Triodos Bank NV

How ethical is Triodos?

Our research highlights several ways in which Triodos is more ethical than other banks, including its approach to lending, investment, and climate change, as well as its overall company ethos.

Below we outline some of these issues. To see Triodos's overall ethical rating, and the full stories behind the rating, please sign in or subscribe.
 

Strong lending and investment policies

When it comes to assessing the ethics of a bank, one of the most important things to consider is what companies and sectors it finances. Banks can provide loans and investment to harmful companies such as those producing weapons or fossil fuels, or they can finance companies that have a positive impact, such as those producing renewable energy infrastructure.

Triodos has a very strong ethical lending and investment policy, which it calls its “Minimum Standards”. This lays out, in great detail, the principles guiding which type of institutions and sectors Triodos will finance. 

It aims to finance “companies, organisations and projects that will deliver the envisioned positive social, cultural, or environmental impact,” and does not finance  a wide array of harmful sectors, such as fossil fuels and arms.

Triodos’ lending and investment policy goes much further than nearly every other bank and shows that it is possible to run a bank founded on ethical principles.

Positive approach to climate change

Triodos performed very well in our Climate category.

It had a clear plan for reducing its carbon emissions, which involved: 

• Investing in the energy transition.
• Reducing the emissions of its customers.
• Investing in nature.

It also had clear carbon reduction targets, which included reducing its ‘financed emissions’, i.e. the emissions of all the companies it finances, which make up by far the largest share.

A positive social and environmental alternative

Triodos scored highly in our Company Ethos category, in stark contrast to the mainstream banks, most of which scored very poorly.

It gained marks for the following:

• Being a social and environmental alternative. Because of its strong ethical loans and investment policy (its “Minimum Standards”), we considered it to be an ethical alternative compared to most other banks.
• Not investing in harmful companies, such as those involved in the production of weapons or fossil fuels.
• Being a certified B Corporation, meaning it has to meet higher standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.
• Being a Living Wage certified employer, meaning that they pay their staff a wage that meets the cost of living.
• Having a policy limiting the pay ratio of its highest paid employees to its median paid employees, at a maximum of 7:1. Having such a policy in the banking sector is rare, where excessively high pay for those at the top is the norm.

Tax

The vast majority of banks score poorly in our Tax category. Triodos, however, scores well.

The parent company, Triodos Bank NV, was listed in the Netherlands, which is on Ethical Consumer's list of tax havens, but as the company was founded and still operates in the Netherlands. It therefore was not marked down for this in our tax rating.

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The text above was written in May 2025, and most of the research was conducted in spring 2024.