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Before you dismiss McDonough as a lunatic, consider this: he has already won over a big-time convert by the name of Bill Ford. When the chairman of Ford Motor Co. decided to rebuild the company's historic River Rouge complex, destroyed by an explosion in 1999, he hired McDonough, who is based in Charlottesville, Va., as a sustainability expert to help make the new plant outside Detroit as environmentally friendly as possible. The result, which is scheduled to open next year, may not fulfill all McDonough's ideals, but it will be the greenest car factory ever. Thirty-five...
Because people won't give up their four-wheelers, the challenge is to reduce the tail-pipe emissions that contribute to everything from respiratory distress to global warming. "We have to build a sustainable transportation technology that doesn't ask people to sacrifice," says John Wallace, executive director of Ford's Think Group. Lighter-weight materials and cars can help reduce overall energy consumption, but the key is to find a better power source...
...first solution, a few years ago, was battery-powered electric cars, like Ford's cute little Think model. But electric cars have less range than gas-powered cars, and it's hardly convenient to recharge the batteries. The newer gasoline-electric hybrid cars, like the Toyota Prius and Honda's hybrid Civic, recharge themselves and go much farther on a gallon of gas than do conventional cars, but they aren't pollution free...
...Every U.S. automaker has demonstrated a prototype version, and full-scale production models are expected to come out within the next 10 years as costs drop. Before the big roll-out, Toyota and Honda plan to bring small test fleets to market in the U.S. sometime next year, and Ford says it will follow in 2004. To speed the debut of the fuel cells, President Bush is proposing tax breaks and other industry incentives...
...turn corporations into partners in preservation? For starters, when companies make efforts to turn green, environmentalists shouldn't jump down their throats the minute they see any backsliding. Wootliff says he was exasperated to watch so many environmental groups take special aim at Ford Motor, arguably Detroit's most environmentally friendly carmaker, during the latest fight in Congress over fuel-efficiency standards (in which Ford, GM and Chrysler all fought to preserve the status quo). "For goodness' sake, stop alienating your supporters," he warns. "Going after Ford will mean fewer, not more, CEOs will turn around and say protecting...