Improving Sustainability at General Electric (GE)

Improving Sustainability at General Electric (GE) INTRODUCTION The General Electric Company (GE from henceforth) is an American Multinational Conglomerate founded in 1892 by the merger of American Inventor Thomas Alva Edisons Edison General Electric Company and Thomson-Houston Electric Company .GE currently operates simultaneously in five diverse business sectors namely: Energy (e.g. oil and gas), Media (as NBC Universal in areas such as cable and film), Technology Infrastructure (e.g. Aviation and Healthcare), Home and Business Solutions(Appliances and Intelligent platforms) and Finance ( as GE Capital involved in both commercial and consumer finance). GE currently has businesses in about 160 countries and about 300,000 employees around the globe. The companys headquarters is located at 3135 Easton Turnpike, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA. As a global conglomerate GE has had a controversial history with regards to air and water pollution dating back to the late 1940s and had always been a target of criticism from public officials and environmentalists in the US. However, things took a turn for the better when on the 9th of May, 2005 GEs CEO Jeffery Immelt announced the companys new environmental initiative called Ecomagination. In Mr Immelts words, the aim of the initiative is to focus our unique energy, technology, manufacturing, and infrastructure capabilities to develop tomorrows solutions such as solar energy, hybrid locomotives, fuel cells, lower-emission aircraft engines, lighter and stronger materials, efficient lighting, and water purification technology. As can be observed, the adoption of such an initiative was very bold especially given the large size of GE and it numerous businesses around the globe; nevertheless, the initiative was implemented across the entire company and is currently in its sixth year of operation. As Ecomagination is GEs main sustainability programme, the documents retrieved from the company and used for the purpose of this workbook are in the form of Annual Sustainability Reports which are publicly available at the Ecomagination website (http://ge.ecomagination.com/report.html). The reports are currently available for the years 2005 to 2009 in PDF format and can be downloaded and viewed by the public. IMPROVING SUSTAINABILITY AT GE As mentioned in the introduction, GE has sought to quell criticism of its environmental records and improve its sustainability by implementing a company-wide sustainability initiative launched in 2005 called Ecomagination. The initiative encompasses an array of changes and commitments forming a broad strategy that is implemented with the aim of not just making GE a global leader in terms of sustainability, but also with the accompanying belief that commitment towards sustainable practices, products and services will give GE a competitive advantage and is therefore worth the effort and any initial costs. In order to achieve its goals of becoming a more sustainable company and to increase their overall sustainability performance, GE through Ecomagination has committed to taking the following concrete steps: Reduce water use and improve water reuse: As of 2006 GEs freshwater was totalling about 15.3 billion gallons and so the company announced its goal of cutting consumption by 20% by 2012. By 2009, GEs water usage was down 30% to about10.7 billion gallons which further prompted the company to set a modified goal of aiming for a 25% reduction by 2015. One way GE was able to reduce its freshwater consumption was by conducting Kaizen blitz water reduction events at three of the largest consumption sites;according to GE reports, the Kaizan approach employs multi-functional teams tasked with spending a concentrated week studying water usage at a given facility with the ultimate aim of developing water reduction projects. Double investments in clean Research and Development: At the launch of Ecomagination, GE committed to increase its RD spending on clean technologies from about $700 million in 2004 to $1.5 billion by 2010; by the end of 2009 a total of about $5 billion had been spent on RD for clean technologies which according to GE reports generated about $70 billion in revenue thanks to the new technologies and products from the Ecomagination initiative. In light of this, in 2010 GE announced a commitment to invest an additional $10 billion in Ecomagination by 2015. Reduce Greenhouse Emissions and improve Energy efficiency of its current operations: At the launch of Ecomagination, setting 2004 as a baseline GE made a commitment to cut 1% of its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2012 and reduce the intensity of its GHG emissions 30% by 2008. As of 2011, GE has been successful in cutting GHG emission by 22% and also reduced the intensity of its GHG emissions by 39%. According to GE