Chief executives of two of the nation's largest companies say focusing on environmental challenges is good business.
General Electric Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt and Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott spoke with CNBC in Santa Barbara, California, at the Wall Street Journal's conference on creating environmental capital.
"I think it's important for companies to get ahead of it," Immelt said. "There's probably an 80 percent overlap between fuel efficiency and emissions reduction, so if you sell products today that use less energy, it's kind of a 'twofer' for our customers."
GE, the parent company of CNBC.com, plans to do $25 billion in environmentally-related business annually by 2010.