ERA launches equipment CO2 calculator

The European Rental Association has launched the ERA Equipment CO2 Calculator, an independent and free-to-use online tool to enable construction equipment owners and users to determine CO2 emissions for different equipment sourcing options, such as ownership or rental.

The Calculator (https://equipmentcalculator.org/en) determines the carbon footprint of construction equipment over its entire lifecycle and is applicable to a wide range 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, determine the climate impact of entire fleets of equipment, or give the total carbon footprint of all machines on a given construction site.

Michel Petitjean, ERA Secretary General, 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.”

Following this initial release, a second version of the Calculator will be released in the coming months that will enable users to directly compare two different scenarios.

How the Calculator works

The Calculator guides users through six 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.

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.

Background

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’ study released in 2019, and the online tool was built by Alias, a digital technology specialist based in Italy.