Sunbelt’s green progress
30 January 2024
Sunbelt Rentals’ parent Ashtead Group recently published its 2023 Sustainability Report highlighting the progress the business has made across all areas of environmental, social and governance (ESG).
The document covers the period from 1 May 2022 to 30 April 2023 and shows the breadth and depth of the challenges, as well as the solutions that are being adopted.
In the report, Ashtead CEO Brendan Horgan says the organisation has made significant progress toward its aim of reducing its Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 35% by 2030 from a 2018, achieving a reduction of 29% in 2022/23.
“A further area of focus this year has been quantifying our Scope 3 emissions,” he adds. “Our preliminary estimation of our Scope 3 emissions are 5.9 million tonnes CO2e, approximately 16 times our Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Estimating our Scope 3 emissions has been no easy task given the nature of our equipment and its longevity, with the end result inherently dependent on a significant degree of estimation.
“As such, we are participating in an industry initiative to develop industry guidance relating to the measurement of Scope 3 emissions to provide consistency between industry participants.”
The company highlights key ESG values that are areas of common focus throughout the business. Called the Sunbelt Six, these comprise: safety always, teamwork, respect, accountability, customer focus and results driven.
Safety initiatives include a pre-task planning programme called Take 10, which requires everyone to take at least 10 seconds to think through the job they are about to do using a pre-task planning checklist, such as when loading or unloading equipment and undertaking wash bay work.
Sunbelt reports that approximately 20% of its hire fleet comprises battery, electric and hybrid options, with a further 15% representing non-powered assets. In relation to diesel-powered assets, 80% comprise machines with Tier IV/V engines.
The company also highlights the attractiveness of hire as a model of sustainable procurement. Sunbelt suggests that, as regulations change requiring greater use of lower carbon technologies, companies will voluntarily choose to use more environmentally friendly equipment.
The report continues: “However, emerging technology is more complicated, requiring a different skill set to maintain, and more expensive, at least initially, than existing technology. Consequently, it will be more efficient for companies to rent equipment rather than buy it, providing an additional impetus to the shift from ownership to rental.”
As the blog has said previously, the drive towards Net Zero perhaps sees hire returning to its roots. The industry arose from people’s need to procure equipment that was too expensive to buy for short-term use, or which needed specialist advice and support.
And in this way, hirers are ideally placed to provide the right machines, advice and appropriate solutions.
