Ford to Make Irvine Site Eco-Friendly
In its efforts to be seen as the nation’s “green” car maker, Ford Motor Co. is planting an environmental flag firmly atop the new headquarters of its Lincoln Mercury unit in Irvine, Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. said Wednesday.
The new Lincoln Mercury offices to be built on an 11-acre parcel in the Irvine Spectrum business park next year will follow the “eco-effective design philosophy” espoused by Bill McDonough, former dean of the University of Virginia School of Architecture, Ford said during a speech in Los Angeles.
That means the building will make use of energy-efficient design and use locally available recycled construction materials as well as material that can be recycled. The carpeting, for example, can be pulled up when worn and recycled into new carpet material.
Ford said plans for the Lincoln Mercury facility have not progressed to the point that the eco-friendly systems and materials to be used can be identified. Most commercial buildings now use steel framing made from recycled metal, however, and numerous architectural uses are being developed for materials made from recycled plastics and rubber.
Ford has vowed to make the company his great-grandfather founded a leader of “the clean and green revolution.” He said Ford Motor already makes automobile bumper covers from ground-up soda pop bottles, recycles 17,000 tons of paint sludge and “billions of gallons” of water each year and has cut electricity use in its factories “by a huge amount.”
The company is using federally certified low-emission engines in all of its light trucks--pickups, sport utility vehicles and minivans--in the United States. It also is developing an aluminum-bodied passenger car using a hybrid gasoline-electric power system and has vowed to have zero-emission fuel-cell powered electric vehicles available for sale in California and perhaps other states by 2004.
