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Our Value Chain and Its Impacts

As a major multinational enterprise, our activities have far-reaching impacts on environmental, social and economic systems. The diagram below organizes the issues by the major stages of our value chain. In this report you will also find a "materiality analysis" which prioritizes the most significant issues in our value chain.

Some issues are not shown in this diagram because they do not pertain to a particular life-cycle stage.

Value Chain: Overview

A number of broad sustainability challenges set the context for all of the life-cycle stages. These issues apply across the value chain:

  • Population growth
  • Urbanization
  • Poverty
  • Education
  • Gender equality
  • Child mortality
  • Maternal health
  • Infectious diseases
  • Biodiversity
  • Loss of ecosystem services
  • Downsizing

Click the buttons to the left to see issues for each stage

back to Overview

Product Planning and Design

Principal actors in this stage

  • Ford
  • Customers
  • Government

Environmental issues

  • Greenhouse gas emissions
  • Fuel economy
  • Smog-forming emissions
  • Material use and recycling
  • Resource use
  • Manufacturing waste
  • In-vehicle air quality

Social issues

  • Vehicle safety
  • Access to mobility
  • Traffic congestion
  • Diversity
  • Infrastructure
  • Emerging markets
  • Design for assembly/ergonomics

Economic issues

  • Quality
  • Brand value/reputation
  • Health care costs
back to Overview

Logistics (Transportation)

Principal actors in this stage

  • Ford
  • Government

Environmental issues

  • Greenhouse gas emissions
  • Smog-forming emissions
  • Land use

Social issues

  • Vehicle safety
  • Health and safety
  • Treatment of employees
  • Noise
  • Community disruption through land use
  • Traffic congestion
  • Diversity
  • Infrastructure

Economic issues

  • Fuel cost
back to Overview

Raw Material Extraction

Principal actors in this stage

  • Suppliers
  • Government

Environmental issues

  • Greenhouse gas emissions
  • Smog-forming emissions
  • Resource use
  • Waste
  • Land use
  • Biodiversity impacts

Social issues

  • Health and safety
  • Diversity
  • Human rights
  • HIV/AIDS
  • Community disruption through land use

Economic issues

  • Commodity prices
back to Overview

Parts and Components

Principal actors in this stage

  • Ford
  • Suppliers

Environmental issues

  • Greenhouse gas emissions
  • Smog-forming emissions
  • Material use and recycling
  • Resource use
  • Manufacturing waste
  • Land use

Social issues

  • Health and safety
  • Employee satisfaction
  • Diversity
  • Human rights
  • HIV/AIDS

Economic issues

  • Quality
  • Brand value/reputation
  • Health care costs
back to Overview

Assembly and Painting

Principal actors in this stage

  • Ford
  • Government

Environmental issues

  • Greenhouse gas emissions
  • Smog-forming emissions (especially VOCs)
  • Material use and recycling
  • Resource use
  • Manufacturing waste
  • Land use

Social issues

  • Health and safety
  • Employee satisfaction
  • Diversity
  • Human rights
  • HIV/AIDS
  • Community contributions

Economic issues

  • Quality
  • Brand value/reputation
  • Health care costs
back to Overview

Sales

Principal actors in this stage

  • Ford dealers
  • Other dealers

Environmental issues

  • Land use

Social issues

  • Diversity
  • Human rights
  • Marketing and customer information

Economic issues

  • Dealer services
  • Brand value/reputation
  • Purchase cost
back to Overview

Use

Principal actors in this stage

  • Customers
  • Fuel providers
  • Government

Environmental issues

  • Greenhouse gas emissions
  • Smog-forming emissions
  • Land use
  • Fuel economy
  • In-vehicle air quality

Social issues

  • Vehicle safety
  • Noise
  • Viability of public transport
  • Access to mobility
  • Community disruption through land use
  • Traffic congestion
  • Infrastructure
  • Emerging markets

Economic issues

  • Fuel costs
  • Brand value/reputation
  • Cost of ownership
back to Overview

Service

Principal actors in this stage

  • Ford dealers
  • Independent servicers

Environmental issues

  • Material use and recycling
  • Waste

Social issues

  • Health and safety
  • Diversity
  • Human rights
  • Marketing and customer information

Economic issues

  • Quality
  • Dealer services
  • Brand value/reputation
back to Overview

End of Life

Principal actors in this stage

  • Dismantlers
  • Government
  • Shredder operators
  • Post-shredder treatment operators

Environmental issues

  • Material use and recycling
  • Waste
  • Recovery

Social issues

  • Health and safety
  • Diversity
  • Human rights
  • End of life information

Economic issues

  • Commodity prices
  • Quality
  • Market demand for recycling/recovery products

Expanding Connections

We recognize that these issues are interconnected at each stage and that positive and negative effects in one part of the chain can reverberate in the other parts.

Increasingly, we are bringing our understanding of a wide range of sustainability issues into the stages of our value chain. Environmentally, we are improving our manufacturing efficiency, cutting the emissions of our vehicles, designing vehicles with end of life in mind and increasing the recyclability of our vehicles and our use of recycled materials. Socially, we seek to strengthen the communities we're part of, expand the connections within them and improve our relationships throughout the value chain. Economically, we are trying to build our capacity to adapt and respond to the variety of challenges and opportunities present at every stage, meeting our customers' needs as well as our stakeholders' expectations.