ARA launches carbon reporting guidance for North America

The American Rental Association (ARA) has launched carbon reporting guidance, tailored for the North American rental market.

Based on a model developed by the European Rental Association (ERA), it is available as an industry-specific guideline to help rental companies of all sizes meet sustainability and carbon reporting expectations in a clear, consistent manner.

“ARA recognised the need for the rental industry to have a consistent methodology for carbon guidance. We worked with rental companies, manufacturers, ERA and other associations to complete this worthwhile project, benefiting our members,” said Tom Doyle, ARA vice president, program development.

Douglas McLuckie, managing director of ESG, Sunbelt Rentals, Fort Mill, S.C., added, “The equipment rental industry plays a crucial role in the construction and other sectors, which is why it needs to be able to deliver the data on carbon footprint to customers and public authorities alike. This guidance helps rental companies do that in a way that is transparent and agreed upon by the whole industry.”

The new guidance is built around two essential components: Carbon Reporting Guidance for the Equipment Rental Industry and the GHG estimation database.

The carbon guidance report provides concrete and actionable steps for companies embarking on their carbon reporting journey or those seeking to align with industry best practices. The report lays out a step-by-step method for calculating corporate CO2e emissions in Scope 1 (direct emissions), Scope 2 (indirect emissions from purchased energy) and Scope 3 (other indirect value-chain emissions). The methodology offers detailed guidance, data sources and specific formulas for GHG emission calculations — all designed to specifically address the rental industry’s unique value chain.

“Every industry has its own idiosyncrasies to consider when it comes to GHG reporting, and the rental industry is no different,” says Katie Leone, sustainability and social impact senior director, Herc Rentals, Bonita Springs, Fla. “The rental value chain is closely tied to the full equipment life cycle: equipment moves from production by OEMs to the rental company, where it may cycle on and off various customers’ job sites, and often has a second life with one or more subsequent owners after resale. These equipment lifecycle stages account for roughly 80 percent of a typical rental company’s carbon footprint, yet they are also the hardest to measure since so much of that usage and end-of-life activity happens outside the rental company’s direct view. This lack of visibility underscores the need for guidance like this, so that rental companies can reasonably estimate their entire emissions profile.”

The carbon reporting guidance is avaible in the following formats: English – Imperial, English – Metric, and French.

GHG emissions database 

The GHG estimation database is built to provide rental companies with a tool to better estimate GHG emissions from their own equipment when primary data is not available.

The database is built on data provided by rental companies, OEMs and environmental analyses detailing emissions data for the most representative equipment in their fleets. “This gives rental companies a baseline for average daily utilization and energy use of their equipment,” said Robert H. Pedersen, president and CEO of A Tool Shed, Inc., in Santa Cruz, Calif., and current ARA board chair.

Pedersen adds that the benchmarking database can benefit rental companies of any size. “As government agencies continue to expand their strict carbon accounting rules, the smaller and mid-sized rental companies will be able to use this tool to accurately answer their customers’ requests for project-specific emissions,” he said.

ARA’s Standard Equipment Taxonomy (SET) scheme for categorising assets for equipment rental companies with a logical product classification system was also used in the development of the new benchmarking tool. ARA SET’s structure for enabling rental companies to share data and make comparisons to like products across the industry helps deliver a benchmark that ensures consistency. Download the ARA benchmark of rental equipment/GHG estimation database here.

“The benchmarking data published alongside the guidance fills gaps in a rental company’s own data, enabling more comprehensive and accurate disclosures,” Leone said. “For an industry where equipment-specific emissions data has always been hard to come by, having a shared, credible reference point means companies don’t need perfect data to start reporting with confidence.”

“By embracing a standardised methodology and leveraging the equipment database, the industry can collectively advance toward supporting and showcasing its sustainability objectives,” McLuckie says. “The guidance outlines clear methodologies for measuring and reporting emissions, thereby encouraging consistency and comparability across the industry. It is designed to be accessible for all rental companies, regardless of size or experience with carbon accounting.”

Pedersen says the bottom line is that, when used together, Carbon Reporting Guidance for the Equipment Rental Industry and the ARA benchmark of rental equipment can help rental companies respond to carbon data requests and remain competitive. “This establishes voluntary industry guidance that equipment rental companies can use to calculate the emissions of their equipment quickly and accurately, helping them secure bids when asked for their carbon data,” he said.