Last week, on a windy day amid a few swirling flakes of spring snow, I joined DTE Energy to break ground on a 100-megawatt solar array near Coldwater, Michigan – the first of several DTE parks that will put us on the path to ensuring that every Ford vehicle coming out of Michigan will be assembled with the equivalent of 100 percent carbon-free electricity by the end of 2027. It was an exciting moment.

When it comes to addressing the urgency of climate change and helping to accelerate our progress toward greater sustainability, Ford has ambitious goals. The company is committed to achieving carbon neutrality across our vehicles, operations and supply chain no later than 2050. In addition to helping achieve cleaner air, this effort is also aimed at improving energy efficiency, reducing waste, and creating more resilience to disruptions of the power supply in our operations.

This is where the Utilities & Sustainable Energy Infrastructure team comes in.

We’re in charge of sourcing renewable and carbon-free energy for Ford’s facilities, and we also work to make new and existing manufacturing plants more energy efficient so that less power overall is needed.

From aspirations to greater efficiency

Our objective on the infrastructure side is to source 100 percent carbon-free electricity in all manufacturing by 2035. As part of our efforts toward this goal, we signed an agreement with DTE Energy in Michigan a few years back to purchase 650 megawatts of renewable energy. That’s enough electricity to power a city with over 130,000 households – half the number households in Detroit. Renewable energy derives electricity from abundant natural resources like solar and wind and emits zero carbon. At the time, it was the largest such purchase from a utility in U.S. history.

As Director of the Utilities & Energy Infrastructure team, one of my roles is managing relationships like the one we have with DTE. But while sourcing renewable and carbon-free energy is one part of the sustainability equation, we’re not stopping there.

My team also helps design and build state-of-the-art, energy-efficient Central Utility Plants (CUPs) at our new facilities including BlueOval Battery Park Michigan, BlueOval City in Tennessee, which are currently in development, and at our main campus in Dearborn, which was completed a few years ago. These on-site utility plants deliver onsite clean energy.

What we do in our plants matters

I think all of this is pretty exciting stuff. But why should it matter to someone whose job isn’t all about utilities and energy infrastructure? The answer is that climate change is impacting everyone. We’re all in on this together.

Here’s just one example: more extreme weather events, like heat waves and intense storms, put stress on the electric grid. With agreements like the one we have with DTE, Ford is using our scale and resources to help support energy infrastructure that benefits all electric consumers in the local community. Those solar arrays won’t just be powering up Ford plants – they'll be helping to make the entire power grid in Michigan more reliable and resilient for both businesses and individual households.

Most importantly, Ford cares deeply about being a good neighbor in the communities in which we operate. By reducing our emissions, we’re striving to help make the air cleaner, right now, for people who live near our plants. And we’re helping to protect the planet for future generations.

That’s the road we’re on at Ford. The Road to Better.

Amir Mirshahi is the Director of Utilities & Sustainable Energy Infrastructure.