How Does the Ford Motor Company Deal With Their Responsabilty To Care For the Enviroment?

HOW DOES THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY DEAL WITH THEIR RESPONSABILTY TO CARE FOR THE ENVIROMENT?

Introduction

For this unit of the business studies course we need to study how a certain company affects the world that we live in. I have chose the Ford Motor Company (Ford). The reason for this is, ford produce cars and are responsible for the cars performance and for the recycling of waste materials and emissions from factories. Car companies affect the environment directly as the products they produce/build pollute the atmosphere so I felt that this would be a good company to investigate. Ford owns a number of other car corporations such as Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda, Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover. Obviously I can not conduct research into every different franchise but ford say that they have the same policies for every area of their company. Ford have a number of different approaches which they follow to help to care for the environment.

Hypothesis

I intend to research using the Internet and newspapers how Ford care for the environment and what approaches they follow and if they are similar to other companies in the same sector. Having never looked into this certain subject before I cannot be sure what techniques car companies adapt to help maintain the environment and stop pollution to the atmosphere. I would expect to find that they have developed different fuels, which produce less carbon dioxide. Designed and fitted new engines, which are more economic and help to prevent the greenhouse effect. Ford being such a large and well-respected company you would initially think that they would have a number of successful ways of helping to care for the environment.

Desk Research

A Company like Ford is responsible for the recycling of their vehicles. Ford feels that all parties should share in the responsibility for the existing car population. Some plastics used in the cars are not biodegradable so they recycle them instead Ford say that 80 % less energy is used when recycling plastics from dash boards of old cars.

RECYLING means reusing waste materials in production so that fewer resources are needed to maintain output.

BIODEGRADABLE items will break down naturally when disposed of and are harmless to the environment.

Also the cars that Ford build ...

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Desk Research

RECYLING means reusing waste materials in production so that fewer resources are needed to maintain output.

BIODEGRADABLE items will break down naturally when disposed of and are harmless to the environment.

Also the cars that Ford build when in use pollute the atmosphere. The cars produce emissions from the exhaust, which harm the atmosphere. These gases are never going to be totally removed but Ford has come up with new vehicles, which use alternative fuels.

POLLUTE means to make foul or impure

ALTERNATIVE means available in place of something else.

Field Research

Vehicle Recycling

In 2000, the European Union adopted the End-of-Life Vehicle Directive that established minimum requirements for reuse, recycling, and recovery, materials restrictions, and labelling requirements. The Directive also requires that manufacturers take back their vehicles at the end of their useful lives and responsibly dispose of them, including the ones that are already on the road. The financial responsibility for taking back and disposing of the vehicles rests solely with the manufacturers after January 2007.

Ford believes all parties should share in the responsibility for the existing car population in Europe, including manufacturers, recyclers, dismantlers, shredders, dealers, and consumers. They feel that Manufacturers should bear exclusive responsibility only for new vehicles designed and developed in accordance with Directive. While Ford supports 95 percent recoverability targets by 2015, They advocate flexible choice among re-use, recycling and energy recovery in order to provide for the most environmentally friendly and least costly processes.

Fuel economy

Vehicle fuel economy has a complex history as a public policy issue, the importance of fuel economy to consumers has depended to a large degree on the price and availability of petrol and diesel. In Japan and Europe, where fuel prices are often twice as high as the U.S. Consumers value fuel efficiency more highly and purchase small or more fuel-efficient cars.

Recently, higher fuel prices and the growth of the sport utility and truck markets have again increased interest in fuel economy. Additionally, the potential impact of carbon dioxide emissions on global warming has heightened concerns about fuel economy.

Ford say that they are committed to the environment and to improving the fuel economy of their vehicles. They believe that market based initiatives, are the best method of improving fuel economy. They support programs that foster the development of breakthrough technologies such as such as hybrid electric vehicles, fuel cells and alternative-fuel vehicles.

Ford is trying to improve the fuel economy of their vehicles. In North America, they have voluntarily committed to improve the fuel economy of our SUV fleet. In Europe, they have committed to reducing the CO2 emissions of our passenger cars by 25 percent by 2008, as part of a voluntary industry commitment. Ford is also the world's leading producer of alternative fueled vehicles.

Global Climate Change

Ford state that they believe that climate change is a serious environmental issue. The combustion of fossil fuels results in emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, the amount of these gases in the atmosphere is increasing and the impact on the climate cannot be ignored. Ford recognises that appropriate actions should be taken now to address this long-term problem.

Ford support a number of methods to help solve this problem. They encourage customer tax incentives to accelerate and increase the purchase of fuel-efficient advanced technology vehicles like hybrids, fuel cells, clean diesels and alternative fueled vehicles. They will soon offer a hydrogen fueled internal combustion engine stationary generator set, or "Genset", with our partner Ballard, and the fuel efficient HEV Escape. Ford will also offer many other low carbon products including natural gas vehicles, and are committing significant resources to developing hydrogen-powered vehicles. They support energy conservation and market-based programs.