United Rentals is one of the many U.S. corporations to take on corporate responsibility goals and report to shareholders incremental improvements in areas known as Environmental Stewardship, Social Impact and Governance and Ethics or ESG. United Rentals recently released its 10th annual report.
“We’re pleased to share our 2021 progress on ESG initiatives in our latest Corporate Responsibility Report," Matthew Flannery, CEO of United Rentals, said. "While there’s still work to be done, we’re moving closer to our goals for diversity, climate action and other key areas aligned with our values. We’re a better company today because we Work United in collaboration with all our stakeholders.”
United Rentals released its annual Environmental Stewardship, Social Impact and Governance and Ethics report, which highlighted successes from 2021 and new goals for 2022.United Rentals
2022 Goals
Early in 2022, United Rentals set six new corporate ESG goals, bringing the company's total to seven. Those goals address reducing greenhouse gas emissions, diverting waste from landfills, retrofitting interior lighting, hiring diverse workers, reducing the number of workplace injuries, making positive contributions to communities and conducting ethical conduct training.
The company plans to talk with equipment OEMs about these goals and educate them about potential low emission equipment. United Rentals is also looking for ways to acquire additional energy-efficient vehicles for its fleets.
2021 highlights include:
- A 17% year-over-year reduction in United Rentals’ U.S. OSHA recordable incident rate
- 31.3% of sales and management roles held by diverse employees
- About $1 billion spent with diverse suppliers
- 9% reduction in the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions from direct operations, toward a 35% reduction target by 2030.
This year, United Rentals is in the process of adopting additional goals and has agreed to buy more than 500 electric trucks and vans from Ford Pro, as well as 100 Takeuchi electric excavators, reflecting investments in sustainable solutions for its operations and rental fleet.
Additionally, Newsweek named United Rentals one of America’s Most Responsible Companies in 2022 for the second consecutive year.
