As part of the senior leadership team, I will be keeping sustainability at the top of the Company's agenda. My position may be a first in our industry, but it mirrors the elevation of sustainability issues – with climate change on the leading edge – in public awareness and policy making. We view sustainability as both an opportunity and a requirement.
We define sustainability as a business model that creates value consistent with the long-term preservation and enhancement of environmental, social and financial capital. This definition is far-reaching, including our actions in the communities in which we work and our influence throughout our value chain.
Current challenges
In developing a sustainable business model for Ford, we have a number of challenges:
- To continue to integrate all elements of sustainability throughout all parts of the Company, working as a team, and developing a roadmap that lists our priorities and guides us through the key decisions we will need to make for the future. I will work closely with all functions at Ford, particularly our Product Development and Procurement teams, to ensure we take a systems approach to meeting our sustainability challenges.
- To understand the technology that will deliver our sustainability goals. For years, automakers improved on many aspects of automotive design – safety features, electronics, cargo and towing capabilities, for example. We also made steady progress on the fuel efficiency of powertrains, but most of those gains were offset by customer demands for more features in their cars and trucks. Now we're fundamentally rethinking our powertrains, with an expanding portfolio of options that includes hybrids, clean diesel, direct-injection turbocharged gasoline engines, biofuel and hydrogen-fueled vehicles, and various combinations of those technologies. We need to choose the right investments in the right technologies to meet the needs of our customers around the world, while addressing sustainability concerns and contributing to climate stabilization.
- To leverage our alliances with universities, NGOs and governments to help deliver our strategy. The scale of our challenge requires a change in our mindsets and the way we all do business. Not just Ford and not just the automotive industry. Even if every driver were to purchase a hybrid or even a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, we would not stabilize greenhouse gas emissions. We are pleased to see growing recognition that responding to a range of daunting sustainability challenges will require all sectors of the economy and society to join forces and work toward common goals.
Going forward
Regular readers of this report may feel they've heard similar statements from Ford before – and that Ford hasn't always delivered on the goals it sets for itself. So what's different this time?
First, I would say that the real progress we've made already in integrating sustainability into our business systems is not always externally visible. This includes the establishment of our Sustainable Mobility Governance team, a senior-level team working to define our climate change strategy and delivering our sustainability strategy in the marketplace.
Second, we have delivered on some important commitments, including bringing the first hybrid SUV to market – one that remains the fuel economy leader even as others have been introduced.
Third, you may find us being more cautious in our public statements, but those statements will be anchored by our business plans. Our plans include introducing additional hybrids and other environmentally advanced vehicles that offer a flexible array of options so we can respond to changes in our markets.
You can be sure that at Ford, we will continue to push the frontiers of vehicle technology to effectively respond to sustainability challenges. It is the right thing to do and it is essential to the future of our Company.
Senior Vice President, Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering
