DLL, Rabobank, and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation partner to advance circular economy

^{In the photo, from left to right: Els Kamphof (Member of the Managing Board, Rabobank), Jonquil Hackenberg (CEO, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation) and Lara Yocarini (Member of the Managing Board, Rabobank and CEO and Chair of the Executive Board of DLL).}

Eindhoven, The Netherlands, January 27, 2025 —Today, leading global asset finance company DLL, and its parent company Rabobank, proudly announce a global partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a prominent international charity established in 2010 with the mission of accelerating the transition to a circular economy. In joining forces with the Foundation as a Network Partner, they aim to offer more ways to apply circular solutions for the industries, partners, and customers they serve. 

The signing of this partnership coincided with the participation of all three partners at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which took place from January 20–24. This year, the event aimed to foster multistakeholder collaboration to address global and regional challenges under the umbrella, “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age.” Among key themes, participants focused on reimagining growth, safeguarding the planet, and transforming industries. 

The circular economy, as defined by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, is a system where materials never become waste and nature is regenerated. In a circular economy, products and materials are kept in circulation through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting. DLL and Rabobank are aligned with this definition; by adopting a full value chain approach, the companies respectively develop asset-specific strategies and financial products to create the most optimal circular solutions for their partners and customers.  

The financial sector has the potential to play a leading role in the transition to a circular economy. By investing in circular solutions, financial institutions help reduce waste, conserve resources, and lower carbon emissions, thereby fostering economic resilience and more environmental sustainability.  

DLL and Rabobank aim to provide innovative financial products and services to scale circular solutions across the markets in which they operate. Through this partnership, they aspire to develop strategic programs that foster growth for their partners and customers, all while applying circular economy principles and addressing major global issues such as climate change and biodiversity loss via circular business models. This collaboration will aim to foster awareness and engagement around circularity, mobilizing capital towards circular solutions and encouraging much-needed dialogue and actions among key internal and external stakeholders. 

Through their combined efforts, DLL and Rabobank are well placed to cover both the technical and biological cycles of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s butterfly diagram of the circular economy. Additionally, their focus on both products and food systems is aligned with the circular economy’s vital role in tackling climate change. 

Key initiatives include: 

• Building on DLL’s circularity programs, to further develop its circular economy practices, focusing on waste reduction, extending product lifecycles, and optimizing resource use through initiatives like lifespan extension, second life, remarketing and pay-per-use that DLL’s financial solutions such as leasing support.
• Aligning with Rabobank’s commitment to collaboration, innovation, and sustainability.
• Enhancing educational efforts with workshops, training sessions, and collaborative research projects for both organizations and key stakeholders.
• Developing innovative solutions from acquisition to end-of-life, leveraging DLL’s extensive asset management experience and Rabobank’s 125 years’ experience in supporting customers in the food & agriculture industry as well as the energy sector, helping them grow their businesses.

Lara Yocarini, Member of the Managing Board, Rabobank and CEO and Chair of the Executive Board of DLL cites, “We are thrilled to announce this Network Partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, together with our parent company, Rabobank. This collaboration underscores our commitment to circularity as a key lever for driving positive change. DLL has a long-standing history of championing circularity through various initiatives that promote the extended lifespan of assets. This partnership will further enable us to develop innovative financial products and services that not only foster economic resilience but also contribute to a more sustainable future. Together, we are dedicated to creating lasting value for our partners, customers, and the world we live in.

Els Kamphof, Member of the Managing Board, Rabobank states, “We are delighted to announce our partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. For over 125 years, Rabobank has placed collaboration at the core of our mission ‘Growing a better world together.’ We believe that together, we can achieve far more than we ever could individually. We are fully committed to helping our customers future-proof their businesses and driving sustainability in our food and energy systems. This partnership underscores our dedication to reducing waste and creating lasting value. By working together, we aim to discover and scale up innovative solutions for more sustainable food and energy production and consumption.” 

Joe Murphy, Executive Lead, Network, Ellen MacArthur Foundation says, “The circular economy requires immense innovation across all aspects of the economy. Today, we are seeing viable solutions emerging—but without the right investment, we won’t create the infrastructure that can make them the norm. We are hugely excited that industry leader DLL, together with parent company Rabobank, have joined the Foundation as a Network Partner. These companies’ efforts to develop circular solutions for their global customer base and partner network represents a major opportunity to scale up.” 

About DLL 
DLL is a global asset finance company for equipment and technology with a managed portfolio of more than EUR 46 billion. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, DLL provides financial solutions within the Agriculture, Clean Energy, Construction, Food, Healthcare, Industrial, Office Equipment, Technology, and Transportation industries in more than 25 countries. The company partners with equipment manufacturers, dealers, distributors, as well as end users, to enable businesses to access equipment, technology, and software more easily. DLL combines customer focus and industry knowledge to provide financial solutions for the complete asset life cycle, including commercial finance, retail finance and used equipment finance. In doing so, DLL is committed to contribute to a more sustainable future for the environment and the communities in which it operates. DLL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rabobank Group. To learn more about DLL, visit www.dllgroup.com.   

About Rabobank 
Rabobank is an international financial services provider operating on the basis of cooperative principles. It offers retail banking, wholesale banking, private banking, leasing, and real estate services. As a cooperative bank, Rabobank puts customers’ interests first in its services. Rabobank is committed to being a leading customer-focused cooperative bank in the Netherlands and a leading food and agri bank worldwide. Rabobank employed 49,000 FTE per 31 December 2023. Rabobank Group is active in 37 countries. For more information about the Rabobank Group go to www.rabobank.com.

About the Ellen MacArthur Foundation 
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is an international charity whose mission is to accelerate the transition to a circular economy in order to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. Launched in 2010, the Foundation works with its Network of private and public sector decision-makers, as well as academia, to build capacity, explore collaborative opportunities, and design and develop circular economy initiatives and solutions. Increasingly based on renewable energy, a circular economy is driven by design to eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials at their highest value, and regenerate nature, to create resilience and prosperity for business, the environment, and people.