Triodos Bank

How ethical is Triodos Bank? 

Triodos Bank is a bank based in The Netherlands, with branches in the UK, Spain, Germany and Belgium. It is one of The Good Shopping Guide’s top-rated ethical brands. 

The brand receives an excellent Good Shopping Guide ethical score of 90 in our Ethical Banks and Building Societies Ratings Table and therefore successfully passes our ethical benchmark.

We encourage other companies in the Banking & Building Societies sector to follow Triodos’ example and adopt more ethical policies and practices.

In which areas does Triodos perform well?

Triodos performs well across our criteria for the Environment and People. The bank was first established as part of the anthroposophical movement in the 1980s. The bank was founded on the goal of advancing quality of life over the long term and from a worldwide perspective. 

When Triodos was founded, they were the first to launch a ‘green fund’, which is available for environmentally conscious projects and initiatives. Triodos aims for transparency, and publish an annual report of organisations they lend to and invest in.

What makes Triodos so sustainable?

Triodos Bank has a wide range of sustainable initiatives that further the brand’s ethical status. This bank only uses money from its customers to fund transactions in the real economy*. This funds the businesses, nonprofits, and initiatives Triodos sees as promoting ecological, social, or cultural change. 

Triodos Bank in Germany purchases power from Naturstrom AG, a green energy supplier. Additionally, Triodos has an overseas division that supports microfinance programmes in Less Economically Developed nations.

Triodos screens all organisations who approach this bank for loans…

“[Triodos] does not lend to organisations, businesses and projects that are directly involved for more than 5% of its activities in non-sustainable products and services or non-sustainable working processes. Triodos Bank will, however, to the best of its knowledge, exclude all organisations, businesses and activities that produce or distribute nuclear energy, weapons, fur, pornography and environmentally hazardous substances”

*The real economy is concerned with the creation, acquisition, and movement of products and services inside an economy. It contrasts with the financial economy. The financial economy focuses only on the exchange of money and other financial assets that represent ownership of or claims to ownership of commodities and services from the actual economy.