Rabobank, a global food and agribusiness bank founded in the Netherlands 125 years ago and a leading financier in the clean energy sector, saluted Lineage Inc. during its annual leadership summit in New York City on December 5 by presenting the world’s largest temperature-controlled warehouse operator the Rabobank Award for Excellence in Corporate Leadership. The accolade honors large-scale market leaders that have generated strong business results while forging a lasting impact on its sector and the world at large.
“We commemorate Lineage, a visionary company demonstrating strong leadership, innovative solutions and social responsibility, to drive responsible growth and navigate the ever changing landscape of the future of food,” said David Bassett (pictured above at left), head of Wholesale Banking North America at Rabobank.
Headquartered in Novi, Michigan, Lineage is transforming the international food supply chain to eliminate waste and help feed the world with a global network of conventional and automated cold storage warehouses. The system includes more than 480 strategically located facilities across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
“It is an honor to be recognized for this year’s Rabobank Award for Excellence in Corporate Leadership, reflecting the vital work of our purpose-driven and experienced leadership team who works alongside more than 26,000 Lineage team members who challenge themselves to transform the food supply chain,” said Adam Forste (seen at right in above photo), co-founder and co-executive chairman of Lineage. “We take great pride in our work as a leading, mission-critical component of the global food supply chain, as we march toward our purpose of eliminating waste and helping feed the world.”
Across the planet, approximately 14 percent of the world’s food, valued at $400 billion, is lost on an annual basis between harvest and the retail market (FAO 2019). At the same time, an estimated 17 percent of food is wasted at the retail and consumer levels (UNEP 2021). Lineage couples end-to-end supply chain solutions with proprietary technology and partners with some of the world’s largest food and beverage producers, retailers, and distributors to help increase distribution efficiency and advance sustainability.
Poised for continued success following one of the largest IPOs of the year, the company is also committed to charitable causes. It established the Lineage Foundation for Good as a non-profit charity to serve the communities in which Lineage operates. The Foundation positively impacts communities across the globe by lending its supply chain expertise to help reduce waste and provide immediate relief to those in need. In the last few years it has rescued and redirected more than 20 million pounds of food to hungry families, granted over $8.3 million in gifts to charitable partners, and logged more than 19,500 volunteer hours donated by Lineage team members.
During the Leadership Summit, Lineage was recognized along with the recipient of the 2024 Rabobank Award for Leadership in Sustainability, The Wonderful Company, as leading agriculture, real estate, and consumer packaged goods companies in the United States. The 2024 Rabobank Award for Emerging Leadership in Innovation was presented to Flashfood, an app for affordable groceries.
The finalists were evaluated by an independent panel of judges representing industry, academia, non-profits, media and the investment ecosystem. Award recipients were selected based on a rigorous set of criteria distinctive to each category.
