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Reducing Our Collective Footprint

We liaise with our suppliers, and with wider industry partners, in an attempt to reduce the environmental impacts not just of our supply chain but of the automotive industry as a whole.

Building Supplier Capability Through PACE

Our supply chain sustainability initiative, the Partnership for A Cleaner Environment (PACE), was developed to reduce the overall environmental impact of Ford and our supply chain partners.

PACE enables us to share the best practice examples we’ve implemented with 50 suppliers, so that they can be replicated and we can minimize our overall environmental impact. We also encourage our Tier 1 suppliers to cascade the information down to their own suppliers to extend the reach of the program.

PACE at a Glance

Create a Roadmap Suppliers create long-term roadmaps for improving environmental performance.
Collect Data Baseline environmental data is recorded.
Implement Practices Successful approaches are selected and replicated.
Report Reductions Performance improvements are measured, and progress against the baseline data is reported.
Share Best Practices Best practice examples are updated and periodically shared among our suppliers and our own facilities.

Engaging With Key Suppliers

One of the ways we engage with our key strategic suppliers is through our Aligned Business Framework (ABF). This dialogue helps to drive quality and innovation, identify operational synergies and encourage collaboration in areas such as ethical business practices, working conditions and responsible sourcing.

For these ABF suppliers, we have established a three-stage process for managing sustainability issues:

Ford verifies that the supplier has a code of conduct that aligns with our own Policy Letter 24 (pdf, 156kb)
The supplier provides internal training to ensure its employees understand and comply with the code of conduct, and Ford validates their processes to ensure ongoing alignment
The supplier also verifies that its own suppliers are compliant with our shared standards and expectations

Our ABF Network

114 suppliers comprising:

84 production suppliers and 30 indirect suppliers
15 of these are minority-, veteran- and women-owned suppliers

Of our production suppliers:

100% have codes of conduct aligned with our Policy Letter 24
85% have governance systems covering their operations and supply chains

Download a list of our ABF Suppliers (pdf, 211kb)

Recognizing Supplier Excellence

We honor our suppliers for their outstanding performance and achievements with our World Excellence Awards. At the 19th annual ceremony, held at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn in May 2017, Ford recognized 54 suppliers from across the globe with awards. In addition, four companies received Special Recognition awards. See a full list of World Excellence Award Winners.

Collaborating With Industry Partners

To maximize our efforts and encourage alignment throughout the automotive supply chain, we participate in several industry forums.

As a founder of the Automotive Industry Action Group’s (AIAG) Environmental Sustainability Advisory Group, and member of the Greenhouse Gas Work Group, we help integrate environmental sustainability, water benchmarking and GHG management across the sector. Along with other OEMs, we developed one-day supplier training programs for GHG emissions and water management, which provide guidance on calculations and sustainability strategy development.
We have worked alongside other members of the Environmental Science Work Group at the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) – formerly the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) – to strengthen the standards for environmental responsibility in the RBA Code of Conduct in 2017. Third-party environmental audits are conducted at selected supplier sites to evaluate their environmental practices. Read more about the RBA audit process.
Through our membership of the Suppliers Partnership for the Environment – a collaboration among automotive OEMs, their suppliers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – we are working to advance responsible battery management at vehicle end-of-life, increase biodiversity and reduce waste.