Product Sustainability Index

Ford’s European operations have been leading our efforts to incorporate the principles of designing for sustainability and the use of a lifecycle management approach. Ford began integrating Design for Environment principles into the product development process in the early 1990s. Initially, we focused on designing our vehicles to facilitate end-of-life disassembly and recycling by taking into account the accessibility of parts to be disassembled, the type and number of different fasteners used and the marking of parts for easy identification. Based on several studies, however, it became clear that focusing on a single lifecycle phase (e.g., end of life) leads to sub-optimizations and potentially increased impacts in other lifecycle phases.

Since then, we have shifted our focus to include a more comprehensive lifecycle approach to improving the sustainability of our vehicles. This focus incorporates the material and component production phase and the use phase, in addition to the end-of-life phase. Since 2002 we have been applying, as a sustainability management tool, the Product Sustainability Index, or PSI, in the development of all of our major new European vehicles. This tool follows a holistic Design for Sustainability approach that incorporates societal and economic aspects as well as environmental aspects1 into our lifecycle analysis and design approach.

Ford’s PSI tracks eight product attributes identified as key sustainability elements of a vehicle: lifecycle global warming potential (mainly carbon dioxide emissions); lifecycle air-quality potential (other air emissions); the use of sustainable materials (recycled and renewable materials); vehicle interior air quality (including allergy certification from TÜV Rheinland, a product-testing organization); exterior noise impact (drive-by noise); safety (for occupants and pedestrians); mobility capability (seat and luggage capacity relative to vehicle size); and lifecycle ownership costs (full costs for the customer over the first three years).

The PSI process has been used to develop the 2006 Ford S-MAX and Galaxy, as well as the 2007 Mondeo, 2008 Kuga, 2009 Fiesta and 2011 Focus. The Focus is the first Ford vehicle developed using the PSI system that is being sold globally. As a result of using the PSI assessment system, all of these models have shown improvements in environmental, social and/or economic performance when compared to the previous models. The chart below shows specific performance and areas of improvement for each model. The PSI will be used on all future products developed by Ford of Europe. Detailed reports on the PSI analysis for these vehicles can be downloaded from Ford of Europe’s website.

In 2010 and 2011, the first joint PSI study was done by Ford of Europe and Ford North America on the all-new Ford Focus. This was a first step toward possibly implementing PSI in North America.

PSI Assessed Model Performance2

Ford of Europe published a detailed PSI report, soon after the launch of the first vehicles for which PSI had been used from the beginning of vehicle development. The PSI assessment system also has been reviewed and certified by outside experts. One study, conducted by experts in the area of lifecycle science and sustainability, found the PSI to be a design and analysis step that provides a full sustainability assessment and meets the requirements of ISO 14040, the international lifecycle assessment standard. PSI assessments of the 2006 S-MAX and Galaxy vehicles were certified by the International Organization for Standardization for lifecycle assessment improvements. This certification process also verified the overall PSI methodology used for all subsequent PSI-developed models.