The past year has seen the narrative around climate shift dramatically, from change to crisis. Between David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion and numerous scientific reports, the discourse on climate has taken centre stage. Companies have been quick to fall into line, at least on paper, and consumers have become far more aware of the impact their own choices have on their carbon footprint.

When it comes to our personal finance, not all banks (or building societies) are created ethically equal. The big name high street banks are, unfortunately, consistently the worst performers in tables focusing on ethical or sustainable banking– think Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC, RBS and the supermarkets.

Building societies tend to perform better as they are more regulated and accountable in how they invest their (and by proxy, your) money. Plus, profits tend to be invested back into the business for the benefit of borrowers and savers, rather than shareholders.

Credit Unions are another good option. Run as cooperatives by their members, they offer those on low income affordable credit.

Then there are the organisations who have an ethical mission at their heart. We’ve listed three of these below.

To Get You Started…

Below are three companies that consistently score highly on ethical credentials tables.

Please note that these organisations have been selected on the basis of their ethical performance and not on how competitive their products are relative to the rest of the market, customer service or other factors.