Lead with ESG

A major update to our strategy in launching Sunbelt 3.0 was the inclusion, for the first time, of ESG as an actionable component. Responsible sustainability has always been important to the Group and part of our activities day-to-day, but now it is formally embedded into our strategy for the benefit of our people, customers, suppliers, communities and investors, as well as optimising the structural benefits ESG brings to rental. This is an important element in what we mean by Ambition with Purpose for Sunbelt 3.0. We believe there are enormous benefits to the environment from rental versus ownership at all stages of the business life cycle, supply chain, operations, customer use and end of life of equipment. It is far better for the environment for many customers to rent one piece of well-maintained and safe equipment only when they need it, than for many customers to each purchase said piece of equipment, use it a few times, fail to maintain it properly and then throw it away when it becomes obsolete or just no longer needed. This is a prime example of the sharing economy. Increased rental of shared assets reduces the number of machines that need to be manufactured with the benefit of lower consumption of raw materials, fewer manufacturing facilities and hence, lower energy requirements, and fewer assets to be disposed of end of life. Our rental equipment is also amongst the greenest available as we renew our fleet on a regular basis and take advantage of the latest technology. We have made a commitment to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 carbon intensity by 35% by 2030 and by 15% during Sunbelt 3.0. This will come principally from environmental efficiencies in our transportation fleet and the facilities we operate.

From a social perspective, our people have always been first on the priority list and that was ever more evident during COVID-19.  Ours is a culture committed to employee safety, engagement, diversity, equity and inclusion, and providing a Leading / Living Wage. Putting our people first allows them to give us enormous competitive advantage.  Our skilled workforce is instrumental to the Group’s long-term success and we preserved our committed workforce during COVID-19 so that we were ready for the recovery when it came.   

As an essential service provider we support our customers and communities whether that be investing in the communities in which our people reside, first responder participation for emergencies, or natural disaster response such as hurricane relief. 

Read more about our ESG strategy