Green is certainly this year's marketing phrase. Any corporation that can is mentioning 'green' and 'environmentally friendly' at every opportunity. Industry always prefers to regulate themselves, rather then let the hoi polloi or Congress influence policy.
Green light on for CEO at Ford : Not long ago, it would have been folly for an auto company chief executive to admit he believed in global warming, and just as unlikely for a carmaker to attach the word “sustainability” to a job title.But Ford Motor's chief executive, Alan Mulally, did both on Monday.
Speaking with journalists in a conference call, Mulally said, “I clearly believe the vast majority of data indicates that the temperature has increased. And I believe the correlation and analysis that it's mainly because of greenhouse gases.”
His comments came as Mulally announced a promotion for a Ford vice president, Susan Cischke, to a new job as senior vice president for sustainability, environment and safety engineering.
Cischke, who now reports to Mulally instead of to Ford's Washington office, will be in charge of creating a long-range strategy on sustainability matters.
More hype than concrete action, probably, but I still am encouraged. Even small steps are still steps. The real proof will be what positive actions result.
Representatives of environmental groups said they were glad to see Mulally's latest steps but had not forgotten Ford's past record.“It's always good when we see a company making steps toward becoming more environmentally sustainable,” said Mike Hudema, director of the Freedom From Oil Campaign, an alliance of three environmental groups.
“But we do always have to put that in context with Ford's history, which, unfortunately on the environmental front, is not a very good one.”
Dan Becker, director of the global warming program at the Sierra Club, said Ford was good at making promises to help the environment, but “when it comes to doing them, they seem to forget or fall down on the job.”
Becker questioned whether Cischke was the right executive to focus on sustainability, saying that she had testified before Congress opposing steps the Sierra Club had proposed.
“It's as if the Yankees promoted manager Joe Torre to reach out to the Red Sox,” he said.
Technorati Tags: Detroit, energy, environment, Ford
