Triodos lending to green sector grows by 44 per cent

Triodos Bank, which exclusively finances businesses with social, environmental or cultural components increased its loan book by 26 per cent in 2010, up to £312 million. This represents more than 150 per cent of the growth the bank saw in 2009.

Environmental lending
Funds for environmental business and organisations grew to £105 million, a nearly 44 per cent increase. The loans funded a range of projects, including onshore wind farms, hydro energy and solar PV. Some of the projects the bank lent to included a £2.7 million package to Scotrenewables to build a wind turbine on the Isle of Orkney and a £500,000, loan to Glastonbury Festival’s Michael Eavis for a solar PV installation at his Worthy Farm.

"These are exciting results because they demonstrate there is an alternative to socially useless banking and because our increased lending is enabling real social, cultural and environmental change," said Dr Bevis Watts, head of Business Bank at Triodos. "2011 will be a year where several important social and environmental initiatives need finance and we will be supporting those when unsustainable banks continue not to lend."

Triodos has said that it will reach half a billion pounds in lending and commitments throughout the coming year.

The bank, whose UK office opened in 1995 in Bristol, lends to five sectors: social, environment, food and farming, Scotland and Wales.

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