Ford Motor Company's latest energy-efficiency project is the retrofit of its lighting systems at its Detroit Campus facilities. New England Energy Management (NEEM) will retrofit or replace more than 50,000 light fixtures, which will include the addition of lighting control systems and daylight dimming controls for maximum efficiency.
The projects will be installed with no upfront cost to Ford. The energy savings will be used to pay NEEM over five years.
Ford has improved its overall energy efficiency at its U.S. facilities by 4.6 percent in 2009, which yielded the company approximately $15 million in savings, along with its fifth straight Energy Star Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
To reduce energy efficiency at its U.S. manufacturing plants and operations, Ford has implemented a host of measures that included updating its heating and lighting control systems, upgrading its paint process systems, installing advanced computer controls and using flexible tooling to assemble multiple vehicles on the same production line for better plant utilization.
Ford also launched a PC Power Management program to improve global energy efficiency with an estimated reduction in the company's carbon footprint of between 16,000 and 25,000 metric tons annually and a "Go Green" Dealership Sustainability program to improve energy efficiency at its dealerships.
Other measures include reducing energy use during extended production shutdown periods and further improvements to its "Paint Shop of the Future" processes that reduce the footprint and energy use in its paint booths.
Ford's U.S. facilities have improved energy efficiency by more than 30 percent since 2000, which the automaker says is equivalent to the annual energy consumed by more than 110,000 homes.
