Socal Mom by Donna Schwartz Mills

Ford Green Day 2: Can an Automaker Be "Environmentally Friendly" and Thrive?

Last week, I traveled to Detroit for the North American International Auto Show, as a guest of Ford Motor Company (courtesy of the Clever Girls Collective.  On Tuesday, we were whisked off to Dearborn to tour Ford's headquarters and test drive some of the company's newest  fuel efficient products (many not on the market yet!) on the company's test track -- but alas, the arrival of last week's tremendous snow storm put the kibosh on that.

We still managed to experience a very full and interesting day.

Our morning began with a tour of the company's historic Rouge River assembly plant (which is open to the public as a component of the nearby Henry Ford Museum).  

To put what we were seeing in context, the tour begins with a documentary about the origins of the company -- which is actually a history lesson about America in the 20th Century.

One thing that was apparent throughout the visit was the pride that Henry Ford's heirs have in their great grandfather's legacy. I heard it from my fellow bloggers who attended Sunday night's welcome reception, where they were greeted by Edsel Ford II... and I heard it straight from the mouth of Bill Ford, the company's current Executive Chairman, who presented their new vehicle offerings the previous day at the Auto Show.

I was pleased that the documentary did not airbrush all the warts off that legacy. Yes, it crowed about the innovations and quality of products made by the Ford Motor Company -- but it did not gloss over Henry Ford's paternalistic attitude towards his workers and his resistance to the rise of the United Auto Workers.  All of that was commendably there.

We were then ushered into a different theater for a multi-screen look at how a vehicle is assembled. And then, we were ready to tour the factory.

But before we hit the assembly line, our tour guides wanted to be sure we had an understanding of what an environmentally friendly factory we were in.

 Now, I've got to tell you: I remember when William Clay Ford, Jr. was named to head the family company, and all the snark that was lobbed his way when he announced that he was an environmentalist. Well, Ford put his money where his mouth was. Yes, the company is now turning out more fuel efficient vehicles, utilizing a variety of different technologies -- but that's true of all the world's automakers, thanks to governmental and economic realities.

Ford proved his green cred by plowing $2 billion into the Rouge River plant (in operation since 1917), turning it into a modern model of  sustainability. The complex is a LEED-certified wonder, with features that include:

• One of the world's largest green roofs (454,000 square feet), which helps to insulate the building (and saves the company money in energy bills). And in the summer, it serves as a habitat for birds, which build nests in the sedum  plants that cover it.
• Huge rooftop skylight windows provide lots of natural light to the workers on the floor.  
• Solar panels atop the visitors' center provide some of the complex's power; water is heated by solar collectors on the ground.
• The parking lot has a porous pavement, which is part of the plant's water management system.

Then, we got a look at the actual assembly line, where workers were busy building new F150 trucks. It was surprisingly clean, colorful and kind of beautiful -- in an industrial way.

 Bill Ford's Rouge River renovation project did not stop with the environment. The factory was upgraded with safety features and ergonomic enhancements which make it a better place to work.

We viewed the assembly line from above; saw videos of workers explaining their part in building a new truck, and saw the area where they test the finished product (punctuated with audible beeps from the trucks' horns - yes, someone gets designated the horn honker, just to make sure it works).

From there, we were whisked to a conference facility on the edge of the company's test track, where we were treated to presentations on Ford's in-vehicle connectivity systems (MyFord Touch and SYNC) and a sobering talk about how the automotive industry remains viable in a world with climate change, diminishing resources, and new global pressures and demand... material I'll be covering next month over at AskPatty.

 

Ford paid for my travel and accommodations at the two-day Driving Green Technology event. I was not compensated by them in any other manner for my time - however, I will also be writing some freelance posts about the show in general over at AskPatty. As always, my opinions posted here are my own.

Ford Green at the North American International Auto Show

I'm in Detroit for the North American International Auto Show, as a guest of Ford Motor Company (courtesy of the Clever Girls Collective. This was a more-or-less live blogging experience; I've revised it several times today).

We are actually a part of the Ford Exhibit here today in Cobo Hall - an entire lounge area devoted to green and tech bloggers (with some moms thrown in). 

There's wifi for us here, but I have a feeling we have taxed the network - it's a little spotty. I may have to run over to the actual media room to get a reliable internet connection. 

Ford has invited a number of experts to come and answer questions for us while at the show. The first one was Jennifer, the very knowledgeable engineer who talked me through some of the new Ford MyTouch technology in the new vehicles.

I guess you could call it SYNC 2.o - and they are still using the brand name "SYNC." I suppose my first question to them would be if they are phasing out the SYNC name, or what the difference actually is between SYNC and Ford MyTouch. Whatever you call it, I find it the easiest in-vehicle technology I've ever used and wish I had it on my aging Volvo (or at least, could find a REAL job so I can afford to buy a new car with new tech).

With Jennifer there, I didn't feel quite as guilty for slipping away to see what else is at the Auto Show - and it's quite spectacular (as is the Ford display, which is completely different from the one they had in L.A. And that one was one of the largest they've ever had there). One surprise: even though this show is the biggest in the US, L.A. feels bigger. Maybe I'm missing a huge part of Cobo Hall. Which is another reason why I needed to investigate!

The Ford presentation this morning was pretty spectacular, as were the cars they debuted (which included the new Focus Electric model and a cute little family car called the C-Max). I used my camcorder more to cover these events, which means I get more accurate quotes - but it also ends up taking me longer, as I have to review the video. So expect another post on these cars in the near future. 

