Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn today announced it will join the First Movers Coalition, a global initiative to harness purchasing power and supply chains to create early markets for clean energy technologies.
“Ford has a strong track record of firsts in automotive sustainability, from being the only full-line American automaker to stand with California in support of stronger vehicle emissions standards to being the first automaker to join the Department of Energy’s Better Climate Challenge and commit to reducing our manufacturing emissions earlier this year,” says Chris Smith, chief government affairs officer at Ford.
“And now as part of the First Movers Coalition, we’re targeting the environmental impact of our supply chain by investing in green steel and aluminum. Together, this coalition has the potential to build the future of zero-emissions transportation that is good for people and the planet, and good for business.”
More than 50 companies with a collective market value of about $8.5 trillion across five continents now make up the coalition to help commercialize zero-carbon technologies. For its part, Ford is committing to purchase at least 10 percent near-zero carbon steel and aluminum by 2030. The company is working to achieve carbon neutrality globally across its vehicles, operations, and supply chain no later than 2050, and to reach science-based interim targets by 2035.
“Reducing emissions to carbon neutral by 2050 is possible if we invest in the right technologies and bring them to scale within the next decade,” says Susan Slaughter, director of supply chain sustainability at Ford. “By joining the First Movers Coalition, Ford is signaling to the market that we want to work with our suppliers to achieve commercially viable green steel and aluminum. The intent and significance of our commitment today has the potential to help build the net-zero economy.”
Ford says it’s planning to invest more than $50 billion globally from 2022 through 2026 to develop electric vehicles and the batteries that power them. These investments are expected to create new jobs and grow a supply chain that upholds Ford’s commitments to sustainability and human rights.
Ford recycles up to 20 million pounds of aluminum each month at its Dearborn Stamping, Kentucky Truck, and Buffalo Stamping facilities. Making recycled aluminum only takes around 5 percent of the energy needed to make new aluminum, according to the Aluminum Association.
Led by the World Economic Forum and the U.S. Government, the First Movers Coalition targets sectors including aluminum, aviation, chemicals, concrete, shipping, steel, and trucking, which are responsible for 30 percent of global emissions — a proportion expected to rise to more than 50 percent by mid-century without progress on clean technology innovation. According to the World Economic Forum, aluminum represents 2 percent of global emissions.
At the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Ford joined RouteZero, a global coalition to curb global warming by working toward making sales of all new cars and vans zero-emissions by 2040 globally and no later than 2035 in leading markets. For Europe, the company announced this March that it is targeting zero emissions for all vehicle sales in the region and carbon neutrality across Ford’s European footprint of facilities, logistics and suppliers by 2035.
For more information about the First Movers Coalition, visit here.
