Until recently, Europcar only used vinyl decals on vehicles for events, such as sponsorships. The vinyl decals would then be discarded once the event was over. Europcar’s marketing department knew that there had to be a more eco-friendly manner in which to do this and after searching for opportunities, they found Car Skins(TM) – a 100% polyester fabric that stretches around the bonnet of the car using an elastic chord. The graphics are printed using dye sublimation process, which means the colours are durable and ensures that the skins can withstand sunlight and washing.

“This method of branding not only saves us having to discard vinyl which damages our environment, but it also saves costs because the branding can be reused at all our sponsorship events” says Zavi Stein, General Manager: marketing for Europcar.

“As a car rental company that has 17 000 vehicles on fleet, we cannot get away from the fact that we will have an impact on the environment, that is why we have instilled tangible measures to drastically reduce our carbon footprint in every way possible as opposed to just offsetting it. We have analysed our business and have made it our mission to find more environmentally-friendly ways of operating and this includes looking closely at our marketing initiatives too,” she says.

Pictured: The Europcar buses decked out in the new re-usable branding, ready to be used at Europcar sponsored events.