GE and a group of high-profile venture capital companies recently invested $22 million in San Francisco-based Project Frog, a developer of sustainable building solutions. GE, which led the investment round, also began construction of one of Project Frog's prefabricated environmentally sustainable buildings at its Learning Center in Ossining, N.Y.

Project Frog’s technology improves traditional building construction methods by combining semi-custom designs with a pre-engineered kit of energy-efficient building components. The kits are delivered to project sites ready for assembly, and typically take one to six months to construct —- less than half the time required for traditional construction. Project Frog says its buildings use at least 25 percent less energy than the strictest building codes in the U.S.