Ford's eco factories

It isn't easy being an eco-friendly motorist. With more and more media coverage being given to terms like "hybrid", "carbon footprint" and "alternative fuels", and the companies providing so-called "green" services like eco-car insurance and carbon offsetting, it can make the average motorist feel a bit down in the dumps about not doing enough to prevent climate change.

Most of us who are concerned about our impact on the environment feel that we are doing our bit by doing little things like walking to the shops around the corner instead of driving or by turning off our car's engine whilst we are waiting for those particularly slow level crossing barriers to come up.

But is this enough? As more and more attention is being paid to climate change and the impact of our actions on the environment, it is easy to start questioning whether our little concessions are adequate, or whether we are just taking the quickest, easiest choices in order to prevent a major change in our comfortable lifestyles.

Take buying a new car, for example. A lot of us are now choosing smaller, more fuel efficient cars instead of gas-guzzling 4x4s, which is of course a step in the right direction to more eco-friendly motoring (although the fact that these cars also cost less to run is probably more than coincidence). The more committed of us might look into buying a car that runs on something other than traditionally high polluting fuels.

However, how many of us look at the green-ness of the manufacturer when considering what car to buy? For those who are truly dedicated to putting a stop to climate change, supporting eco-friendly companies (and rejecting highly polluting ones) is a must. Fortunately, UK motorists can do this without giving up buying their vehicles from the UK's biggest and most trusted car manufacturer - Ford.

Ford's statistics from 2007 have shown that an eco-efficiency drive at its Dagenham plant, which produces thousands of cars with 1.4 and 1.6 litre low-carbon diesel engines each year, is really paying off. It is the first Ford factory to be powered by wind energy, thanks to a trio of wind turbines which stand nearby.

Creating a total of 21 million kWh of electricity, this alternative kind of energy generation means that the company manages to avoid releasing an estimated 6500 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. Even more importantly, the energy that these turbines create is then used efficiently, with strict controls on the amount of power consumed by the many tools in the factory.

The management of materials used and produced by the manufacturing process in this Ford factory has also been closely looked at. Dagenham's metal-working fluids now involve vegetable oil rather than mineral oil, whilst the waste created by the machining process is transformed into briquettes that can be recycled.

However, it isn't just at Dagenham that Ford is doing its bit for the environment. Dearborn, Michigan may be a bit further away from home for those in the UK, but as we are so often reminded, climate change is a global issue and the actions of those in another country affect people the world over.

The Dearborn plant was named in 2004 by the Guinness World Records as having the biggest green roof in the world. For those who aren't familiar with green roofs, imagine having a 10.4 acre garden on top of a set of buildings and you will have a pretty good idea of what it looks like. A variety of plants in the sedum family grow on top of the roof, providing a good level of biodiversity, insulating the building, storing rainwater and channelling away any excess to undergo natural treatment before being filtered back into nearby water courses.

So if you are in the market for a new car and want to do a bit more for the environment, do consider all those important emissions statistics and miles per gallon, but also bear in mind just where that car has come from.

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