reports, overall energy intensity has improved by 34% and the company hopes to improve by up to 50% for all its operations by 2015. Increase revenues from Ecomagination products: In 2009, revenues from Ecomagination grew by 6% to about $18 billion despite the financial crisis. GE projects Ecomagination revenues to continue to grow at double the rate of total GE revenues in the next five years and eventually account for a larger proportion of total sales. Communicate with the public: GE has resorted to keeping communication channels open and also engaging more with the public regarding Ecomagination efforts. For example, as part of its $200 million innovation experiment, the company announced the Ecomagination Challenge running from January to March which encourages entrepreneurs, students etc. to present ideas for future clean energy technologies with the top 5 entries to be awarded $100,000 each. GEs STAGE OF CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY Employing the concept of the Six phases of corporate sustainability as mentioned by Dexter Dunphy and Jodie Benveniste in their book entitled Sustainability: The Corporate Challenge of the 21st Century, one would place GE in the strategic sustainability. Specifically, GE is a HS5 in terms of Human Sustainability and simultaneously an ES5 in terms of Ecological sustainability. The justification for place GE in the HS5 category of the strategic sustainability phase has to do with the fact that as a company GE has a well-documented history of human development and training programmes that is part of the GE culture. At the centre of this is John F Welch (Jack) Leadership Development Centre established in 1956 and named after Jack Welch the famous ex-CEO of GE who believed in the principle that a company was only as good as it people. Currently GE invests about $1 billion annually on training and education programmes for GE employees. Now, it could be argued that given GEs long standing commitment to Human sustainability, one should place them as a HS6 (Ideological Commitment Phase); this argument is debateable and for the purpose of this workbook, GE is placed as a HS5 because even though it scores high on development and training, its policies are very strict and its culture very competitive which has led to the consistent termination of the underperforming 20% of its workforce. As a result one could argue that although GE invests much in its people, its culture does not put too much effort in aiding underperformers and simply cuts them off. On the other hand, in terms of Ecological sustainability GE is labelled as an ES5 thanks in large part to the launch of its Ecomgination initiative in 2005. Given the fact that GE is over a century old, its decision to make sustainability in 2005 was bold and historic one and going into the future, one can expect the initiative to be implement across all its business around the globe due in large part to its very strong culture. Put in perspective, as a company GE has progressed through a long phase of active antagonism in its early years, through the indifference phase for most of the 80s and 90s before finally making a strong commitment in 2005 with the announcement of Ecomagination. Recently GE has been very active in the area of sustainability from cutting emissions and water usage to investing in clean technologies and seeking ideas from the public, the company has been ranked on various indices as one of the top five sustainability leaders over the past five years. Also the arg ument could be made that GE should be labelled as an ES6, while true, the fact is that given the large size of a company like GE and its numerous businesses in diverse sectors across the globe its sustainability polices will need time to be fully implemented and assessed. GEs COVERAGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL DIMENSIONS CLIMATE CHANGE: Taking into account the large size and global reach of GE as a company, climate change can be highlighted as a key issue that poses a challenge for GE moving forward. In light of this fact, as part of the Ecomagination initiative GE has been able to successfully cut its GHG emissions by 22% and also reduced its GHG intensity by 39%, using 2004 as a baseline. Figure 1 below shows the distribution of operational GHG emissions by GE in 2009 according to type : Source: GE GHG Inventory As observed 85% of their emissions are made up of CO2 while 13% are consist of HFCs which are usually emitted during foam-blowing operations at its refrigerator manufacturing plants, in total they accounted for approximately 98% of GEs emissions in that year. In order to tackle the problem GE has established a GHG inventory modelled after the World Resources Institute/World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WRI/WBCSD) protocol. Going by this inventory GE employs the control approach which accounts for GHG emissions