Quantifying Our Environmental Impacts

The first important step in improving the life-cycle impacts of our products is to understand the environmental aspects of our products and the potential environmental burdens associated with them. We have analyzed resource use and emissions throughout the life-cycle of many of our products. These analyses have been done by our researchers and recycling experts and in cooperation with others in the industry. The stages of a vehicle's life-cycle include materials production, parts fabrication, vehicle assembly, vehicle operation (including fuel production), maintenance and repair, and end-of-life disposal and recycling. While estimates vary depending upon the specifics of the vehicle analyzed, one cooperative, multi-industry analysis of a typical family sedan (a spark-ignited, gasoline-powered, Taurus-class family sedan weighing 1,532 kilograms (kg)) found that during its life-cycle:

• 960 gigajoules (GJ) of energy are consumed
• 21,000kg of hydrocarbon are consumed
• 60,000kg of CO2 are emitted

In that study, it was assumed that the vehicle was driven a total of 120,000 miles at an average metro/highway fuel efficiency of 22.8mpg. The study also found that:

• Vehicle operation consumes 86 percent of the life-cycle energy
• Vehicle operation generates 87 percent of the life-cycle CO2
• Vehicle production generates 65 percent of the particulates and 34 percent of the life-cycle sulfur dioxide

This is consistent with a recent review of life-cycle studies, in which it was found that the operational stage generally accounts for 80 to 90 percent of the total energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions of conventional gasoline-powered vehicles, depending on the vehicle's material composition, average fuel efficiency and lifetime drive distance.

For example, a recent ISO 14040-reviewed Life-Cycle Assessment study of the Ford Galaxy and S-MAX confirmed the high-use-phase share for these impact categories. Other impact categories are mainly dominated by the mining and materials production phase.