Environmental Management
Ford has an environmental Policy and environmental Directives that apply to our operations globally (see our Code of Conduct Handbook (pdf, 0.99Mb)). All Ford manufacturing facilities and product development functions are certified to ISO 14001, the leading global standard for managing environmental issues. In addition, we require our preferred “Q1” suppliers of production parts to certify their facilities. These commitments place our most significant potential environmental impacts under one comprehensive environmental management system.
Ford’s manufacturing management sets environmental targets annually for all of our facilities. We develop these targets through a comprehensive process that considers past performance, future regulation trends, environmental technology advances, financial conditions and other relevant factors. Global targets are translated into regional- and facility-level targets, which differ depending on the relevant regulations and financial and production constraints in each region. Progress against these targets is reviewed regularly by all levels of management.
Ford’s Vehicle Operations (VO) and Powertrain Operations (PTO) functions are implementing systems to track and enhance the sustainability of new vehicle and powertrain programs. We are also implementing corporate design specifications for the development of new plants, to make them more sustainable. These specifications require that new manufacturing facilities be designed and constructed using the best practices Ford has developed at plants all over the world. These standards will act to replicate best practices across our global operations and create efficient and sustainable plants.
In 2010, Ford completed the full global implementation of an Environmental Operating System (EOS). As a counterpart to our Quality Operating System, the EOS provides a standardized, streamlined approach to maintaining compliance with all legal, third-party and Ford internal requirements, including government regulations, ISO 14001 and Ford’s own environmental policies and business plan objectives and targets. The EOS drives compliance responsibility to the operations level by assigning compliance-related tasks to the appropriate personnel and tracking the completion of those tasks. The system also standardizes tracking and reporting systems, which simplifies compliance, reporting and analysis at all levels of the Company. This system allows us to manage an ever-increasing range of external regulations and internal performance objectives more effectively and with fewer resources. For example, the average plant has to comply with approximately 90 corporate requirements, 100 to 400 national regulations and 200 plant-specific requirements. The EOS consolidates all of these requirements into easy-to-follow tracking and reporting systems organized by recurring tasks, nonrecurring tasks and critical tasks. The EOS is fully aligned with the Ford Production System.
Ford has moved to a single group ISO 14001 certification for its plants in North America. All plants and Ford Customer Service Division facilities in North America share this group certification. Likewise, South American plants share a single group certification. Group certification saves time and money, with no degradation in plant environmental performance. European plants are moving to a group certification in 2012.
Ford continues to use the Global Emissions Manager (GEM) database, which provides a globally consistent approach for measuring and monitoring environmental data. This system helps us track our efforts to reduce water consumption, energy use, carbon dioxide emissions and the amount of waste sent to landfill. The data that GEM provides and the level of analysis it allows also helps us set more effective environmental management targets and develop more specific strategies for improving environmental performance. We are continuing to add metrics and tracking systems to GEM to further enhance our environmental management objectives.
For more information on our new plant development standards please see Green Buildings. For more information on our plans to develop new plants in Asia, please see Case Study: Sustainable Growth in Asia.