Whatever the color of your Ford Escape it's still Green

The tropical plant used is called kenaf, a relative of bamboo, cotton and okra. It takes the place of oil-based products in the midsize SUV and should save 300,000 pounds of oil-based resin in North America alone this year.

The use of the plant lightens the materical inside the doors by 25 percent, doing its part to improve overall fuel efficiency. Kenaf fibers can be used to make paper and cardboard in place of wood and its upper leaves and shoots are edible.

The plant is mixed with polypropylene in equal measures during the bolster production for the Escape. International Automotive Components (IAC) manufactures the door bolsters in Greencastle, Ind.

“Kenaf and the other renewable materials in the Escape have made the vehicle more environmentally friendly and fuel efficient,” said Laura Sinclair, materials engineer for Escape.

Twenty-five plastic beverage bottles go into make the carpets for each and every Escape. At the rate we consume these drinks, it good to know some of them get recycled.

Certain gaskets in the vehicle are made from recycled tires – another waste product we have more than enough of to last a long time.

Within the seats, Ford uses a soybean-based foam for the cushions. Interestingly, we were told at the long lead introduction in Dearborn that the real problem with using soybeans this way was the foam had a really funky smell you wouldn’t want in your car. So Ford researchers had to find the source of the offending aroma and isolate it from the final foam to solve the problem.

Recycled nylon and denim fibers are used in the production of the headliners. In fact a full 85 percent of the Ford Escape is recyclable at the end of its life cycle.

Finally, you have to consider the EcoBoost engine as part of the Ford Escape’s Green cachet. This high-tech four-cylinder replaces a 3.0-liter V6 engine, still delivering 237 horsepower and 250 lb.-ft. of torque. The engine contributes a 20 percent improvement in fuel efficiency and a 15 percent improvement in the amount of greenhouse gasses produced.

A 10 percent improvement in aerodynamics, an active front grill shutter, electronic steering and six-speed transmission all combine to create those fuel savings that add up to more green left in your pocket at the gas pump.

So when it comes right down to it, you can have your Ford Escape in any color you want, as long as it’s Green - and it is!