Building something of value takes hard work, ingenuity, and determination, whether it’s a truck, a business, or a community.

It also requires resilience and purpose.

That’s why we care about sustainability at Ford. And why we’re always driven by a desire not just to build vehicles, but also a better world.

But what does this mean in practice? It means making better products and operating smarter, increasing energy efficiency and cutting waste, and helping to create stronger communities. It’s not always easy, and in a complex world, progress is rarely straightforward. But every year, we assess our progress, roll up our sleeves, and keep working toward our aspirations.

When it comes to reducing our environmental footprint, our big-picture goal remains: We are striving to achieve carbon neutrality across our vehicles, operations, and supply chain by 2050. And every day, there are countless ways that we’re making progress.

Ford’s 2026 Integrated Sustainability and Financial Report, released today, includes data that demonstrates how we’re succeeding, where we’re being challenged, and how we’re continuing to move forward on the Road to Better. This is our 27th sustainability report and the second year that our Sustainability Statement meets the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and has limited assurance from PwC.

Here are some of the highlights:

Building Better Products

In 2025, our vehicle strategy was guided by two core priorities: innovation and customer choice. Electrification remains central to reaching our carbon neutrality goal, and to that end, Ford has reduced our absolute vehicle use greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40% since 2019. As market conditions and customer desires evolve, we’re providing a range of choices, including electric vehicles, hybrids, and lower-emission gas-powered vehicles.

The goal is to meet each customer where they are. Twenty new electric models, including electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, were introduced by Ford in the last five years. We saw a 30% increase in total electrified sales in 2025 from the previous year.

Innovation is the primary driver behind our progress. Building on a storied history of assembly line excellence, Ford introduced a new chapter in our electric vehicle journey last year with the launch of a Universal Electric Vehicle Platform (UEV) and Production System. The team behind it is taking a page from Formula 1 and obsessing over every design and engineering detail to bring lighter, more aerodynamic, and more affordable electric vehiclesto Ford customers. The first vehicle from this platform — a new mid-sized truck assembled in our Louisville Assembly Plant — is due in 2027.

Operating Smarter

Reducing emissions across our operations is another key driver of our sustainability progress. One way that we’re addressing this is through greater energy efficiency, with a goal of using 100% carbon-free electricity in all our manufacturing facilities globally by 2035.

As part of this effort, we signed an agreement several years ago with DTE Energy to bring three dedicated solar farms online to power our Michigan operations. Ford's agreement with DTE Energy in Michigan in 2022 was the largest renewable energy purchase by a corporation from a utility in U.S. history. In 2025, we broke ground on the first of these solar parks in Coldwater, Michigan, which puts Ford on the path to 100% carbon-free electricity in our Michigan operations by the end of 2027.

Cutting Waste

We’re also fundamentally rethinking our processes so that we waste less. As of 2025, 84 of our sites globally are now zero-waste-to-landfill, and we made an almost 25% reduction in waste disposed from manufacturing since 2022. As we strive to shrink our water footprint in manufacturing processes and to use freshwater only for human consumption, Ford has saved nearly 225 billion gallons of water since 2000 and has reduced absolute freshwater usage nearly 25% since 2019 — surpassing our own 15% reduction goal.

Both the Irapuato Electric Power Center and Chihuahua Engine Facility are exemplars of our water strategy — they continue to achieve zero freshwater for manufacturing and only use potable water as a backup in exceptional cases. We continue to look for ways to make further improvements as part of our water stewardship practices. In 2025, we introduced the next phase of this strategy with new freshwater reduction targets and a special focus on facilities in water stressed regions.

Protecting Human Rights Across our Supply Chain

Building a better world is not just about products and operations; it’s about people. This means ensuring that every person connected to our enterprise — from our factory floor to our supply chain — is safe and treated with respect and dignity.

In 2025, the World Benchmarking Alliance ranked Ford first out of 20 automotive manufacturers in human rights. This external validation was also reinforced by the Lead the Charge Coalition, which ranked Ford No. 1 in the human rights category in its 2025 Leaderboard Report. In 2025, we strengthened our Supplier Code of Conduct to require GHG reduction targets, greater use of carbon-free electricity, stronger worker protections, increased transparency, and meaningful engagement with Indigenous communities.

Showing Up for Our Communities

Ford is committed to being a good neighbor in all the places we operate. We show up to include local stakeholders in decisions that support a healthy environment and through giving back in good times and bad.

In 2025, we grew Ford’s Good Neighbor Plan in West Tennessee to support community needs in the region of our BlueOval City campus. We also partnered with grassroots organizations, such as Living Lands & Waters, bringing our scale, resources, and volunteers to watershed restoration and cleanup efforts, tree plantings, environmental education, and more. And we launched Ford Building Together, a new companywide initiative that unites the full power of our enterprise — people, philanthropy, vehicles, technology, and dealer network — behind expert nonprofit partners to help build stronger, more resilient communities all around the world.

Moving Forward on the Road to Better 

Ford’s Sustainability Report shows that hard work, ingenuity, and determination aren’t just buzzwords. They’re representative of the actions of real people — across our enterprise, our supply chain, and our communities — who are innovating every day to help build a more sustainable future. That’s what we mean by progress, and that’s how we’ll keep moving forward on the Road to Better.

Steven Croley is Ford’s chief policy officer and general counsel.