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Students and young people are moving towards a banking model that prioritises social value and sustainability over financial returns
By Richard Leighton, Relationship Manager at the award-winning ethical bank, Unity Trust Bank.
Earlier this year, Unity Trust Bank was proud to be the official sponsor for the 2025 Student Sustainability Summit. This event was led by SOS UK.
It was fantastic to see students, activists, NGOs and change-makers come together to share their views and actions on how together, we can deliver a more sustainable future.
For any organisation, it has become increasingly important that they operate both ethically and responsibly. Students are at the forefront of driving this demand and are closely attuned to how companies conduct themselves. They are paying close attention to how businesses invest their money, as well as the impact they have on the wider community and environment.
In recent years, for example, many mainstream banks have come under scrutiny for their role in funding the fossil fuel sector. There has also been a lack of support for social impact projects, despite increasing demand for services in healthcare, local councils and charities.
At Unity, our mission is to help create a better society. We provide financial support to organisations that share our values – including universities, charities and student unions. We do this so that when they deposit their money with us, we can reinvest it in ways that benefit both people and planet.
During the Student Sustainability Summit, we held our very own workshop: ‘Cut the ties: how universities can end their unethical investments’. This was an in-depth review of financial investments in the higher education sector and the importance of campaigning for ethical finance.
Consumers hold great power in influencing how corporations operate. For students, by understanding where universities are placing their funds, and how these are then being used, they have the opportunity to drive change and ensure their money is creating a positive impact.
This demand is strongly reflected in new research from SOS UK, which explored students’ perceptions of, and behaviours around, ethical finance.
Questioned about their personal banking choices, their priorities when choosing a bank account, and what information sources they use, the survey revealed some key insights, including:
These findings demonstrate a clear shift in priorities. With greater consumer awareness around banking practices and a demand for increased transparency within the industry, it’s clear that students and young people are moving towards a banking model that prioritises social value and sustainability over financial returns.
For banks like Unity, profit is not the sole goal or single motivating factor. Alongside strong commercial performance, ethical banks will place significant focus on the benefit they can deliver through their operations. This then provides customers with the confidence that their money is helping to drive positive social, environmental and economic change.
Today, there are a growing number of ethical finance providers, like Unity, which choose to withhold funding from organisations or projects that have a negative impact.
For example, every loan we provide to our business customers is assessed against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We also actively avoid the funding of arms or fossil fuels.
Fortunately, guidance is available to help students and young people decipher if the organisations they are linked to – such as their university or student union – are banking with a provider whose practices are aligned to their own personal beliefs or standards.
The likes of Bank Green, My Mother Tree, Good With Money and Ethical Consumer can help people understand which banks invest sustainably. Additionally, there is a growing network of international initiatives and membership bodies – such as the Global Alliance for Banking on Values – that provide a useful marker for which banks are committed to ethical best practice.
It is also worth considering the investments made by a particular bank, as an indicator of its overarching values.
In 2024, we received a King’s Award for Enterprise for excellence in Sustainable Development – recognising our founding commitment to fostering opportunity and growth through responsible finance.
The award followed our work with Housing Associations Charitable Trust (HACT)’s, which saw Unity become the first financial institution to back its ‘Retrofit Credits’ programme. This led to the launch of our award-winning Retrofit Transition Initiative (RTI) – a £50million fund, specifically ringfenced for housing associations to access affordable finance for decarbonisation activities across their properties.
This year, we also became the first UK bank to invest in Local Climate Bonds, providing £15million to support local authorities in accelerating their net-zero projects, evidencing our commitment to green municipal investments.
We believe in transparency, and our annual impact report provides customers with a detailed breakdown of our investments, based on the Impact Frontiers’ ‘ABC Impact Classification’ system. For example, in 2024, 20% of loans were committed to ‘Acts avoiding harm’, 47% were to ‘Benefit stakeholders’ (i.e. people and the planet), and 33% to projects that ‘Contribute to solutions’.
Unity’s position as a leading social impact bank continues to strengthen. We are included in Cambridge University’s recommended list of ethical banking providers, and recently achieved the Fitch Investment Grade Credit Rating. The rating validates our unique ‘double bottom line’ banking model, which prioritises strong financial performance and measurable social impact.
For any organisation, their choice in banking partner and where to deposit funds really does matter. Regulatory credit rating profiles provide a trusted endorsement of a bank’s robust governance and sustainable financial performance, and can be a useful tool in helping customers to decide where to invest their money.
Values-based banks show how financial systems can be leveraged for positive change. As students continue to demand more ethical business practices, they have the power to influence the financial actions of organisations which depend on their support.
By coming together to call for change, we can all help to deliver a more sustainable future.