United Rentals Expands Environmental Stewardship with Launch of Major Sustainability Program

United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE:URI) today announced the launch of an extensive sustainability program designed to foster growth and benefit customers, employees, suppliers and communities. The Sustainable Growth program’s new online presence at unitedrentals.com/sustainable-growth includes examples of the company's involvement, encourages collaboration via the submission of ideas and suggestions, and offers a comprehensive white paper on Clean Construction.

Michael Kneeland, chief executive officer, said, “As we respond to the demand for our services, we are careful to grow in an environmentally responsible manner. We want our sustainability initiatives to have a lasting impact on our operations and supply chain, and build enduring value for all stakeholders of United Rentals. Green practices are more than a sound strategy for growth, they are quite simply the right thing to do.”

Heidi Rawe, senior director – sustainability, said, “Issues such as emissions control and energy conservation are becoming increasingly important to our customers, particularly those in the construction field. Sustainable Growth is about demonstrating corporate responsibility while helping our customers address regulatory and cultural changes within their own industries. These are exciting objectives, and we are focused on developing innovative and practical ways to advance them.”

Rawe said that the company expects to build on numerous Sustainable Growth initiatives already underway, including:

• Retrofit programs to ensure engine compliance for Tier 3 and Tier 4 equipment.
• “Clean construction” industry education to help contractors address new regulations.
• Customer training and train-the-trainer programs that advocate safety and best practices.
• State-of-the-art GPS technology and hand-held computers to optimize routing, dispatch and equipment loads, and conserve fuel.
• eProcurement and paperless invoicing to eliminate thousands of printed documents annually.
• Alternative fuel capabilities where viable, including the use of biofuels.
• Collaborative relationships with equipment suppliers who are committed to sustainability.

In addition to outlining its initiatives for Sustainable Growth, the company has identified employee diversity, supplier diversity and safety as continuing priorities in 2011. In 2010, United Rentals recorded the fourth consecutive year of significant improvement in safety performance, and received national recognitions for its recruitment of military veterans and supplier diversity practices.

About United Rentals

United Rentals, Inc. is the largest equipment rental company in the world, with an integrated network of 549 rental locations in 48 states and 10 Canadian provinces. The company’s approximately 7,400 employees serve construction and industrial customers, utilities, municipalities, homeowners and others. The company offers for rent approximately 2,900 classes of equipment with a total original cost of $3.8 billion. United Rentals is a member of the Standard & Poor’s MidCap 400 Index and the Russell 2000 Index® and is headquartered in Greenwich, Conn.