How Green is Your Valley? Ford Transforming Michigan Home

Judy Antell |

Updated: Apr 18, 2016

Ford is going green with its re-imagined Dearborn home in a nod to Silicon Valley.

Last year, Ford opened a research and development center in Palo Alto, California. It is keeping its headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan and is beginning a renovation that will make its Midwestern home green and high tech. So as Ford strives to make its cars more sustainable (yes, I’m looking at you Ford Energi), and remake itself as a mobility company, it will also make its headquarters environmentally conscious.

More Silicon Valley than midwest?

The new energy efficient Ford campus will have paths, trails and covered walkways; for longer trips around the headquarters, autonomous vehicles, on-demand shuttles, and eBikes will reduce private car use. There will be both a Research and Engineering Center and a new Ford Credit facility.

Ford says the new buildings will reduce energy use by about 50 percent, save water, and include a new zero-waste, zero-energy, zero-water Sustainability Showcase building.

Construction, which begins in April at the Ford Research and Engineering Center, should be complete by 2023. A second phase, with the credit facility, begins in 2021 and should be complete by 2026.