over which the Company has control; the protocol is subdivided into three scope categories namely: Scope 1 which accounts for direct GHG emissions from sources under the control of the reporting company, Scope 2 which accounts for indirect emissions imported or purchased electricity, water or steam and finally Scope 3 which accounts for indirect emissions which result from a reporting companys activities but occur from sources belonging to another entity. WATER: As was highlighted earlier on, from 2006 to 2009 GE successfully cut its freshwater consumption by 30% and is on pace for an additional 25% reduction by 2015. . This was achievable through the installation of GE sensing ultrasonic flow meters which was installed at the largest water consumption site. The sensors provided a more accurate measure of the total flow from 2006 and led to the discovery of an overestimation of about 2.2 billion gallons from the figures previously calculated. In addition, more concrete steps were taken to address water usage such as the replacement of single-speed pumps with new variable frequency drive pumps, improved valve operation and as well as the previously mentioned the running of Kaizen blitz water reduction events to name a few. In addition, GE currently has a project underway aimed at reducing its global water usage by about 5%, the project is running at one of its US plants and employs the use of GE water process technology equipment in t he form of nanofilteration and ultrafilteration technologies to recycle and reuse water. In addition, GE has also established a water inventory protocol based on the previously mentioned WRI/WBCSD GHG protocol. As a feature of this, GE employs a control approach and accounts for freshwater use at so called criteria sites. The criteria sites are simply any GE sites that use a total of 15 million gallons or more annually from a 2006 baseline and subsequently. Quality assurance is another measure by GE that has been implemented with the aim of increasing the accuracy of the water use inventory and eliminating and accounting for errors. WASTE MANAGEMENT: In regards to waste management GE gathers data for all of its operations that generate more than 100 metric tons of hazardous waste and/or more than 500 metric tons of non-hazardous industrial waste. Currently there are three broad schemes put in place to specifically address waste management. The first is the Waste Site Qualification Programme (WSQP) which ensures that waste generated by GE is taken through recycling, treatment and disposal facilities that meet GE rigorous environmental and safety standards. The standards require waste management sites to improve their facilities beyond set local standards in order to gain GE approval because GE sites can only use GE approved facilities regardless of the amount of waste they generate. As of 2009 the WSQP programme has been expanded to about 500 GE manufacturing locations globally. Next in GEs waste management scheme are reportable spills through which GE tracks any spill on or from a site that is reportable to regulatory authorities. As of 2005 GE divided the spills into spills/releases to water such as lake, ocean etc. and spills/releases not to water consisting of any other kind(s) of spills. Lastly, GE has an operational leaders Environment, Health, Safety (EHS) training manuals that provide information on how to identify waste reduction opportunities through the use of lean manufacturing technologies. GEs CONTRIBUTION TO WIDER ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE WAGES AND BENEFITS: With GE currently operating in more than 100 countries around the globe, the company is very active in terms of job creation and employee development. As shown in Figure 2 below, taking into account its total global workforce of about 300,000 people in 2009, about 154,000 people were non-US showing its interest in hiring and developing local people. Source: GE Metrics In addition, GE provides benefits to it employees beyond their normal salaries that is aimed at ensuring heir financial security. It provides a variety of benefit packages to eligible employees across its various businesses around the globe such as retirement and health benefit plans that cover employees and their families. According to GE data, it currently has an assortment of pension plans that provide cover for close to 635,000 employees and retirees around the globe. SHARE VALUE AND RETURN ON INVESTMENT: An examination of GEs stock price from the 1st April, 2010 to 1st April, 2011 shows an increase of about a $2 rise from $18.33 to $20.34 signifying an increase in value for shareholders in spite of the recent recession. Also GEs financial statement at the fiscal year ending 2010 shows the company made a gross profit of over $11 billion, once again confirming the fact that it is providing investors a significant return on their