In a sign of the times, Baker Hughes has announced a rebranding effort that will ditch the company’s iconic light-blue color palette for shades of green. The move includes a new logo featuring two over-laying green arrows, which is designed to emphasize the 100-year-old firm’s push to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050.
A company document explains that, “Our logo symbolizes the spirit and purpose of the new Baker Hughes—to take energy forward, making it safer, cleaner, and more efficient for people and the planet.”
As part of the marketing campaign, Baker Hughes has also updated portions of its website to highlight its portfolio of low-carbon technologies. This includes a basket of existing product lines aimed at addressing gas flaring and fugitive methane emissions. The oilfield service company is also touting high-efficiency gas turbines and zero-emission compressor systems—both legacies of the firm’s merger with GE Oil & Gas in 2017.
Last month, the companies announced that this marriage was headed toward a separation agreement after GE decided to accelerate plans to sell off its majority shareholder stake in Baker. The divestiture is part of a broader effort at GE to reduce costs and debt. As part of the agreement, GE will cut its share of Baker Hughes’ board seats from five to one.
Since the merger, Baker Hughes has been known as “Baker Hughes, a GE Company” with a stock ticker of BHGE. That ticker will change next week, according to a representative from Baker Hughes.
In January, Baker Hughes rolled out a plan to reduce its net CO2 emissions from operations by 50% in 2030, compared with its 2012 baseline. The firm aims to reduce or offset emissions to net zero by 2050. The company reports that it has reduced carbon emissions by more than a third since 2012, which includes an 11% reduction last year. Baker Hughes will try to achieve its new goal through a combination of energy efficiency projects, facility consolidations, logistics optimization, and increasing its use of renewable energy.
The firm is also carrying out life-cycle emissions assessments to understand the carbon footprint of various products and services, which will help pinpoint areas where emissions can be driven out of the system. This effort will include Baker Hughes’ own manufacturing lines as well as those of its suppliers.
Baker Hughes’ is not alone in its push for a greener oil and gas industry. Driven by society’s mounting concerns over climate change and the risk of losing the social license to operate, international majors have led this new green push. BP has said it agrees with the 2016 Paris Agreement that calls for the world to move toward net-zero emissions by mid-century to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Shell has issued similar statements outlining its support for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.