Officials at Ford Motor Co. today, in response to shareholder resolutions filed by institutional investors, said they have a detailed plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the vehicles it manufactures by 30% by 2020. The plan provides short-term (through 2012), midterm (2012-2020) and long-term solutions, from “EcoBoost” engines now to fuel-cell cars of the future, Susan Cishke, Ford group vice president, sustainability, environment and safety engineering, said in a conference call.
Ford’s announcement led the Connecticut State Treasurer’s Office, which oversees the $25.6 billion Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, Hartford, to withdraw its climate-related shareholder resolutions. Also removing its resolution was the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, representing more than $100 billion in investments.
Donald Kirshbaum, investment officer for policy for Connecticut Treasurer Denise L. Nappier, called the move a “significant step forward for Ford and its shareholders” to show how it will compete in “the carbon-constrained economy we now operate in.”
Sister Patricia Daly, a representative for ICCR and a member of the Sisters of St. Dominic in Caldwell, N.J., called Ford’s plan a “truly critical development.” Other auto companies have said they’ll set goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, “but without the detailed game plan that Ford has laid out,” Sister Daly said in the conference call.
