Year in Review

Welcome to the 13th annual nonfinancial report of Ford Motor Company. Our vision for our sustainability reporting is that it is the basis of organizational learning. It demonstrates our values, and both reflects and drives outstanding economic, environmental and social performance.

This section of our report provides information about this report and an overview of our sustainability performance in 2011. It includes perspectives on sustainability at Ford from our Chairman, our CEO and our new vice president for Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering; a summary of 2011 performance data; our goals and commitments; a “map of our year”; and discussion of assurance of this report.

About This Report

For this year’s report, we did a major reorganization of the content, grouping it into the areas that we have identified as the most material from a sustainability point of view: financial health, climate change, water, vehicle safety and supply chain. We also report on “people” – our employees and communities – as they are essential to everything we do. In addition, the section called “Blueprint for Sustainability” discusses the foundation for our sustainability performance – our strategy, governance and management systems.

We also publish an eight-page summary (pdf, 4.98Mb) of this full web-based report for use by employees, customers and other stakeholders. Our most recent previous report was released in June 2011.

We see reporting as an ongoing, evolving process, not an annual exercise. Further information about our reporting approach can be found in the Reporting and Transparency section. Although this is not formally an “integrated report” – one that combines financial and sustainability reporting – we have expanded on our longstanding practice of reporting on Ford’s financial health and its interrelationships with our sustainability performance. We expect our reporting to evolve further and invite your feedback on this report, and our approach to reporting, at sustaina@ford.com.

Data in this report are subject to various forms of assurance as noted in the data tables. The summary report was reviewed by Ford’s top executives and the Sustainability Committee of the Board of Directors. A Ceres stakeholder committee, which included representatives of environmental groups and socially responsible investors, reviewed the outline for the full report.

This report is aligned with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, released in October 2006, at a self-declared application level of “A.” See the GRI Index for a complete listing of the GRI indicators. More information on the GRI and the application levels can be found on the GRI website.

This report also serves as Ford’s annual United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) “Communication on Progress,” as it includes discussion of Ford’s implementation of the 10 principles of the UNGC and support for broad U.N. development goals. Please see the UNGC Index for information on where the UNGC principles are covered in this report.

This report covers the year 2011 and early 2012. The data are primarily for 2011 (for operations) and for the 2011 and 2012 model years (for vehicles).

Consistent with the GRI Guidelines’ guidance on boundary setting, the data in this report cover all of Ford Motor Company’s wholly and majority-owned operations globally, unless otherwise noted. Data measurement techniques, the bases of calculations, changes in the basis for reporting or reclassifications of data previously reported are noted in the data charts.