Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) has scooped the Best Sustainable Rental Project of the Year Award for its Energy management, at the 2020 European Rental Awards.

The awards, which are organized and judged by the European Rental Association (ERA), were announced yesterday, June 30, in the European Rental Awards event that took place digitally this year hosted by International Rental News.

This independent recognition from the rental industry is a testament to the company’s long term focus on sustainability, and outstanding ability to achieve significant environmental sustainability improvements. The energy management initiative that secured the award, is just one of the many projects in the company’s focus on environmental care. The success of the program lies in building a company-wide embedded culture dedicated to avoiding waste energy and continuously improving.

The ERA is supporting the industry evolution that today places higher value on the carbon lifecycle of construction equipment throughout the machine life, which of course begins with the manufacturer in the production phase.

Volvo CE has been a member of the WWF Climate Savers program since 2012 and its 2015-2020 commitment was about making a significant reduction in its global energy consumption and therefore its CO2 output throughout the value chain, demonstrating industry leadership and developing innovations towards a low carbon society. In the last five years, the company has:

• Implemented more than 50 GWh’s of energy savings

• Switched half of its global energy supply to 100% renewable sources

• Reduced its idle electricity use by 48%

• Reduced its energy use per unit delivered to its customers by 27%

• Started a journey of CO2 neutral production facilities – Braas, in Sweden, is already 100% neutral factory since 2014

Niklas Nillroth, Vice President Sustainability & Public Affairs at Volvo CE, says: “Volvo CE’s purpose is to build the world we want to live in, so we are extremely proud to win this award which recognizes our sustainability efforts towards that goal. Our energy management approach has delivered significant benefits to the rental industry at a product lifecycle level, and we believe that the cultural approach taken can be shared and adopted by rental companies of all scales and sizes.”