03 Energy & Climate

We're working to reduce our own CO2 emissions in a variety of ways. First, by reducing energy consumption wherever possible - for example, by printing less and cutting down on business travel.

Our new office buildings are designed and constructed using carefully selected sustainable materials and the most energy-efficient lighting, heating and cooling technologies. We use electricity from renewable energy sources only.

For our buildings in the Netherlands, some of this energy comes from wind farms financed by the Bank. Our remaining CO2 emissions from natural gas consumption, paper consumption, business travel and commuting are compensated.

Despite its relatively low carbon emissions, we consider nuclear power an inherently unacceptable technology. The main reason for this is that the disposal of dangerous waste takes hundreds of years, creating risks for future generations.

Given these safety and environmental concerns, Triodos Bank does not invest in companies involved in the nuclear industry, preferring to focus our efforts on helping to build safe and sustainable patterns of energy use.

Mainly used for coal-fired power plants, CCS is widely believed to play an essential role in reducing carbon emissions in a transition period, before renewables take over as our main source of energy. We share this view when it comes to existing power plants, but Triodos Bank does not finance projects in this sector.

We believe that new large coal-fired plants are competing with, and discouraging the development of, renewable alternatives. In fact, since CCS is seen as an 'end of pipe' solution, it's sometimes used to justify new coal-fired power plants, which we believe should no longer be built.

We're selective when it comes to funding projects in this area. Triodos Bank has chosen not to finance biomass projects that depend on crops grown for energy purposes or those that rely on biomass imported from long distances. Our reason for not funding projects with energy crops is that in the future, the demand for bio energy would compete with the demand for food, which could have catastrophic effects in poorer countries.

Imported biomass projects are often made economically viable by subsidies, which we believe does not sufficiently take into account a thorough value chain and energy balance analysis. The view of Triodos Bank is that local biomass resources should be used where possible, instead of transporting resources around the globe in order to take advantage of subsidies.