investments. GOVERNMENT TAXES AND FEES: In addition, GE also paid out close to $1 billion in income taxes to the government. USE OF LOCAL SUPPLIERS AND SUPPORT FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES: In an effort to enhance its supply chain management, GE launched a Supplier Diversity Programme in 1974. The aim of the programme is to engage diverse groups of suppliers in order to enhance economic opportunity; according to the GE the core components of the programme are National Minority Development Council, Womens Business Enterprise National Council and a host of state and local development councils. Source: GE Metrics Figure 3 above shows a 2009 distribution of GEs assessments of potential suppliers by region, its findings and the categories of its finding based on the issue(s) of concern. According to reports, GE employs and eyes always open approach in terms of assessment by investigating concerns raised by external sources such as the press reports and pursuing corrective measures immediately. SUSTAINABLE OF PRODUCTS/SERVICES According to GEs 2009 Ecomagination report, revenues grew by about 6% to $18 billion courtesy of products launched under the initiative. GE currently uses an Ecomagination Product Review (EPR) to determine not only which offerings are included in the Ecomagination portfolio but also to ensure that the products improve customers value proposition and environmental performance. In addition, GE has developed a process for what it terms New Product Introduction (NPI) which focuses on consumer needs and views environmental performance as a key customer priority. This exemplifies GEs cradle to grave approach of being a responsible corporate citizen by not focusing solely on commercial factors but also environmental and health impacts of their products and services. As a global conglomerate, GE is involved in the provision of a diverse set of products and services from appliances and aviation to healthcare and financial services. As Figure 4 shows below, most of GEs revenue is derived from offering financial services through GE Capital and as such most people even label it as a financial company with a manufacturing arm. Source: GE Metrics The manufacturing arm in the form of the provision of technology infrastructure is another of GEs significant business units and perhaps the most well-known. Taking these facts into account, this workbook will focus briefly on how these two major GE businesses (GE Capital and GE Technology Infrastructure) and their products could be made more sustainable. GE Capital: As mentioned earlier, GE has invested significantly in cleaner technologies and is also involved in financing and providing loans to support external businesses with a focus on innovative and sustainable practices and products. In an effort to make GE Capital more sustainable, GE could gradually consider putting more resources in telecommuting; by doing this there will be less need for large GE buildings and offices around the globe. In addition, it could lead the way by installing most of the innovative technologies derived from its Ecomagination initiative at its GE Capital offices. GE Technology Infrastructure: As GEs major manufacturing arm has made significant gains especially by focusing on the production of more sustainable products via the Ecomagination initiative. As a global manufacturing force with most of its products available in a range of places such homes, airports, banks and schools to name a few, GE has a great avenue to influence a global shift to the use of more sustainable products. GE can also improve this business unit, by making a conscious effort to minimize emission, water usage and improving waste management. There is no doubt that this is probably the division with the most sustainability concern due to the nature of the operations involved in the production process, as such GE would do well to also invite external evaluators to assess its plants and provide more sustainable solutions to enhance its production process. ETHICAL CULTURE GE is well known for its strong company culture and its integrity policy is laid out in a document entitled the spirit and the letter which all employees are required to pledge to and sign. This is accompanied by an ombudsman process that allows employees to raise and report ethical concerns with impunity. GEs integrity policy covers the following parties: Directors, Employees, Officers, Subsidiaries and Controlled Affiliates, Non- Controlled Affiliates and all Third parties representing GE. Specifically, all employees are expected to understand GEs policies and are obligated to raise any concerns they have while leaders are obligated to prevent compliance issues from arising, detect them when and if they arise and respond to them expediently. From close examination, one can observe that GEs integrity policy is quite plain and easy to understand, it is