Progress on strategic theme 'Frontrunner in Responsible Finance'

Putting our Change Finance agenda to work for the business in our three strategic themes

In the past year, we strengthened our Change Finance agenda on several levels. In the first half of the year, we published a white paper, which sheds light on the role we envisage for finance in preserving biodiversity. Furthermore we launched the first bio-based mortgage in the Netherlands. Our strong position in the sustainable mortgage market enables us to advocate for better guidelines on energy efficiency in the sector. In the second half of the year, we published our vision paper on social inclusion, setting out concrete actions on how to work towards a more inclusive society. Concretely, the vision paper presents three areas of change in favour of a more inclusive society: (1) improving inclusion and empowerment of communities and individuals; (2) building inclusive markets, services and social spaces; and (3) challenging dominant values and the current social paradigm.

At a European level, we followed the developments of the EU’s (sustainable) finance regulation and advocated against the inclusion of gas and nuclear in the EU Taxonomy. As stated, we support a Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive that includes a due diligence obligation for the full value chain and alignment with international standards, such as the UNGPs and OECD Guidelines. Furthermore, we provided our input on the new banking package and the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive.

Increase and leverage our impact via transformative, innovative or strategic investments by TRMC

In 2022, TRMC successfully continued on its path to further refine and increase its investment focus by actively engaging clients and the Triodos community on the role of donations and catalytic investments in regenerating nature and society. In this context, TRMC donated to and invested in transformational initiatives that are enabling, scalable or replicable. One of the TRMC funds became a shareholder of the Amsterdam-based social enterprise Impact Institute. With this investment, Impact Institute will empower organisations to realise the impact economy by creating a common language for impact and providing the tools and training to measure, manage and value impact. In addition to this, TRMC supported Wilder Land with a loan. Wilder Land is a Dutch start-up that produces tea which supports biodiversity and creates an extra revenue stream for farmers. By creating a revenue model around Dutch herbs that are often regarded as weeds, Wilder Land ensures continued investment in biodiversity by farmers.