De Lage Landen joins Rabobank in theCircular Economy Challenge

DLL, a leading global financial solutions provider, helped to start up Rabobank’s Circular Economy (CE) Challenge in the Netherlands. This year-long initiative is designed to provide participating companies from the Food & Agri and Automotive sectors with insights into the opportunities and challenges of embracing a circular economic business model.

In a resource-constrained world, today’s economy of 'take, make, and dispose' is unsustainable. We need to reshape this linear business model to a circular economic model, where goods and materials are reused and recycled. While this development clearly provides attractive opportunities, commitment from other industries is essential to eventually start up this transition.

To help support this change, Rabobank last month kicked off a one-year CE Challenge with support from DLL and other Circular Economy Ambassadors. These include the Dutch Circle Economy Platform, MVO Nederland and Royal Haskoning DHV. Together, they will assist the nine participating international organizations  in capitalizing on the opportunities provided by the circular economy. These companies include: Van Oers United, Hessing Supervers, Vivera, Tamoil Nederland BV, Auto Recycling Nederland, and Kargro Group. A variety of tools will enable the participants to gain insights into material flows in their regions, the potential impact of the circular business model on their businesses, and how it translates into products and services.

DLL supports the belief of its parent Rabobank that a sound circular plan enables companies to use fewer raw materials, generate less waste, and operate in a more cost-effective and responsible way. Both Rabobank and DLL are convinced that sustainably sound companies are the key to the future.

The CE Challenge is comprised of five collective workshops and at least one on-site company visit. The next collective workshop will be facilitated by and hosted at the premises of DLL on September 30th. DLL will support the CE Challenge participants in moving from an idea to a concrete action plan with corresponding timelines.

“The ambition is for each participating company to develop a business case in the field of the circular economy by the end of the program,” said  Eric Saris, Rabobank Director of Corporate Clients. “The business cases will be tested and translated into innovative circular products or services. The plans will be assessed at the end of the CE Challenge in the ‘Dragon’s Den’ where participants will present their circular business cases to a jury.”

Frits Engelaer, DLL Sustainable Business Developer, said, “We are very happy to join Rabobank in the Circular Economy Challenge to help raise awareness of this important topic across industries. The CE Challenge is a good fit with DLL’s entrepreneurial spirit and our continued partnership focus,” he continued. “In a world of increasingly scarce resources and explosive population growth, we believe that the Circular Economy model has the ability to strengthen businesses and help resolve many of the environmental and economic challenges of the future.”