specific and detailed as it lays out the following: The parties bound to the policy. What is expected of the parties in terms of compliance and their obligations An exhaustible list of various channels and steps to be taken in terms of reporting concerns. It explains how and when the process will be carried out The penalties involved when the policy is violated And most importantly a bold statement that prohibits and punishes any form of retaliation against those who raise concerns. The integrity policy covers a broad range of parties and lays out in details how those parties are to be treated and how related ethical concerns are to be treated. A snapshot of this is a follows: Employees: With regards to its staff, their rights, obligations and expected conduct is laid out at the beginning of the integrity policy. For instance, employees are encouraged to raise concerns early, they also have the right to remain anonymous but can choose not to, their confidentiality is respected and most of it is clearly emphasized that retaliation is prohibited. Customers: Regarding the treatment of customers, all forms of improper payments are prohibited and guidelines are provide on how to deal with various potential scenarios; however, reasonable expenditures and gifts are acceptable but subject to corporate guidelines. Suppliers: GEs suppliers are also expected to abide by lawful guidelines such as fair work practices and quality standards. Overall, they are expected to abide by national laws and regulations and also ensure the safeguarding of confidential information. Wider Community: GEs integrity policy also provides guidelines for dealing with governments, preventing money laundering, safeguarding clients privacy, ensuring fair competition and dealing with local communities. The policy is very specific and provides clear expectations and steps on how to deal with the aforementioned members of the wider community. It is evident that GE has parlayed it long experience in doing business around the globe into creating an ethical code of conduct that is unambiguous and rigorous in addressing all stakeholders in its businesses around the world. KNOWLEDGE REVIEW FEATURES OF EFFECTIVE SUSTAINABILITY MONITORING SYSTEMS The issue of sustainability has become more serious and highly debated in recent times, given the large amount of companies that claim to be committed to sustainable practices and products, this section will provide an annotated bibliography that reviews the features of effective sustainability monitoring systems. By doing this, the aim is to gain perspectives from experts in the field of sustainability that lay out what effective sustainability monitoring systems should contain and as such provide use with a set of requirements with which to assess the currents systems being implemented by various companies today.

I Love Yous Are for White People Essay

In the book â€Å"I Love Yous Are for White People† Lac’s quest for acceptance takes him through an intense journey to acquire self love and acceptance. The author Lac Su navigates through his childhood and adolescence seeking an extraordinary desire for love, acceptance and belonging he has been deprived from by his family. During his journey, Lac attempts to gain acceptance by friends and family, no matter what the consequences are. Lac Su’s upbringing was without much love and nurturing. His father was abusive, physically and mentally. For seemingly menial issues Lac would get a beating, one of those examples would be when he would get homework answers wrong. His father would grab anything that he could get his hands on to beat him. Lac stated that his father would grab â€Å"the plastic rod from the mini blinds, a spatula, a rice bowl, a fishing rod, my notebook, a radio antenna, a wooden yard stick, and a broom handle before settling on an extension cord as his weapon of choice. † (p62). Lac clearly was beaten often; his home life did not include any love, rather physical assaults and degradation. The impact of the blows grow dull and impersonal; I feel less of each new layer he adds to the wounds. † (113) Due to the horrid amount of beatings Lac Su would have to endure, he created a surreal world when it came to his home life. He learned to cope with the pain and impersonalize it in order for him to make it through the mental and physical abuses. Lac really had no other way to cope with the abuse be sides impersonalizing it. He disassociated himself from his pain both physically and internally due to the psychological absence from his family. Being a human being and needing some sort of approval, he sought after the love and attention he desperately craved for outside of his home. Outside of his home, Lac was able to exercise his other faculties which eventually made him feel more human, more loved and accepted.. He compensated the lack of feeling numb; therefore, he took the necessary