What makes us different?
We promote the concept of sustainability through our mortgage lending and offer a range of ethical savings accounts to support this. All mortgage applications are judged against the Ecology's unique lending criteria. The starting point is to assess the environmental impact of the project in terms of energy use, pollution and saving resources. This includes looking at properties where new and less conventional ideas are incorporated such as earth sheltering and breathing walls. Some of the features we encourage include:
- Easily recyclable materials
- Use of reclaimed stone, brick, slate or timber
- Locally sourced materials
- High levels of insulation
- Efficient condensing boilers
- Double or triple glazing
- Natural paints
- Water recycling
- Renewable energy systems - solar panels, photovoltaics, wind turbines
We lend throughout the UK, on urban and rural property. Often we lend on properties turned down by other lenders, making our work even more vital. We try to be flexible and will lend funds "up front" on the unimproved value of a derelict building, releasing further funds as the building work goes along and the value increases.
Typical mortgage projects include:
- Renovating a derelict or run down property - a form of recycling
- Converting a disused or redundant building into a home - reusing
- Rehabilitating back to back terraced property - energy saving by nature
- Building a home with a low impact on the environment
- Timber property - including log cabins
- Community based small businesses with an ecological bias
- Organic smallholdings and farms
- Buy to let properties
- Loans for small woodlands
- Co-housing and co-operatives
Our concern for the best use of resources leads us to lend in support of the reintroduction of vernacular building styles, using locally available materials, modern low-impact building technology and the rescue of buildings no longer suitable for their original purpose. So we lend on cob, wattle and daub, modern timber frame properties and properties such as redundant lighthouses, pumping stations and mills. We can do all this because over the years we have built up considerable specialist knowledge and a close working relationship with our borrowers.
One example of innovation, funded by an Ecology mortgage, is Cumbria's first earth sheltered dwelling. Built in a disused quarry site, the house fits into the current quarry space making it hardly visible from the road. Only the glass frontage and some tiles can be seen. Using the shelter of the earth means that the house can do without any form of heating system.
