Reporting and Transparency

External reporting is a fundamental element of accountability. Sustainability reporting not only demonstrates transparency but, in our view, is the basis of organizational learning, demonstrates our values, and both reflects and drives outstanding economic, environmental and social performance. The following are central elements of our reporting strategy.

Materiality

Over the last several years, Ford has sought to increase the materiality and responsiveness to stakeholders of our sustainability reporting. A key part of our reporting strategy has been the development of a materiality analysis process, which has been a critical tool in helping shape the content of this report. The analysis is updated every other year, most recently in early 2011. We use the analysis to focus our reporting on those issues determined to be most material to the Company over a three- to five-year time horizon. This report is organized around the issues identified as most material, while also covering a broad range of sustainability issues of importance to Ford and our stakeholders through supporting information, detailed performance data, case studies, infographics and stakeholder interviews.

Assurance

Please see the Assurance section for discussion of our approach to third-party review of this report and data assurance.

External Guidelines

This report is aligned with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3 Guidelines at the self-declared A application level. Ford has supported and participated in the development of the GRI Guidelines since their inception.

This report also serves to disclose how we are implementing the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC). An index cross-referencing the Compact and relevant sections of this report can be found on the UNGC Index page.

Targeted Reporting

Linked with our efforts to increase the materiality of our reporting, Ford has also taken steps to produce more targeted audience-, location- and subject-specific sustainability communications. For example, we produce an eight-page summary report (pdf, 4.98Mb), which is provided to employees as a pull-out in the regularly published internal magazine, Ford World.

In this year’s full Sustainability Report, we are increasing our coverage of regional issues with regional reports for Asia Pacific and Africa, Europe and South America. Also, several Ford facilities, brands and country operations produce their own reports detailing the sustainability issues they face within their particular regions or operations. Several of our country operations, such as Ford China, and local facilities produce public reports. We have also provided input to the Ceres Facility Reporting Project.

Benchmarking and External Feedback

Ford seeks formal and informal feedback on our Sustainability Report from a number of organizations with expertise in reporting, in addition to the Ceres Stakeholder Review Committee. Other feedback we received can be found in Downloads.

Ford’s 2009/10 Sustainability Report was a finalist in the 2010 Ceres/Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) North American Awards for Sustainability Reporting. The report was recognized for its identification of the material sustainability issues affecting the Company and its disclosure of the greenhouse gas emissions of our fleet, among other features. (See www.ceres.org.) Our 2008/9 report took second place in this award in 2009, and our 2007/8 report was the co-winner in 2008. Our 2004/5 report placed in the top five.