Ford's products, performance and actions affect society economically, environmentally and socially. We thus have an obligation to be accountable for our actions and impacts. In our view, holding ourselves to the highest standards of corporate integrity will strengthen our Company and establish relationships of mutual trust with our stakeholders.
Accountability is a cross-cutting concept that underpins all aspects of how we run our business. Within the context of sustainability, we believe that accountability encompasses principled decision-making, systematic engagement of stakeholders and increased transparency. A core part of embedding accountability within an organization is developing structures and processes that ensure that people clearly understand expectations and are then held accountable for making decisions and taking actions aligned with those expectations.
Traditional corporate governance – that is, the overarching system and processes by which our Company is directed and controlled – is a key element of accountability. The Company's Policy Letters and Directives, which set expectations for employee behavior on a broad set of legal and internal requirements, are also central to accountability. More recently, Ford has established a variety of structures and processes to embed accountability specifically for sustainability issues within the organization.
Assessing Materiality
A number of topics related to accountability were identified as issues of importance to Ford and our stakeholders through the materiality analysis.
Shareholder concerns (i.e., resolutions) and ethical business practices were two governance-related issues identified. Concerns expressed exclusively through shareholder resolutions were judged to be of low potential impact on the Company and medium concern to stakeholders. Ethical business practices were judged to be of high potential impact for Ford and medium concern to stakeholders.
Issues related to Ford's sustainability strategy, vision and management – as well as our sustainability reporting – were also identified as part of the analysis. Ford's sustainability strategy was judged to be of high potential impact on the Company and medium concern to stakeholders. Our sustainability reporting was judged to be of medium impact on the Company and medium concern to stakeholders.
Finally, several public policy issues were identified as part of the process, including political contributions, increasing and inconsistent global environment and safety regulations, and regulations related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and fuel economy. Political contributions were judged to be of medium potential impact on the Company and medium concern to stakeholders. Changing environment and safety regulations were judged to be of high potential impact on Ford and low concern to stakeholders. Regulations related to GHG emissions and fuel economy, however, were judged to be of high potential impact on the Company and high concern to stakeholders.
Based on this assessment, we have included discussion of these accountability issues in this Web report. In addition, we have included discussion of Ford's response to new and emerging regulations related to GHG emissions and fuel economy in the climate change section of the printed version of our report, which is focused on those issues we considered to be the most material for our Company at this time.