consequences to feel more alive. Trying to gain a friend was one way to fulfill Lac’s need for acceptance and love. Lac’s desperate desire for a friend had him take drastic measures such as stealing. He would steal money from his parents’ piggy bank even though he knew that they were financially struggling. He was isolated from his family and the real world; therefore, he attempted to buy his way into a relationship: â€Å"I think I’m almost there. Last week, Javi brought me over to his house to show me his basketball card collection. His mother even made me a bean burrito and homemade horchata. I’m also hanging out with him at school every day. Javi lets me cut in line at lunch, and he always picks me to be on his team when we play socco – and his team always wins. After a long cold winter of solitude it feels like things are warming up – it feels like I belong. † (108) The acceptance of Lac from Javi gave Lac a sense of belonging. He felt belonging when he would be picked by Javi to be on his team and also due to Javi hanging out with Lac at school. Before Javi, Lac had no friends at all to hang out with, he felt like a looser. Javi provided Lac with his friendship; however, this came at a price. Lac could care less. â€Å"When I have money, we’re playing Spy Hunter. I don’t mind because Javi’s reliance on my money gives the impression that we’re tight. (94) The sense of belonging even if it pertained to Lac’s money was much more than the lack of love and respect Lac was receiving at home. To Lac the only important thing was gaining a friend who somehow portrayed a sense love and belonging. In this case, Javi would hang out with Lac at school, take Lac to his house, pick him to be on his team al l in return for Lac’s funding of his games. Lac also made friends with a boy whose street name is Frog. Frogs older brothers are in a gang called the Kingsley Street Gang. The Kingsley Street Gang intimidates Lac; however, their acknowledgement of Lac makes him feel accepted. Despite my insecurity, nothing bad ever happens to me when I’m around them, except for the occasional racist jokes aimed in my direction. But even the teasing makes me feel accepted. † (85) Lac’s insecurities came from not being able to adapt with the American norms. His family did not help him to adapt; instead, they made him feel isolated by not being there for him. His father did not validate Lac which caused Lac to have to deal with his insecurities on his own. Lac knows that the Kingsley Street Gang boys are intimidating for numerous reasons. Their tattoos, their macho ttitude and outfits; however, even being around these people does not stop Lac to be friends with them due to their acknowledgement of Lac. Since Lac was unable to get the acceptance of his father, he finds a substitute in the Kingsley Street Boys. Their acknowledgement gives Lac a sense of acceptance, love and fulfills some of his desires. The reason he also likes hanging out with the Kingsley Street Gang is because of some form of protection Lac is trying to have. The Kingsley Street Gang is consisted of boys who look tough and act as if they are not scared of anything; they somewhat resemble Lac’s father. Lac could be seeking protection from these boys in the gang due to the physical and mental abuse he has to go through on a daily bases. In some ways these boys gave Lac the opportunity to feel accepted; however, Lac was never able to open up to these boys and have a close relationship with them. This was because they did not have many commonalities culturally. They did not understand where Lac was coming from, instead of being there for him; they would make racist jokes due to not understanding what Lac was really going through. â€Å"I can’t believe it; Dragon Head is actually talking to me. He is approaching me because of the one thing I’ve never done in public—speak Vietnamese. † (139) Dragon Head is a leader of a gang called the Street Ratz. Lac immediately bonded with Dragon Head due to their similarities. They both are Vietnamese, speak the language and have the same background. It was only natural that Lac would try to be a part of the Street Ratz due to the commonalities he had with them and for the acceptance he desperately was searching for. â€Å"The Street Ratz have treated me like family, even though I’m not a member of their graffiti gang. It’s comforting to have peers with the same interests. (156) The Street Ratz understood where Lac was coming from culturally; therefore, the way they interacted with Lac was more common to Lac and this made him fit in. In some ways they knew what his family life was like and they too sought after love and acceptance, and the way they found it was by from forming a gang and being there for each other. Due to their commonalities the bond Lac shared with boys especially with Dragon Head was very strong. â€Å"I don’t even know where to begin telling Dragon Head