The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recognizes Ford Motor Company for achieving 50001 Ready recognition at 31 sites. Ford Motor Company, also a Better Plants and Better Climate Challenge partner, is a global automotive manufacturer based in Dearborn, Michigan, with manufacturing plants and offices in over a dozen countries around the world. 31 of Ford’s U.S.-based sites, manufacturing and non-manufacturing alike, engaged in the program and have achieved 50001 Ready recognition since 2022.
Taking advantage of the cohort training, coaching and technical support the 50001 Ready program offered led to energy management techniques and decarbonization strategies being more deeply integrated into the company’s processes and continuous improvement mindset and lower costs. Six of Ford’s Germany-based manufacturing sites were already ISO 50001 certified, but the remainder of the company’s global sites used 50001 Ready training sessions and review of the 50001 Ready Navigator tasks to identify significant energy users and opportunities for improvement.
To minimize burden on plant-level personnel, many 50001 Ready Navigator tasks were handled at the enterprise level, with input from individual plants as needed. This streamlined implementation across all 31 U.S. sites while still tailoring implementation to each site’s needs. Enterprise-level personnel worked closely with the cohort coach to integrate all aspects of energy management, as described by 50001 Ready, into Ford’s existing Energy Management Operating System (EMOS).
Ford used the 50001 Ready Navigator’s Multi-Site Portfolio View to monitor implementation progress across all sites. This allowed staff to review task status at both corporate and local levels with focused follow-ups occurring where needed and supporting actionable steps such as weekend shutdowns and general maintenance. The 50001 Ready Navigator was most helpful in identifying the energy projects that would yield the best results. Using the tool to manage the systematic collection and analysis of energy performance indicators and targets for energy benchmarking, including normalizing for production (and weather, as was done historically), meant that only the most impactful projects were pursued.
DOE’s 50001 Ready program, managed by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO), provides a self-paced, no-cost way for organizations to build a culture of structured energy improvement that leads to deeper and more sustained energy savings.
Learn more about Ford’s energy management activities and its 31 sites that earned 50001 Ready.