Triodos Bank, Europe’s leading sustainable bank, will support a new £500 million-pound investment fund launched today by the Mayor of London. It is set to drive energy efficiency measures for hospitals, museums, offices, libraries, social housing and universities are amongst the public buildings and small businesses.

The Mayor’s Energy Efficiency Fund (MEEF) provides flexible and competitive finance and offers a wide range of funding options, through its consortium of funders, to deliver new low carbon technology or upgrade existing low carbon infrastructure, with an investment period of up to 20 years. It will be UK’s largest ever dedicated investment fund for urban energy efficiency measures.

Triodos is one of five banks supporting the fund. It will allow Triodos Bank UK to continue the work it is already undertaking to help the public sector - including universities, city councils, not-for-profits and SMEs - reduce their carbon footprint, whilst also leveraging the Triodos London office expertise and relationships to help deliver the Mayor’s ambitious plans for London.

Philip Bazin, Environment Team Manager at Triodos Bank UK, said: "We have over 20 years of specialist experience helping organisations to get renewable energy projects up and running to produce clean energy. Energy efficiency measures are also crucial to help us hit our climate change and city clean air goals. It is fundamental to Triodos to back environment sector projects that help us transition to a low-carbon future, so we are delighted to be involved in this fund."

Measures that could be funded include battery storage, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, decentralised energy, small-scale renewables, energy efficiency, and low-carbon data centres. The funding is also open to small businesses and energy service companies operating across London.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: "This is the largest fund of its kind in the UK that will help deliver the low-carbon, sustainable projects and infrastructure London needs to cut energy costs and reduce carbon emissions across our universities, hospitals, museums and small businesses. It is a great example of how the public and private sectors can come together to create millions of pounds of investment for low-carbon projects and help fast track London towards our goal of becoming a zero-carbon city by 2050."

Leading infrastructure specialist, and established partner to public sector organisations in London since 2006, Amber Infrastructure Group manages the MEEF on behalf of the Mayor’s Office.

Joanne Patrick, MEEF Director at Amber Infrastructure Group, said: "MEEF seeks to address market failure in London’s low-carbon sector by providing flexible and competitive finance to enable, accelerate or enhance viable green infrastructure across London’s boroughs. It’s a key part of the Mayor’s strategy to improve the capital’s existing building stock and improve the energy performance of new buildings – helping homes, businesses and public buildings to use less energy and save money on energy bills. We have a proven track record of helping London get greener, having already mobilised over £350 million in low-carbon projects to reduce CO2 emissions by over 35,000 tonnes – equivalent to taking 32,000 cars off the road."

Amber is now welcoming applications for MEEF funding.

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For media enquiries:

Ed Grattan
Triodos Bank UK
07817413792
[email protected]

Notes to editors:

About Triodos Bank

Triodos Bank is a global pioneer in sustainable banking using the power of finance to invest in projects that are good for people and the planet. Triodos uses its €14.5 billion (2017) in assets to create social, environmental and cultural value in a transparent and sustainable way.

With UK operations based in Bristol, Triodos Bank has branches in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Germany and an agency in France. Globally, Triodos Bank has microfinance projects in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, and is a founding member of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV), a worldwide network of 43 banks seeking to transform finance into a vehicle of positive influence.

About the Mayor’s Energy Efficiency Fund (MEEF)

  1. Part-funded by the Greater London Authority (GLA) through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), MEEF provides flexible and highly competitive finance to new or retrofit projects that can clearly demonstrate renewables credentials, with investment of up to 20 years. MEEF has won backing and endorsement from key commercial lenders including Lloyds Bank, National Westminster Bank Plc, Santander UK, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Triodos Bank.
  2. In September 2017, the UK government asked Sir Roger Gifford to chair an independent taskforce to accelerate growth of green finance and the UK’s low carbon economy. The Green Finance Taskforce report sets out a series of recommendations on how the government and the private sector can work together to make green finance an integral part of our financial services. www.gov.uk/government/publications/accelerating-green-finance-green-finance-taskforce-report
  3. MEEF is receiving up to £43 million of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund; which is managed by the Greater London Authority. Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding.
  4. MEEF will provide a mixture of senior debt, mezzanine debt and equity to London’s public-sector property owners and small-to-medium-sized businesses, including but not exclusively, Local Authorities, NHS Trusts, Registered Providers, Higher and Further Education organisations, Charities and Voluntary Organisations, ESCos and SMEs. MEEF can fund both up to 100 per cent of the capital cost of a project and part-fund large-scale regeneration projects which demonstrate low-carbon credentials.
  5. Amber Infrastructure Group (Amber) is a leading international infrastructure specialist, providing asset management and investment advisory services in respect of over £8 billion of assets in the UK, Europe, Australia and North America. Amber’s core business focuses on sourcing, developing, advising on, investing in and managing infrastructure assets within the utilities, PPP, transport, renewable energy and regeneration sectors. Amber is the manager of the London Energy Efficiency Fund, the predecessor to the Mayor’s Energy Efficiency Fund.

  6. LEEF has mobilised over £350 million in 8 major carbon-savings projects across 76 buildings in 9 of London’s boroughs. Through this investment, these projects have saved over 21 million kWh of energy, the equivalent to powering and heating 1,200 homes for a year. For more information on these projects: https://www.amberinfrastructure.com/our-funds/london-energy-efficiency-fund

To apply for MEEF funding contact: Joanne Patrick or Peter Radford at Amber Infrastructure Group at [email protected], Tel: +44 (0)20 7939 0550 or visit: www.meef.co.uk