New and improved Equipment CO2 Calculator provides a comprehensive tool for equipment stakeholders to make more sustainable choices

The European Rental Association (ERA) has today released a new and improved Equipment CO2 Calculator, providing a comprehensive and easy-to-use tool ‎for making sustainable choices when using equipment.‎

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The updated Equipment CO2 Calculator – version 2.0 – includes an ‎expanded scope, enhanced functionality and improved navigation to provide a more ‎comprehensive, easier to use and more practical tool for equipment stakeholders, including ‎rental companies, contractors, OEMs, public authorities and other equipment users.

Michel Petitjean, Secretary General of ERA, said:

"This is a significant upgrade to our Equipment CO2 Calculator that is based on extensive feedback from ERA members and other equipment stakeholders. We now have a tool that is much more comprehensive and much closer to the needs of the market that will support businesses in making more sustainable choices and in bringing down their emissions when using equipment."

What’s new

• 3 Calculators in 1: In addition to the original construction equipment calculator, there are now calculators for handheld tools and modular space, with the calculations ‎tailored to each category of equipment across the parameters of production, transportation, ‎lifetime and utilisation, energy consumption, maintenance and end-of-life. ‎

• Single equipment and group calculations: The new version adds the option for group calculations for a ‎specific project, task or jobsite, or an entire equipment fleet. ‎Users can group all categories of equipment into a single calculation, with the results showing ‎the total carbon footprint for all the equipment.‎ This is on top of calculations of the carbon footprint of a single piece of equipment in a specific use ‎scenario (with the addition of handheld tools and modular space) in the original version.

• Improved navigation: Users can navigate to the correct calculator by choosing the equipment type from 5 categories – ‘construction machines and equipment’, ‘powered ‎access, forklifts and telehandlers’, ‘power and temperature control’, ‘modular and sanitary space’ ‎and ‘smaller equipment and tools’. This provides an easy navigation and ‎better user experience.‎

Background

The Equipment CO2 Calculator was first released in January 2021 to enable equipment ‎stakeholders to determine the carbon footprint of construction equipment over a defined period of time or its entire ‎lifecycle, with the results providing an estimate of the CO2e emissions per hour of use. It was ‎updated in March 2021 to enable comparisons between different user scenarios and include ‎alternative fuel choices.

Version 2.0 of the Equipment CO2 Calculator remains an independent and free-to-use tool for ‎all equipment stakeholders to make more sustainable choices when using equipment. It is ‎available at https://equipmentcalculator.org/. In ‎addition to being available in English, a further update will translate it into French, German, Italian, ‎Spanish and Dutch.‎

The calculations are provided by the independent research consultancy CE Delft, who first ‎developed the tool for the ‘Carbon Footprint of Construction Equipment’ study released in 2019, ‎and the online tool was built by Alias2k, a digital services provider.