Ford Aims to Help Reduce Carbon Footprint of its Global Supply Chain

Ford’s supply chain approach builds on its success in measuring and reducing its greenhouse gases. Ford is working with World Resources Institute (WRI), World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and the Carbon Disclosure Project in an effort to identify appropriate data from suppliers. Ford intends to share lessons learned and lead collaboration with other automotive companies through the Automotive Industry Action Group.

Ford Motor Company /quotes/comstock/13*!f/quotes/nls/f (F 11.03, -0.52, -4.50%) , building on its success in measuring and reducing its own carbon footprint, today announced plans to survey 35 top global suppliers on their energy use and estimated greenhouse gas emissions.

Ford’s goal is to better understand the carbon footprint of its supply chain and use the data to eventually create a broad-based carbon management approach for its supply chain. The 35 suppliers represent close to 30% of Ford’s $65 billion in annual procurement spending.

The suppliers in the initial request include companies that make commodities such as seats, steering systems, tires, and metal components which require more energy to produce and thus have a larger carbon footprint. While many of these suppliers already measure their greenhouse gas emissions, the project would facilitate collaboration and sharing of processes and practices that can drive significant emissions reductions and help meet future regulatory requirements.

The data gathered from suppliers will be evaluated using modeling software from PTC InSight. Preliminary work Ford has done with PTC has indicated there are opportunities for both Ford and suppliers to reduce carbon emissions. Any reductions by suppliers would be in addition to Ford’s own goal of reducing greenhouse gases 30% by 2020 from the company’s 2006 model year baseline.

Several of Ford’s top suppliers are already working to better understand their carbon emissions, including DuPont, TRW Automotive Holdings Corp., Bosch, and Johnson Controls.

Johnson Controls, which supplies seats, interiors, electronics, and batteries to Ford is also working with the Carbon Disclosure Project and has goals in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Johnson Controls also has a rating system that enables it to measure the sustainability activity of its own supply base.

As part of Ford’s efforts to create a broad-based carbon management approach for its supply chain, they will share feedback from their data collection process with WRI and the WBCSD.

The two organizations are leading a global collaboration of businesses, governments and non-governmental organizations to develop credible methods for measuring and reporting corporate greenhouse gas emissions. They are currently drafting a new standard to be used to measure indirect or Scope 3 emissions. In tandem, Ford is participating in the Carbon Disclosure Project Supply Chain Program. Ford is the only automaker participating in both initiatives.

Ford is also working with the Automotive Industry Action Group in developing guidelines for measuring supplier emissions. It is the intent of Ford to share their experience in measurement and reporting of corporate and supply chain emissions with the industry group in order to lead the industry to consistent and comparable emissions estimation methods.

For additional information on Ford’s near-, mid- and long-term product actions to deliver increased fuel efficiency and decreased CO2 to help address climate change and energy security issues, see the company’s “Blueprint for Sustainability” at www.ford.com/go/sustainability.

Ford
www.ford.com

PTC
www.ptc.com

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