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S P E C I A L R E P O R T: S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y
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Construction Plant News puts the questions to Phil Parker, Sunbelt Rentals Chief Financial Officer on the company’s sustainability policy What’s changed in the last two years for Sunbelt Rentals since the start of the pandemic? We announced our rebrand from A-Plant to Sunbelt Rentals on March 5th 2020, just before the pandemic started. Our reasoning for this was entirely about creating one unified business that focused on our customers and our people. Based on direct
input from our people and our customers we reset our vision, mission and our core values. One of the values that we introduced was acting responsibly, and as a business we are ultimately striving to be more sustainable.
Is Sunbelt Rentals seeing a change in demand since the start of the pandemic and how has it impacted the business?
Phil Parker
Yes, absolutely. The uncertainty that the pandemic brought has highlighted all the benefits that rental solutions can provide to customers across multiple sectors. We’ve also been fortunate to be able use the depth and breadth of our offering to provide a unified solution to the NHS, through the provision of covid-19 testing centres, as well as working with event organisers to relaunch the events industry following the aftermath of the pandemic. With each of these opportunities the demand for sustainable and eco-friendly products has never been higher.
Has there been a shift to more sustainable or green requirements? Yes, every conversation with every major contractor leads to a discussion about how they can be more sustainable. The biggest changes we’ve seen in recent years is linked to our power generation, accommodation, lighting and site services’ business. Decarbonisation is a key focus and in 2021 alone we supplied a number of fossil fuel free events, including COP26 and G7 Summit, where we supplied electric telehandlers, powered access, solar tower lights, electric charging
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