Environmental Badge for Construction Equipment

Definition of Environmental Badge

Since 2008, the so-called environmental badge (also called fine dust badge) has been mandatory for all vehicle types except light vehicles. A tiered system distinguishes four pollutant classes: vehicles receive either a green, yellow, red, or no environmental badge depending on their exhaust behavior. To date, over 60 environmental zones have been established in German cities, most of which can only be entered with a green badge. Environmental zones are intended to help reduce fine dust and nitrogen oxide emissions and thus prevent health hazards such as respiratory diseases.

Do Construction Machines Need an Environmental Badge?

The regulation still applies that construction machines, like agricultural and forestry tractors, do not require a fine dust badge. This means construction equipment can be used without restriction in environmental zones, which have now been established in numerous German cities as a measure against air pollution.

The German Environmental Agency and the Environmental Badge

The German Environmental Agency advocates for extending environmental zone regulations to construction machines. Construction equipment can contribute to air pollution in the immediate vicinity of its operational area. Since construction machines are often quite old and emissions legislation for mobile equipment at the European level is less stringent than, for example, for cars, the use of construction machines can contribute to local exceedances of pollution limit values. As a possible solution, the German Environmental Agency recommends modernizing the machine fleet and retrofitting old machines with particle filters.

Should construction machines be subject to stricter regulations in the future, implementation into public procurement law would be conceivable, so that, for example, in public tenders, low-emission construction machines would be preferred. Alternatively, environmental zones could prevent the use of old and non-retrofitted machines in areas with high fine dust pollution by banning such machines from entering environmental zones.

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Environmental Label "Blue Angel"

Another measure by the Federal Ministry for the Environment is the environmental label "Blue Angel," which is awarded by the Environmental Label Jury and recognizes low-noise and low-emission construction machines. This label can also be used as an evaluation criterion in the awarding of public contracts.

What State-Specific Regulations Exist?

However, certain state-specific exceptions must be observed: Since July 2015, the Berlin Senate Administration has incorporated requirements for emission limits and particle reduction systems in public procurement into procurement law. Berlin now also has four badges (gray, light green, dark green, blue) for construction machines, which represent an environmental label in the sense of procurement law and provide information about the exhaust standard and particle filter of a construction machine. Similar regulations have applied in Bremen since 2016.

Protect the Environment Through Construction Equipment Rental

Both modernizing your own machine fleet and retrofitting particle filters incur high costs. Those who want to avoid this financial burden and still have access to modern, low-emission machines at all times will find the perfect partner in construction equipment rental at klarx: With 5,907 partner stations throughout Germany, we can draw on an extensive network and always offer modern construction machines for rent that comply with emission limit values and are partly already equipped with alternative drives (electric/hybrid).