In 2012, Ford began collaborating with Heinz, The Coca-Cola Company, Nike Inc., and Procter & Gamble to accelerate development of a 100 percent plant-based plastic to be used in making everything from fabric to packaging. Since then, Heinz and other sources have been working with Ford to find innovative ways to recycle and repurpose what would otherwise be considered company waste. At Heinz, researchers were looking for new ways to recycle and repurpose peels, stems, and seeds from more than two million tons of tomatoes. Ford found a way to take these materials and repurpose them for automotive use. To help explain this transformation, we wanted to create a very simplified, timeline-style graphic that would give a quick and easy read of the process.

The Heinz tomato graphic, the first in the series, was so well-received that others were created in the same style for different Ford sustainability initiatives. Each graphic was illustrated to give a simplified, step-by-step timeline of each material and the process it goes through to end up in a Ford vehicle. The graphics were meant to be fun, colorful, and easy to read. Placed alongside their corresponding press releases, these eye-catching graphics were showcased across media sites and social media, blogs, and other news-related websites. They were shared, re-shared, and liked by many, which helped create buzz and raise awareness around Ford sustainability initiatives.