Ford's Global Director of Sustainability, John Viera, Discusses the Future of Fuels and the Secret to Fuel Efficiency

My press cred for NAIAS

This year when Ford asked me to attend the 2012 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) as one of their Digital Influencers, I was obviously very excited.  Aside from the fact that I love cars and greatly respect the Ford brand (I have owned over a half dozen Ford vehicles),  I was really looking forward to  meeting with their engineers and executives.  Specifically, the one person I was really looking forward to hearing from was John Viera, Ford's Global Director of Sustainability and Vehicle Environmental Matters.


Ford's Digital Influencer Lounge at NAIAS where we all had the chance to hang out and meet Ford execs and engineers

While we were at NAIAS, all 150 Ford Digital Influencers who had been invited on the trip were offered the chance to shake Viera's hand and pick his brain about Ford's green future.   A small group of us decided to attend the meet and greet at the Ford Online Influencer lounge and hear what Ford's head of sustainability had to say.  I don't think any of us were disappointed we attended.  We heard about everything from fuel efficiency to human rights and I recorded many of the questions that were asked by my fellow Online Influencers.

I was in awe to meet other green thought leaders like Nick Aster who wrote for many years for TreeHugger.com and founded  TriplePundit.com.  Photo credit TriplePundit.com

One of the Online Influencers I had the chance to chat with during dinner the first night I was in Detroit was Nick Aster.  Aside from being totally adorable, Nick is the founder of www.Triple Pundit.com.  If you haven't checked them out yet, you are getting the directive from me to go and do it now.  You see here at EB we treasure self, people and planet while over at 3P they value people, planet and profit.  I am into it and I think you will be too. 

While at NAIAS, when we met with John Viera, Nick asked Ford's sustainability and environmental guru about the future of lightweighting and it's impact on future fuel efficiency. 


To answer Nick's question, Viera explained that if you can reduce the weight of a vehicle, you can increase the fuel  efficiency.  We all know that right?  But when you start to realize that what he is saying is right in line with scenarios in the new ACEEE report, it gets even more exciting to think of the possible, positive, future outcomes for self, people, planet and profit.

Regardless of what the future of fuels may be in 10, 20 or even 50 years down the road, Viera says that we can absolutely continue to reduce the weight of vehicles resulting in an increase in the efficiency of any fuel. Lightweighting is a core strategy of Ford's future fuel efficiency strategy.

Ford Motor Company gets it.

Innovation is important and necessary, but real benefits also come through efficiency.

P.S.- Have you heard about The Green PolkaDot Box! Recently launched with over 12,000 members and backed by the Organic Consumer's Association, you can easily buy NonGMO organics at wholesale pricing online.  It's like a Sam's club but focused on products for green, healthy living!!  You can even shop by dietary restrictions like gluten free, vegan or diabetic.

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