Equity, diversity and inclusion statement

At Triodos Bank UK, our mission is ‘to help create a society that promotes the quality of life for all its members on a thriving planet, with human dignity at its core’. This means that we value having a diverse workforce and recognise and value the contribution every co-worker at Triodos makes.

For us, diversity is about bringing different ideas and perspectives to the table, which in turn helps us to thrive and grow a sustainable business. Being inclusive means fostering an environment in which each and every co-worker feels safe to bring their ‘whole self’ to work and we work hard to create this, aiming to ensure the best talent comes to the fore from all backgrounds, outlooks and cultures.

In terms of our loan portfolio and strategy, we have a specific focus on social inclusion. We have financed projects supporting people at risk of social exclusion, housing those migrating to the UK and many others, benefiting minority ethnic groups and many forms of diversity.

As a business, we have publicly stated our ambition to become more representative of the customers and the communities we serve, and particularly our UK home city of Bristol. This is why over five years ago we developed our first formal diversity and inclusion strategy, having worked with the issues for several years.

In line with our business plan, our latest Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy is running for three years, from 2022-2025. This is reviewed periodically at Senior Management and UK Board meetings

Here are some of the highlights of what we’ve been working on, as well as new initiatives in development.

We take a broad view of equity, diversity and inclusion and our strategy seeks to work on five themes: gender, disability, LGBTQ+, ethnicity and being an inclusive organisation.

There are a range of initiatives supporting our EDI strategy.

EDI training

EDI training is a required element of every co-worker’s induction and ongoing development. Our training is currently provided by Babbasa, a Bristol-based social enterprise, and focuses on interactive sessions that support cultural awareness and intercultural communication skills.

Apprenticeship and university placements

We have introduced and grown apprenticeship and university intership schemes to nurture future talent at the beginning of their careers, consciously partnering with institutions with students from diverse backgrounds and using the Apprenticeship Levy to support the development of under-represented groups.

Flexible working

We have promoted our openness to flexible and part-time working opportunities to appeal to the widest range of talent. This includes offering all co-workers flexibility around how they structure their working hours and where they work (from home or the office).

Inclusive dialogue with co-workers

We have encouraged objective talent management and inclusive performance management processes. To keep in touch with how co-workers are feeling, inclusion questions are asked in our regular "Pulse" survey.

We aim for our co-worker population to reflect Bristol census data in respect of gender, ethnicity and LGBTQ+ representation. Our recruitment is currently in line with or above the Bristol census data, however we still recognise that we have further work to do to ensure that this representation is reflected at all levels in the organisation.
The bank has gone from less than 10% of job offers to minority ethnic candidates in 2019 to 27% offers to minority ethnic candidates in 2022, up from 22% in 2021. This is a higher level of minority ethnic representation than exists in Bristol (17%) where the UK Head Office is located.
In 2022, we saw an increase in women with roles at our most senior pay grades and currently 56% of our Senior Management Team are women, which exceeds the Women in Finance target we set ourselves. This has led to our gender pay gap narrowing. However, we still have a higher proportion of women in our lower paid roles and we still want to increase the numbers of women in our more senior salary scales to reduce our gender pay gap further. We see addressing our gender pay gap as a long-term journey and we’re committed to the plan we have put in place to work towards our aspiration of a 0% gap.

Our role in addressing EDI extends beyond our role as an employer and we try to support and influence public consciousness and show our support through public events and profile.

We'll continue to review our strategy regularly and design three-year Diversity & Inclusion Strategies, sponsored by our CEO. These will have key deliverables that we report on regularly.
In 2023, we carried out research on neurodiversity around the bank to identify processes in the recruitment and onboarding stages that can be improved and made more accessible for those who are neurodivergent. This led to updating our job descriptions to make them easier for neurodivergent candidates to read and understand. We continue to look into further improvements following this research.
We will continue our work to source and publish more inclusive case studies and photography of Triodos customers from under-represented groups on our website.
We will continue to use our social media channels and website articles to profile more environmental and social campaigners from under-represented backgrounds.
Our Business Banking team are reviewing how we can apply greater scrutiny to the approaches to EDI within the organisations we finance.
Our parent company operating in Europe, Triodos Bank N.V., has signed the Dutch Diversity Charter, with a commitment to increasing diversity and creating an inclusive culture. Triodos will continue to work on a clear vision on diversity and inclusion in the coming period and will actively involve its co-workers.

Equity, diversity and inclusion statement

Our work so far

Accreditations

Initiatives

Triodos Inclusion Forum

Progress

Our work outside of our organisation

Our work continues

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