Desso® and De Lage Landen Join Forces to Offer Desso's Customers Circular Economy Leasing Model
WAALWIJK, The Netherlands, October 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
Desso, a global carpets, carpet tiles and sports pitches company and De Lage Landen, a global provider of leasing, business and consumer finance solutions joined forces to offer Desso's customers a leasing service option, a critical step in the company's transition to the circular economy.
Since 2008, Desso has been following Cradle to Cradle® principles in order to design its products in such a way that they can be safely disassembled and recycled at the end of the product's life.
This is part of the company's vision to make the floor work for our health and wellbeing. Cradle to Cradle® puts great focus on ensuring your materials contain the healthiest ingredients, as analysed against a set of human health and environmental criteria.
In the long term, the shift to the circular economy, in which goods are made to be remade again and again, businesses will be able to unlock new wealth and put less pressure on the earth's natural resources. One recent report[1] from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the management consultancy McKinsey & Co., calculated that a part of the EU's manufacturing industry could make material savings of up to $630 billion per year by moving to circular models.
One of the keys to making this change is to come up with innovative new service models, notably leasing. Instead of owning a product, customers view it as a service provided by a supplier, who will then take back the product at the end of its life for recycling.
"Desso has reached a number of milestones in recent years including the Cradle to Cradle® certification of 90% of its commercial carpet tiles and the development of DESSO EcoBase®, a C2C Silver Certified carpet tile backing of which the polyolefin based layer is fully and safely recyclable in our own production system," says Alexander Collot d'Escury, CEO Desso. "Now with help from De Lage Landen we are starting to take the next step in offering leasing, which will offer a full service to our customers including installation, cleaning, maintenance and eventually removal, which will also make it easier for us to take our goods back after its use and close the loop."
Since 2008, Desso has been developing a Take Back™ system, supported by its Refinity® separation technique that both enables the company to take back carpets from its competitors as well as its own customers and separate the yarn and other fibres from the backing producing two main material stream which both can be recycled.
"We are, of course, delighted to join forces with Desso in this groundbreaking move towards the circular economy. This tailor made, full service lease solution fits perfectly in our aim to further develop our concept of life cycle asset management: reducing waste and recycling raw materials by reusing predesigned parts in the value chain. In the long run, we hope to see service models like this grow and shift the world economy to a much more innovative and sustainable position, enabling economic growth to take place within the means of the planet," says Milko Wijckmans , President of De Lage Landen Financial Solutions. "We are also thrilled that a company in the Netherlands is taking the lead in this way."
During 11 - 13 September, Desso participated in discussions with world business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum's Annual Champions Meeting[2] in Dalian, China on how to scale up the circular economy. Involving leaders from the world's top companies, these discussions will continue at further World Economic Forum meetings including the Davos Summit in January 2014.
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1. Towards the Circular Economy - Volume One, Ellen MacArthur Foundation & McKinsey (2012).
2. For more information go to: http://www.weforum.org/events/annual-meeting-new-champions-2013
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Profile DESSO®
Desso is a global carpets, carpet tiles and sport pitches company, active in more than 100 countries. Desso products are supplied to corporate offices, education, healthcare, government, homes and also hotels, cruise liners and airlines.
It also produces world leading sports surfaces such as the DESSO GrassMaster®, which has been installed at the home grounds of premier football sides and at the football 'temple' Wembley.
Today, most people spend on average 90% of their time indoors which has led to the company's vision: 'How to make the floor work for our health and wellbeing'.
Our mission is to ensure that we develop unique products that deliver a much improved indoor environment that maximises people's health and wellbeing and ultimately their performance. This is driven by our innovation programme based on the three pillars of Creativity, Functionality and Cradle to Cradle® design.
For more information please visit: http://www.desso.com
Profile De Lage Landen
De Lage Landen, a fully owned subsidiary of Rabobank Group, specializes in asset-based financing programs for equipment manufacturers, dealers and distributors all over the world. Our programs cover our customers' total distribution chain, as well as the entire lease lifecycle. We offer customers a single source for leasing, administration, risk and asset management solutions. De Lage Landen's diversified solutions include car leasing in the European market and consumer finance and factoring in the Dutch home market.
Establishing a close and long-lasting relationship with our customers is at the heart of our company culture. This requires a genuine interest in and a thorough understanding of our customers' business needs and goals. We partner with our customers to tailor solutions and develop programs that support mutual growth and profitability.
We care not only about our customers, but also about the communities in which we operate. We strive to have a positive social and environmental impact through our products and the way we conduct business.
For more information please visit http://www.delagelanden.com
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