Tower crane rental and ESG: building a sustainable future

ITC keynote speaker Philippe Cohet on building a sustainable future for the tower crane sector. Photo: Joe Mather/KHL Group

Creating value in the tower crane business is a challenging obsession for Philippe Cohet, founder and board vice chairman at Uperio, one of the world’s largest companies in the sector.

Tower cranes are widely considered to be somehow special in the equipment rental industry – even being described as the kings of the construction site. The return on the investment, however, is just not there when compared with other construction machinery, Cohet said in his keynote presentation at the International Tower Cranes (ITC) conference in Rome, Italy, on 4 June.

Philippe Cohet, Uperio founder and board vice chairman, speaking at the 2025 ITC conference in Rome, Italy. Photo: Joe Mather/KHL Group

Make it add up

“We clearly have a paradox here in that we are perceived as being the people providing a unique kind of service but we don’t make the same return,” Cohet observed.

A major factor is that the tower crane business is very long term. The assets have value for many years – way longer than most other construction equipment. This is where the sustainability element can be fully explored for the future.

Uperio has been working on this for quite some time, to prepare as far in advance as possible. “We know that sometimes long term comes very quickly and so we had better be prepared, as an industry and as a company,” Cohet said as he began to go into detail on the subject in his ITC presentation.

Find out more about preparing for a new market expectation on sustainability in our video of Philippe Cohet’s keynote speech at the 2025 ITC conference.