what keeps me up at night. But I sense he understands me anyways. (162) Both Dragon Head and Lac understood each other clearly, no words needed to be said. They both were going through similar issues. Through the Street Ratz Lac was able to escape his physical and mental abuse. He felt like that for once he truly fits in and that others understand where he is coming from. This also came at a price, the Street Ratz had bad reputations. For the acceptance, Lac was battling between being a part of the gang or doing the right thing and getting out. He was unable to escape from the love and acceptances the Street Ratz were providing him with. This was the reason Lac was involved in a few vile crimes which he was unable to get out of due to his emotional connection and acceptance from the Street Ratz. Not only did Lac try to seek acceptance outside of his home but also, he tried to be accepted by his father. â€Å"The real poverty is inside my house – where I go to bed hungry most nights, where I’m starved for affection, and where my father’s unpredictable anger has us walking on eggshells. † (81) The lack of affection from Lac’s father was making Lac crave it even more. He needed the assurance of his father, the love and affection from him; however, he never got it. Instead he would get beatings due to his father’s unstable stage of mind and his unawareness on how to be a father. â€Å"I don’t know quite what being smart is in his eyes, but I want to be that for him. †(62) Lac clearly tried to be exactly what his father wanted him to be. Being abused by his father clearly had nothing to do with what Lac was doing. He tried to be a good boy, he tried because he wanted to fulfill the emptiness he was feeling due to the lack of emotional connection he had with his father. Lacs father’s physical and mental abuse was the root cause of Lac’s low self esteem and for his desire to belong and to be accepted by others. If Lac would have received the affection he deserved as a child, his intense journey to acquire self love and acceptance would not have led him to befriend people who were bad influences in his life. Lac would have thrived in school and in life without having to make painful mistakes. Like many abused children, Lac Su may live his life always trying to please others for acceptance and love which he was lacking in his childhood.

Preparation of Identification by Ir and Nmr Spectroscopy Essay

The reactive acid chloride can then be treated with a primary or secondary amine to give the amide along with HCl, which reacts with the excess amine to give an alkylammonium chloride salt. The mechanism of this process is shown on the following page in Scheme 22: [pic] Scheme 2 To carry out this reaction, the apparatus shown in Figure 1 will be assembled. The apparatus must be dry, since thionyl chloride will react with water to give sulfur dioxide and hydrogen chloride. The acid chloride will then be cooled to room temperature and dissolved in anhydrous ether. Ice-cold diethylamine will be added as a solution in anhydrous ether to form the amide. The resulting ether mixture will washed with aqueous sodium hydroxide (to remove any excess acid chloride), then washed with hydrochloric acid (to remove any excess diethylamine). The resulting ether solution of DEET will be dried and evaporated to yield the crude product, which will then be purified by column chromatography to afford pure DEET. The percent yield from m-toluic acid will be determined and the product will be analyzed by transmission infrared spectroscopy (IR) as a neat sample using NaCl plates5 to confirm its structure by (1) looking at the major absorptions and comparing them to a correlation table6 and (2) by comparing the spectrum to that of an authentic sample. Thionyl chloride is toxic and corrosive! Do not breath the vapors! Use in a hood! When heating a reaction apparatus, be sure that it is open to the air so that pressure build up and subsequent rupture of the apparatus does not occur. When heating liquids, make sure the liquid is stirred (or a boiling chip is added) to prevent â€Å"bumping†. When performing an extraction, make sure to vent the separatory funnel often to prevent pressure build-up. The apparatus shown in Figure 1 was assembled. The 10-mL reaction flask was charged with 0. 275 g of m-toluic acid (0. 0020 mol) and 0. 30 mL of thionyl chloride (0. 492 g, 0. 0041 mol). The condenser water was started, and the mixture was gently heated with stirring on an aluminum block (block temp ~ 90 oC) until boiling started. The reaction mixture was then gently boiled for about 15 minutes. After the boiling period was finished, the reaction mixture was cooled to room temperature. 4. 0 mL of anhydrous ether were added, and the mixture was stirred at room temperature until a homogeneous mixture was obtained. To this solution was added (dropwise over a 15 minute period) a solution of 0. 