Buy a Ford, Donate to RMI

Rocky Mountain Institute is among four nonprofits that can benefit from sales of advanced-technology Ford vehicles. (See below how RMI supporters can help determine what share of the money RMI gets.)

The vehicles are the 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid, Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid, and the Focus Electric, Ford’s entry into the nascent EV market.

The donations, totaling up to $150,000 a year, will be administered through the Repreve Gives Back program. The program is offered by Unifi Inc., which makes the Repreve-branded recycled fiber used in the seat fabric of new Fusion hybrids and 2012 Focus EV.

Besides RMI, the nonprofits that can benefit from the program are:

• Keep America Beautiful
• Conservation Alliance
• American Rivers

Here’s how RMI supporters and others can help determine how the money will be distributed among the four nonprofits.

First, you must “like” REPREVE on Facebook and click the “Gives Back” tab to get a passcode. Using the passcode, people can then vote for their preferred cause at www.repreve.com. Passcodes also are available from hang tags that come with products made with REPREVE.

Unifi, an RMI supporter since 2008 and sponsor of this week’s RMI 30th anniversary gala at the Empire State Building, provides REPREVE recycled materials for several brands, including Polartec, Life Khaki, The North Face, and Patagonia.

REPREVE is made from a hybrid blend of post-industrial and post-consumer waste. Each Focus Electric seating interior contains the equivalent of about 22 recycled plastic bottles made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate)—the technical name of the plastic of which the bottles are made—while Fusion hybrids feature nearly 42.