The challenges of Carbon Accounting and the Sharing Economy in Tool Rental Service.
At Boels DIY, we provide high-quality tools and equipment for rental through a network of DIY stores across Europe. By focusing on tools that are usually only needed once or twice per household, we help people access the equipment they need while making the most of its lifespan. We aim to offer this service to customers as a more sustainable way-of-working during their DIY projects.
As part of this commitment to sustainability, we’ve also looked at the bigger picture. While working on our carbon accounting, we have examined the sustainability benefits of the sharing economy. We compared the emissions from our rental service with those generated by consumers purchasing the same tools for similar tasks.
Challenges in Carbon Accounting
We are currently mapping out our carbon emissions across Scope 1, 2, and 3, and we do have to admit, it is not a small task. Especially given our wide variety of products and partnerships throughout Europe, we face the challenge of gathering accurate data across markets.
Being part of Boels Group, a company focused on B2B customers, large equipment- and specialist rentals, we benefit from their expertise in carbon accounting. Boels Group has already made progress in measuring emissions for its construction and specialist equipment. Additionally, their participation in the ERA (European Rental Association) Scope 3 taskforce provides invaluable resources and insights into addressing emissions across supply chains.
Despite this support, we as Boels DIY face our own challenges in carbon accounting. Unlike Boels Group’s direct-to-customer depots, we act as a partner to the DIY market, offering machines to customers through DIY stores. To calculate our carbon footprint, we need to account for other factors, such as machine maintenance and repair during their average seven-year lifespan.
Opportunities of Sharing Economy
While there are many factors to consider in machine rental vs. purchasing the same machine, the results are clear: renting tools over their lifespan results in significantly lower emissions than selling the same products to individual customers. Rental tools are used multiple times each year by different customers, effectively spreading the environmental cost of manufacturing over a larger number of users. Even when counting transport and maintenance emissions, these are far smaller than emissions due to the production of additional machines for single ownership.
Collaboration and Future Goals
Being part of the EDRA/GHIN Scope 3 Task Force has been a real help. It has allowed us to collaborate with others in the industry, share insights, and tackle common challenges together. This process hasn’t just made us more aware of the complexities—it has also motivated us to push harder towards our sustainability goals, while inspiring other taskforce members to consider implementing the sharing economy, and making rental equipment in any form part of their business model.
To learn more about Sustainability at Boels, visit: https://group.boels.com/en/about-boels/sustainability-at-boels-rental/customer-care/
