Bristol-based ethical bank Triodos is celebrating taking its lending to UK businesses to £500m for the first time.
The milestone has been reached less than three months after it notched up total UK corporate lending of £4
86m at the end of last year – itself a 15% year-on-year increase.
Triodos only lends to businesses and charities delivering social and environmental benefits – from renewable energy to community initiatives – making the bank a lead player in the transformation of the UK into a low-carbon, sustainable economy.
Triodos Bank UK managing director Charles Middleton said: “This is a major milestone for Triodos Bank, representing significant support for the UK’s green and social economy.
“Our continued growth demonstrates demand for sustainable finance despite the challenging economic environment, and indicates that a socially conscious approach can help businesses and charities to flourish, bucking the trends of the wider market."
The bank's largest volume growth areas last year were healthcare and social housing, with significant growth to other areas of its loan book including a 600% increase to the sustainable building sector and a 184% increase in lending to the smallscale hydro power sector. Lending grew by 74% in the extra care sector and loans to the eco-tourism sector grew by 21%.
“We’re still seeing a huge appetite for finance from sustainable organisations,” said Mr Middleton. “We’re able to meet that demand solely by providing savers with the simple, transparent and sustainable approach to banking they’re demanding. When so little of the money supplied through Government initiatives appears to be reaching the businesses it is targeted at, it makes a compelling case for values-based banking.”
Among organisations borrowing from Triodos last year were a Leeds based cooperative developing 20 homes in a low impact, affordable housing community, a community pub bought by Essex villagers to prevent it from being redeveloped and an award-winning Devon restaurant which used the investment to finance a café with very high environmental specifications.
