SAN FRANCISCO – Activists gave Ford Motor Company a failing grade for its Report on Sustainability, which was released on October 18th. Fifty-two pages of nice remarks about climate change and sustainability couldn’t hide the fact that according to its own report, Ford’s US fleetwide fuel economy and its CO2 emissions have gone from bad to worse. Ford’s fleetwide fuel economy went from 23.6 miles per gallon in 2003 to 22.8 MPG in 2004. During the same time period, its US fleet CO2 emissions went from 375 grams per mile in 2003 to 386 grams in 2004.

“How many more PR pieces is Ford going to put out before it decides that its time would be better spent actually improving its cars rather than making much ado about no improvement? Last week it was Ford’s “fuel economy school;” this week it’s the sustainability report. Meanwhile, Ford cars are still the dirtiest in the industry,” said Mike Hudema, a clean car campaigner with Global Exchange.

Global Exchange and the Rainforest Action Network have been calling on Ford to commit to improve its fleet-wide fuel efficiency to 50 miles per gallon by 2010 and eliminate tailpipe emissions by 2020. In 2003, they launched the Jumpstart Ford campaign, which was recently joined by another activist group called The Ruckus Society. The Jumpstart Ford campaign is planning a “Day of Intervention” that will see actions at over 100 Ford dealerships throughout North America on Saturday, November 12.

In the Ford Sustainability Report, the company says it identified climate change as a critical issue as early as 2000: “We have been a leader in our industry in acknowledging and speaking out on the significance of climate change,” the report says. But what kind of a leader is Ford, when the company has “the absolute worst heat-trapping gas emissions performance of all the Big Six automakers” according to a recent report published by the Union of Concerned Scientists?

“If Ford were a country, it would be the 10th largest global warming polluter worldwide, behind Italy,” Hudema said.

As the Ford report’s own Review Committee wrote, “Ford cannot be a meaningful contributor to combating climate change without clear targets for reducing emissions from its vehicles, including emissions reductions in the emerging markets where it anticipates the most growth.”

Ford’s actions in the policy arena also belie its efforts to present itself as an environmental company. Ford has lobbied against lawmakers’ efforts to increase fuel economy standards at the national level and is also involved in a lawsuit against California’s fuel economy standards.

Every year since 1999, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ranked Ford cars, truck and SUVs as having the worst overall fuel economy of any American automaker. Although Ford is now offering two hybrid SUVs, its projected 2010 hybrid production numbers represent less than 3.5 percent of the 7 million cars that Ford produces annually.

For more information, see www.jumpstartford.com.

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