The Sustainable Advantage of Renting Buildings

Sustainability is no longer an optional extra for businesses – it’s a growing expectation from customers, employees, regulators, and stakeholders alike. Organisations of all sizes are looking for ways to operate more responsibly, minimise waste, and reduce their carbon footprint.

How you manage your operational space plays a key role in this. Renting temporary or semi-permanent buildings can offer clear sustainability advantages compared to constructing or buying permanent property. In fact, renting aligns naturally with the principles of the circular economy, helping businesses reduce environmental impact while remaining flexible and cost-efficient.

At Lauralu, we are proud to support our clients in delivering more sustainable outcomes through smart rental solutions. Here’s how renting a building can help your organisation meet its sustainability goals.

1. Reduce Waste Through Reuse

One of the biggest problems with traditional construction is waste. The demolition and disposal of old buildings generates vast quantities of landfill material, while new-build projects consume huge amounts of raw materials and embodied carbon.

By contrast, temporary and semi-permanent rental buildings from Lauralu are designed for reuse.

• Our structures are fully demountable and relocatable
• Components such as frames, cladding, doors, and internal fittings can be reused across multiple projects and sites
• Buildings are often redeployed multiple times during their lifespan

This supports a circular model where materials are kept in use for as long as possible – dramatically reducing waste compared to traditional building lifecycles.

These buildings are:

✔ Installed for the duration of each project
✔ Demounted at project completion
✔ Refurbished and reused at the next site

The result? Minimal waste, lower environmental impact, and a more efficient use of resources.

2. Lower Carbon Footprint

Construction is one of the largest sources of carbon emissions globally – both in terms of embodied carbon (the emissions from manufacturing materials) and operational carbon (emissions during a building’s use).

By renting a temporary or semi-permanent building, you can help reduce both:

Embodied carbon savings

• Rental buildings are designed to be modular and reusable, avoiding the need to manufacture new materials for every new project
• Fewer new builds = fewer emissions from raw material extraction, processing, transport, and construction

Operational carbon savings

• Many of Lauralu’s rental buildings feature high-performance insulated cladding, reducing heating and cooling energy use
• Buildings can be specified with LED lighting and efficient HVAC systems to further reduce energy demand
  

In addition, because rental buildings are often used for shorter periods and then redeployed elsewhere, their overall lifecycle carbon footprint is spread across many uses – improving efficiency.

3. Avoid Overbuilding

Overbuilding is a common issue when businesses invest in permanent property. To allow for future growth, companies often build larger facilities than they currently need – resulting in underutilised space that consumes energy and resources unnecessarily. Renting offers a smarter alternative.

• You can rent exactly the space you need, when you need it
• If demand grows, you can add more rental units – without overcommitting at the start
• If demand falls, you can scale back your rental footprint accordingly
  

This approach helps businesses avoid the environmental and financial costs of maintaining oversized permanent facilities.

Scalable Storage Solution at Peel Ports

When Peel Ports required overflow storage at their bustling Ellesmere Port site, Lauralu supplied a modular, weather‑proof building (20 m × 35 m × 4 m) on a 24‑month rental basis. It was quickly installed within 14 days or less, minimising disruption to ongoing maritime operations while adding critical storage capacity, boosting flexibility and resilience.