This Tuesday GE released its new citizenship report – less than one week after it launched its $200m innovation challenge (see two stories below).  Its ‘highlights’ are billed as:

* Details of a reconvened Expert Advisory Panel

* Updates on GE’s human rights statement of principles implementation, product innovation in emerging markets, public policy engagement, and reporting on greenhouse gas emissions and water use

* A letter from the Director and Chairman of the Public Responsibilities Committee

Ecomagination is arguably the most exciting example of large scale industrial sustainable revolution so far this century. In the first five years since launch, it has generated $70 billion in revenues, with GE investing $5 billion in R&D. It now represents over 30% of the company’s overall revenue, and it has sprouted an impressive portfolio of over 90 clean-tech products including localised innovations in developing markets.

And the report’s launch leads on the story of a reconvened advisory panel…

Why would such an important vision and such exciting innovation be presented with so little dynamism? How could such impressive capital expenditure be so poorly capitalised? And can the report’s writers really think this news is only relevant for ‘expert’ audiences – and that even they wouldn’t appreciate a bit more of an entrée?

And when, oh when, will companies’ CSR and Comms counterparts start working together on this stuff?