Sustainable business finance
Loans for businesses investing in renewable energy, efficient equipment, cleaner transport or qualifying green buildings, subject to credit and sustainability assessment.
Ta możliwość jest obecnie dostępna po angielsku.
Íslandsbanki lends money for projects and assets that meet its sustainable-finance criteria. You repay the borrowing; it is financing rather than a grant. The wider offer also includes social investments.
Climate-related examples include wind and solar energy, geothermal energy with carbon intensity below 100 g CO₂/kWh, and district-heating networks connected to renewable energy. Energy-saving industrial machinery, waste-heat recovery and efficient products also qualify under their category criteria.
You can also finance electric or hydrogen passenger and commercial vehicles, electric or hydrogen heavy equipment and road-freight vehicles, and infrastructure for transport with no direct emissions, such as charging points. Freight systems and infrastructure used mainly to transport fossil fuels are excluded.
Eligibility
- Your business must qualify for the bank’s normal credit approval, including customer-identification checks. The bank also assesses environmental, social and governance risks and checks that the loan meets its framework criteria.
- For efficient appliances or hardware, the framework specifies European energy class A or better, or ENERGY STAR certification. Projects improving fossil-fuel production or distribution efficiency are excluded if the company has no business strategy aligned with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal.
- New residential or commercial buildings built after 31 December 2020 must meet Nordic Swan Ecolabel, Passive House, LEED Gold or BREEAM Very Good requirements. For existing buildings built before that date, those certificates also qualify, including BREEAM In-Use Very Good. Alternatively, an existing building can have energy performance certificate A or be evidenced as within the best-performing 15% of the national or regional building stock by operational primary-energy demand—the energy needed to operate the building. Major renovations and reconstruction must produce primary-energy savings of at least 30%.
- General business-purpose borrowing can qualify if more than 90% of the company’s revenue comes from eligible green or social categories.
- The bank excludes unlawful activities, human-rights violations, pornography-based businesses, controversial-weapons manufacture and sanctioned parties. It also excludes gambling except activities specifically permitted by Icelandic law. Its project exclusions cover fossil-fuel energy exploration, mining or processing; palm oil for energy; radioactive-material processing; non-compliant animal testing; gemstone-only mineral mining; harmful or unlawful sand mining; and tobacco production.
- The sustainable framework additionally excludes allocations to weapons and defence research or development, environmentally harmful resource extraction, gambling, adult entertainment and predatory lending.
How to apply
- Status
- Nabór ciągły
- Warunki naboru
- Loan approval requires the bank’s credit and sustainability assessments.
As a company owner or representative, request a financial interview with Íslandsbanki and discuss your proposed sustainable investment. Book an adviser appointment through the bank’s public booking page; the bank offers to contact you at a suitable time, and you can also visit a branch.
This is an ongoing contact route for the currently offered sustainable business loans. Credit approval and the sustainability criteria still apply.