FAQ On Carbon Footprint - ERA European Rental Association

FAQ Carbon Footprint V1 / May 2012

1° What is a company’s carbon footprint?

The most widely accepted definition of the carbon footprint is that it is "a measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) emissions of a defined population, system or activity, considering all relevant sources, sinks and storage within the spatial and temporal boundary of the population, system or activity of interest. Calculated as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) using the relevant 100-year global warming potential (GWP100)."

Greenhouse gases (GHG) can be emitted through transport, land clearance, and the production and consumption of food, fuels, manufactured goods, materials, wood, roads, buildings, and services. For simplicity of reporting, it is often expressed in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide, or its equivalent of other GHGs, emitted. The carbon footprint is a subset of the ecological footprint and of the more comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).

An individual's, nation's, or organisations carbon footprint can be measured by undertaking a GHG emissions assessment.

2° For what purpose(s) is it used?

Once the size of a carbon footprint is known, a strategy can be devised to reduce it, e.g. by technological developments, better process and product management, changed Green Public or Private Procurement (GPP), carbon capture, consumption strategies, and others.

EU Member States must mandatorily set strategies to reduce their GHG emissions under a number of international agreements, including the famous Kyoto Protocol. The EU is currently adopting its roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy in 2050. Already agreed objectives under previous roadmaps include binding targets to be reached in 2020: Reduction of GHG emissions by 20% in 2020 (compared to 1990 levels); Increase of the share of renewable energy in the EU’s energy mix to 20%; 20% of savings in energy consumption compared to 2007 projections for 2020; To reach these targets, EU Member States must put into place national strategies, which include a number of measures, including obligations for consumers, companies and public authorities. Well known measures in the construction industry include rules to increase the performance and reduce the energy consumption of new and existing buildings, targets to reduce emissions from construction equipment and rules for Green Public Procurement local authorities across the EU have to apply when launching infrastructure and building projects.

3° What is the relevance of carbon footprint calculations for rental companies?

Due to the above described obligations for EU Member States, rental companies, as part of the construction industry supply chain, increasingly receive questions about their carbon footprint and the measures they are taking to reduce emissions from their operations.

This information is then used by construction contractors (and beyond by public authorities in the framework of public projects) for the calculation of their own carbon footprint and for demonstrating that given projects meet targets set at a national level.

Clearly some countries are currently ahead of others. But in view of the overall cross-industry targets the EU has committed itself to, rental companies will in the future increasingly have to demonstrate that they are taking action to mitigate their emissions. They will need to supply this information to their major customers to take part in major projects or to serve public authorities.

The carbon footprint and further measures to mitigate future emissions however also opens prospects for the rental companies. Indeed, customers interested in mitigating the carbon footprint of major temporary projects will be encouraged to rent recent, well maintained state of the art equipment.

As a concrete example, the Olympic Games to be organized in London in 2012, have developed a complex methodology to assess the level of emissions resulting from the organization of the Games (http://www.london2012.com/documents/locog-publications/carbon-footprint-study.pdf). Although this methodology is focusing mainly on the games themselves, the organizers have also set targets and put measures in place to mitigate emissions resulting from infrastructure building (http://www.london2012.com/documents/locog-publications/london-2012-sustainability-plan.pdf).

These include: Rules for the supply and transportation for construction products on-site; Rules on the energy performance of buildings; Training of all construction industry staff intervening on the project; Water use; Commitment to optimize the amount of leased / hired equipment; Use of ultra-low sulphur diesel construction equipment fitted with diesel particulate filters; Deconstruction and re-use of infrastructure; 4° How is it calculated?

The calculation of a company’s carbon footprint requires taking into account a complex set of data, from all along the supply chain. It is therefore performed by specialized companies, which maintain databases of information to support the calculation of the carbon footprint. This calculation helps identifying points of improvement to mitigate future emissions.

Rental companies however find themselves in the difficult position where they rent out a wide range of equipment to others, which operate the said equipment. They can therefore relatively easily calculate the carbon footprint resulting from their operations (rental depots, transportation…), but

can hardly be responsible for the behavior and usage of the equipment of their customers, beyond providing them information on how to operate the equipment most efficiently.

The ERA’s Safety and Sustainability Committee has started discussions with a company specialized in carbon footprint calculations to try to establish a method for the calculation of carbon footprints, which rental companies could use when calculating their own carbon footprint.

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