The European Rental Association, the voice of the European equipment rental industry, has launched the ERA Equipment CO2 Calculator, an independent and free-to-use online tool to enable equipment stakeholders to make more sustainable choices when using construction equipment.
The ERA Equipment CO2 Calculator, which will complement the ERA TCO Calculator, is primarily targeted at contractors, rental companies, distributors, OEMs, public authorities and other equipment users.
The calculations were developed 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 Alias, a digital services provider.
The Calculator determines the carbon footprint of construction equipment over its entire lifecycle and is applicable to all types of equipment, from mini excavators and wheel loaders to generators, boom lifts and access platforms.
The results provide an estimate of the carbon footprint per hour of use, allowing construction equipment users to, for example, compare different use scenarios, investigate which part of the lifecycle contributes most to the carbon footprint and evaluate the effects of alternative fuel choices.
The Calculator can be used to evaluate a single ownership period of one piece of equipment and, furthermore, to determine the climate impact of entire fleets of equipment or the total carbon footprint of all machines on a given construction site.
Michel Petitjean, secretary general, ERA, said: “The ERA Equipment CO2 Calculator is the first of its kind and a much-needed tool to help bring down emissions in the construction sector. By enabling equipment users to see the carbon footprint of their machinery for every hour of use, they can make the most environmentally sustainable choices when deciding whether to rent, lease or purchase equipment, evaluate areas for improvement and, ultimately, reduce their carbon footprint.”
The tool also allows users to directly compare two separate scenarios for using construction equipment.
“By providing direct comparisons of distinct scenarios, it is much easier for equipment stakeholders to evaluate different options when using construction equipment. This means that they can make the most sustainable choices and minimise their impact on the environment,” said Michel.
How the Calculator works
The Calculator has six easy steps, requiring basic information about the characteristics and use of a piece of equipment – equipment production, transportation, lifetime and utilisation, energy consumption, maintenance and end-of-life – and the users are guided through the process step-by-step.
The user information is combined with background data to estimate the carbon footprint of the equipment over its lifecycle, presenting a total carbon footprint per hour of use and a breakdown of the carbon footprint per parameter.
The Calculator is easy to use, with a simple registration process for users to save their calculations for later use. Alternatively, users can do single calculations without the need to register. The Calculator can also be embedded on external websites.
The values that need to be inserted into the tool in order to perform a calculation are:
• Equipment weight (in kg)
• Carbon footprint result from an LCA ( in kg CO2-equivalent) – optional for construction equipment
• Load capacity of the truck/van carried the equipment to a jobsite (in tonne)
• Truck load capacity factor (as a percentage)
• One-way distance over which the equipment is transported to a jobsite (in km)
• The average number of jobs per year
• Total expected operating hours in total lifetime of the equipment;
• Ownership period (in years);
• Total expected operating hours used during your company’s ownership
• Average energy consumption per hour (fuel or electricity)
• Share of biofuels in for fuel or country of use for electricity Motor oil consumption (in litres per year)
• Degree by which the equipment is recycled at the end of life.
The Calculator contains the option to estimate the carbon footprint for the production and end-of-life stages of construction equipment based on the equipment weight, but this estimate does not apply to hand tools or other types of equipment (modular space units etc). This weight-based estimate was developed based on information for larger equipment (1,500 to 15,000 kg).
Because hand tools are lighter and composed of different materials, the weight-based estimate can lead to incorrect results. For other types of equipment outside of larger construction equipment (such as hand tools, modular space units, forklifts, pumps etc.), the calculator can only be used for provided that the user has an LCA from the manufacturer of the specific product is available.