Water Strategy Approach

Ford’s new water strategy looks at our water use from both an environmental and a social perspective.

Over the past year, we set up a cross-functional team from across Ford divisions – including our environmental quality, manufacturing, purchasing and community engagement functions – to review water issues in a more holistic way. This team has been meeting with a variety of groups – such as the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), the U.N. Global Compact, the U.S. State Department, the Global Water Challenge and Circle of Blue – to gain a better appreciation of outside stakeholder perspectives.

Also in 2010, we became a founding responder to Water Disclosure, a Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) initiative that launched in late 2009 to help institutional investors better understand the business risks and opportunities associated with water scarcity and related issues. The CDP’s original project focused on corporate disclosures of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change strategies, and we found our participation in that project to be very beneficial in helping us formulate our strategy for GHG reporting. We anticipate similar benefits from CDP Water Disclosure, which is providing a globally harmonized method for companies to report on water usage, water risks and water management.

We chose to become part of the project because we believe it can help companies move toward greater understanding of water as a strategic business issue, as well as offer encouragement to implement effective water management and conservation.

Elements of our Water Strategy

Our water strategy actions aim to meet a number of objectives. These include:

• Minimizing global water consumption at Ford facilities while maximizing reuse
• Finding ways to use alternative, lower-quality water sources
• Prioritizing our investments based on local water scarcity and cost concerns
• Meeting either local quality standards or Ford global standards for wastewater discharge – whichever is more stringent
• Ensuring a stable water supply for our manufacturing facilities while working with local communities to minimize our impact

Looking Ahead

As we further embed our water strategy into our global operations, Ford will be exploring new ways we can measure, monitor and reduce our water use. We will be looking at new investments in technologies and targeted reuse opportunities. We will pursue unified industry solutions for water reductions within the supply chain to improve lifecycle water use. Our initial focus will be on water-intensive industry segments, including aluminium and steel.

We also will be signing the United Nations’ CEO Water Mandate.

In addition, we will be working to safeguard the quality of the water we use in order to protect the health of our workforce and local communities. Our Ford Volunteer Corps, meanwhile, is placing a priority on water-based community projects during our Global Week of Caring and Accelerated Action Days. In 2010, for example, Ford Shanghai office employees collected more than $10,000 to fund the installation of 52 freshwater tanks in western China communities. (See the Communities section for more on these programs).