New year, new rankings. The Guardian has enlisted the Top 20 most promising entrepreneurs, or ‘green giants’, in what is coined as eco power. The individuals behind Reforestation, awareness campaigns or environmental labelling initiatives, amongst others, are depicted as being capable of making significant changes in the coming year.
Interestingly, Ford’s CEO Alan Mulally is also named as a green giant. Once iconographic for the relentless drive towards bigger and better (i.e. extremely polluting), the traditional American car manufacturer has chosen the green path by, here quite literally, shifting the Focus towards electrifying some of its cars in the near future.
Yes, some. Electrifying the smaller cars, as a rule already less polluting than the big guys in the car fleet (for example the extensive Rangers collection), may lead a cynic to conclude that greenwashing is now an integral aspect of the Ford advertisement portfolio. And from a life-cycle analysis perspective, zero emission vehicles, as Ford appraises on its UK website, simply don’t exist.
However, Rank a Brand awards qualitative shifts towards better environmental governance and Ford currently scores over 50% on climate-related criteria. The Ford example also shows that its customer base has steadily moved to more urban areas where large cars are heavily taxed and where the infrastructural grid renders rather unsuitable. This means that smart market approaches may be well embedded in a more sustainable corporate framework.
Ford has embraced the electric automotive opportunities through the UK government’s Ultra-Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator programme. This public-private partnership is a promising instrument in aligning the conservative car manufacturers industry and governmental commitments to cut emissions.
Indeed, it is very possible to turn the innovative beast of burden into a Fiesta for car manufacturers.
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