We believe that money shouldn’t just be used to promote short-term financial gains for banks themselves, but instead serve the long-term interests of the customers, shareholders and society.

To represent this all-important dynamic in banking, we decided to build a game of chance to demonstrate what happens with your average UK bank. You put your money in, you’re told not to worry about where it ends up, and then it falls into places that may not align with your values!

We challenged a group of inspiring and high-profile campaigners and environmentalists to give it a go at Seed Festival in Gloucestershire.

Here’s what they had to say:

This video is hosted by Youtube

By playing this video you allow Youtube to track your visit More info

Accept

In the film, you’ll see examples of places where your money could end up, such as arms, tobacco, fracking and oil. Yet, with a climate emergency declared by the government, banks should not be prioritising investments into fossil fuels. Triodos Bank instead prioritises investments into clean energy, delivering the biggest number of clean energy finance deals of any bank in Europe last year.

And how about investing in organic apples too? Triodos finances organic-certified food and farming businesses – funding the equivalent of 32 million organic meals across Europe in 2018 alone.

In a world with significant challenges for people and planet, the spotlight must be placed firmly on the transparency of the banks’ business models – how they use money, and whether this provides value for society and the real economy.

That is why we say: ‘Change your bank, change the world’.