6 mL of cold (0 oC) diethylamine (0. 462 g, 0. 0063 mol) in 1. 33 mL of anhydrous ether. During the addition, a thick white cloud of diethylamine hydrochloride was formed. After complete addition, the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature for about 10 minutes. 10% aqueous sodium hydroxide (2 mL) was then added, and the reaction mixture was stirred for an additional 15 minutes at room temperature, then poured into a separatory funnel and allowed to separate. The aqueous layer was discarded, and the organic layer was washed with an additional portion of 10% aqueous sodium hydroxide (2 mL), followed by a portion of 10% hydrochloric acid (2 mL). The organic layer was washed with water (2 mL), dried (Na2SO4) and evaporated to yield crude N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide as dark brown liquid. The crude product was filtered through a short alumina column using hexane as the eluent (~ 5 mL). The hexane solution was evaporated to give 0. 340 g of pure N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide as a yellow liquid. Reaction of m-toluic acid with thionyl chloride, followed by diethylamine produced 0. 340 g of a yellow liquid the IR spectrum of which unequivocally showed the presence of the amide carbonyl functional group at 1633 cm-1. In addition, absorptions due to aliphatic C-H (2980 – 2880 cm-1), and aromatic C=C (at 1585 cm-1). The IR spectrum is attached to this report. These data are consistent with the structure of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET), shown in Figure 2 below: [pic] Figure 2: N,N-Diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET) In addition, the IR of the product closely corresponds with that of an authentic sample of N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET) shown in the lab text. 9 Also, the 1H-NMR shows the presence of four (4) aromatic protons in the region 7. 3 – 7. 1 ppm, as well as a three (3) proton singlet at 2. 35 ppm, which corresponds to the benzylic methyl group. The presence of two ethyl groups is clearly shown by the presence of two quartets which integrate to 2 protons each at 3. 53 and 3. 24 ppm, and two triplets which integrate to 3 protons each at 1. 23 and 1. 09 ppm.

1984 - Character Development Requires a Conflict Essay

1984 Essay – by Len Farag In â€Å"1984† by George Orwell, the main character, Winston is in conflict in nearly every page of the book. He is in constant surveillance by the Party. He has also, as the text describes, had problems with his relationship with Katherine, in the past. With the rule of the Party, comes the constant control of the omnipresent, Big Brother. He controls everything, from living conditions to how much chocolate is allowed to be given to any member of Oceania. There is also the constant fear of betrayal. When considering these restrictions and frustrations placed onto Winston and every individual in Oceania, the statement: â€Å"A character in conflict is necessary to any text† is supported and evident in the text. Winston,†¦show more content†¦People are trained like dogs, to show no emotion towards others and that relationships are only permitted for the benefit of the Party only. If it is not necessary for the Parties survival than the emotion becomes against the law and the infamous Thought Police are a constant reminder of this reality. One of these relationships is sexual ones. A sexual act is only permitted to procreate, to create new members of the Party. All other aspects of sex are viewed as useless and not needed for the continuity of the Party. Obrien states to Winston: ‘Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now.’ The sentences are short, like dot points are. This could be to clarify the points that Orwell is trying to make. As Obrien has stat ed to Winston, the orgasm is unnecessary to the thriving of the Party and is thus getting eradicated, as well as the sex instinct. There are two similes in this passage. The first one, referring to eggs taken from a hen, is a pointer to the future of the Party. There will be no love between a mother and her children, her children will be harvested and indoctrinated at an early age. The second simile is the other one talking about a ration card. A ration card was issued by the government for the holder to obtain certain foods. They wereShow MoreRelatedEthical Decision Making And Religious Faith Essay1244 Words   |  5 PagesBut it might also be applied towards everyday civilian study as well. For instance, the United States Marine Corps have been built on a foundation of strong moral values. These are the principled beliefs that shape recruits into men and women of character. Equipped with this skillset they can and can be called upon to make hard rapid decisions in unfavorable situations and increase the likelihood of making solid ethical decisions. 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