The amount of recycled material in each vehicle varies depending on region. In North America, 100% of the seat fabric in Fusion Hybrid contains recycled material. Where available, Mondeo in Ford’s Asia Pacific and European regions has 43% recycled content.

Fusion is the latest example of the Ford commitment to use recycled material whenever possible. In North America, for instance, Ford has increased use of recycled yarns from zero in 2007 to nearly 66% of vehicle programs for 2013. Overall, Ford uses 41 fabrics across 15 vehicle lines globally—from Mustang and Fiesta to F-150 and Taurus.

Ford’s use of sustainable fabrics is growing as the company continues adding global vehicle programs, implementing sustainable material standards on new vehicles, and identifying quality global recycled yarn suppliers, says Carol Kordich, Ford lead designer of sustainable materials. She says the idea is to one day have all Ford fabrics consist of recycled material.

Since the 2009 model year, any new seat fabric used in Ford vehicles must contain at least 25% recycled material.

As new ideas and technologies emerge, processes evolve and volumes increase with other automakers following Ford’s lead, the costs of developing sustainable fabrics will likely drop, Kordich says. When that happens, Ford will likely consider requiring an even higher percentage of recycled material content in its fabric, Kordich says.

Some of Ford’s most advanced vehicles—Focus Electric, Fusion Hybrid SE—already have fabrics with as much as 100% recycled content.

Dan Russian, business manager at Sage Automotive Interiors, Ford’s largest fabric supplier in North America, says the Ford-driven changes had a hand in speeding up the supplier’s development plans to increase offerings containing recycled content—potentially making more fabrics derived from recycled material available to the entire automotive industry up to five years earlier than originally planned.