move for corporations is not quite as 'out there' as it was when GE first rolled this out. It becomes increasingly obvious this is not publicity stunt to clean up GE's image, but a clear indication of GE getting ahead of the game.

GE's Ecomagination products have increased revenues to $10.1 billion, up from $6.2 billion the year before. Orders for Ecomagination products have doubled.

You've see the commercials: the happy elephant skipping and dancing around to the tune 'singing in the rain' in a lush forest, the animals peeking over the clouds to look at the airplane, while GE announces it's 'ecomagination' commitment. My favorite is the shirtless Gap models sweating in the coal mine because of the complete disconnect with any sort of reality to the dirty and life-endangering job itself of mining coal. This campaign has been a big attempt by GE to look friendlier and fall more in line with consumer worries about mega-corporations and their impact on the world around us. But  how is GE actually doing in the green and friendly department? Are they all Kermit on us yet or just puppeting a line to sell more goods?

The truth is actually that like any smart and well diversified company, GE is stretching its research arms out into various methods of producing energy. A research giant of the world, GE recently took on a contract with the state of California (the most totally Kermit of all states) to study how higher levels of renewable energy would impact the state's power grid. Wind power is a clean energy source, but varies with the wind and doesn't produce a consistent and controllable trickle of energy. A grid could have trouble with massive amounts of these kind of energy sources. GE will research how to handle it, and previously did a similar study for New York state.

If you're looking for the world's largest solar panel array, you need look no further than Lisbon, where GE is helping fund the building of an 11 mega-watt solar panel array in one of Europe's sunnier spots in Portugal. GE is at close to $1 billion dollars worth of renewable energy investments by their financial arm.

Meanwhile GE is also trying to build better tires, with an added side effect of giving better gas mileage. Another drop in the bucket, but when you look across the breadth of this large company, it becomes clear that it isn't just the advertising side of the company pushing the ecomagination concept.

And if you just really like their ecomagination ads, the one second theater might intrigue you. Pause the ad in just the right place and you can read about 'Elli' the elephant, or how the ad got made. Or if you are in a friendly mood, you can always just friend the elephant on Myspace.