In the meantime, here are some photos:

Ford invited Stewart Brand (the Whole Earth Catalog) and Sheryl Connolly(Ford's Manager of Global Trends & Futuring) to answer questions about the company's commitment to green technology. This was an exclusive opportunity for the 100 or so bloggers from around the world who were invited to be here as the company's guests.

Brand warned us that his Powerpoint presentation would be dense with information and that he would speak quickly - and he was right. He told us how as an environmentalist, he used to oppose nuclear energy and "clean coal" as solutions to our energy woes -- but has since changed his mind. Then he told us why. Here are some bullet points from his presentation:

Hydro-electric, wind and solar power are the only "clean" sources of energy, but all have their problems. The conversion of wind and solar energy into electricity requires the use of a lot of the earth's landscape:

In the case of wind, it takes 250 square miles of wind mills to generate 1 GigaWatt  of energy; Solar requires 50 square miles to generate the same amount. Brand said this isn't a problem in areas like the Sahara, but in "green deserts" like California's Mojave, we lose a lot more than we gain. 

Brand termed sources like coal, gas and nuclear as "energy factories" because he says they have less impact on the landscape.

Brand said he became a convert to nuclear energy because it creates a lot less waste than coal and he says it can be controlled.

 Brand pointed out that fighting climate change was the equivalent of defending civilization from a natural system (climate) doing its thing.

He termed our response as “planet craft” – and the realization that we are already doing it, and badly at that. He said that thanks to climate change, the classic environmental reflex to "love the tree but not its genome" needed to be turned around to the engineering approach of  "messing around with genomes to makes sure that more trees can grow naturally."  An example would be tree farms and fish farms, which he said he now supports.

Brand sees a generational environmental transformation. He finds that newer environmentalists are much more comfortable with the fast pace of technology, while his own generation (“mossback environmentalists”) have a tough time with it.

Brand recalled the "no nukes" movement of the 1970's. He termed Three Mile Island a success story, because you had a meltdown and the safety systems worked to contain it.

All of these big power sources are problematic, Brand says. "We like gas more than coal but a lot of people are dying from gas in some quantities too," he noted (he named the San Bruno gas fire as an example).

Brand said that environmentalists' attitude on nuclear has a lot to do with how they feel about climate change. Climatologists are advocates of nuclear because efficiency is huge. Solar is good but not the whole answer. He concluded that nuclear is a good large scale energy source.

One of the bloggers brought up the carbon emissions standards in Europe. Brand said that the E.U. is going through an interesting thing with its clean energy portfolio because they have France right in the middle selling nuclear energy at a French price. For a while, they were trying to say they would only do renewable energy but then realized there’s no hope for that, so now they are including nuclear.

Brand said that we all may have to shift from “clean power” commitment to “green power.”

There is a split among environmentalists about things like genetically modified (GM) crops  and nuclear. These are good in terms of climate, but bad in terms of waste. Either we split or we say ok, climate is the main event, and decide what to do to take it seriously.

Brand asserted that we need to employ risk balancing, which is not something environmentalists have been comfortable with. "But we can’t live that way. We have to try stuff," he said. 

Ford paid for my travel and accommodations at the two-day Driving Green Technology event. I was not compensated by them in any other manner for my time - however, I will also be writing some freelance posts about the show in general over at AskPatty. As always, my opinions posted here are my own.

Wanna Know What I Thought of the Chevy Volt?

I'm over at AskPatty today - with my thoughts on the Chevy Volt versus Toyota's Prius.

More on the Los Angeles Auto Show

Congratulations to Adrienne Van Houten, of Adrienne's House. She's the winner of the family four-pack of tickets to the Los Angeles Auto Show.

The first of my posts about the Show is online now at CBS Local: Family Guide to the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Greetings From the LA Auto Show

I am giving a way a family pack of tickets to the Los Angeles Auto Show! Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see how to enter.

Photo sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

 
I'm here to cover the show for CBS Local Los Angeles and AskPatty.com, and it's been really exciting, as it's my first time attending on a press pass. There is too much to see here in one day -- which is why they hold the press preview for two of them.

It's also a little bit harrowing, because there were times yesterday when I felt I was in over my head. I left the show yesterday feeling exhausted and spent -- and a little bit sad, because I don't remember getting this tired so easily when I was younger.

"This has nothing to do with you being old," my husband exclaimed. "You're anemic. Did you take your iron pills?"

Yeah. After my last doctor visit, I'm taking the iron supplements religiously. My doctor told me it would take at least three months before I boost my iron levels up to normal. So maybe that's why I left the show yesterday with such debilitating fatigue that I was unable to write anything.

It did not help that I spent the better part of yesterday morning just getting here. When I agreed to the assignment, I noted that Wednesday was the other mom's turn to drive carpool in the morning -- so I planned on getting on the road around 6:00 A.M.

Then, Megan told me she needed to be at school an hour early yesterday -- so I had to drive her after all. I dropped her off at 7:00 and didn't arrive at the Los Angeles Convention Center until 8:45.

Today was my turn to drive - and my wonderful husband stepped in and did it for me.

What a difference an hour makes on the LA freeways. I left home at 6:00 and made it here in just 45 minutes -- which means I was able to start working while my brain was still fresh.

Today is going to be a great day.

DO YOU WANT TO ATTEND THE AUTO SHOW? The folks here have offered me a family pack of tickets to a reader of SoCal Mom. Enter today by tweeting @socalmom with the hashtag #LAAutoShow. I'll pick one entry at random tomorrow.