Triodos Bank
Triodos Bank is a values-based, sustainable bank founded in the Netherlands in 1980, not a water specialist. It finances and invests only where money does measurable good, and its water exposure comes through the impact funds of its arm, Triodos Investment Management. As of 2026, (don't) Waste Water tracks two water companies it backs, NX Filtration and Shayp.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Triodos Bank opened in 1980 in the Netherlands as one of Europe's first banks built entirely around ethics, lending and investing only in what it judges good for people and the planet. Triodos was a sustainable bank decades before sustainability became a marketing line, and it still organises everything it backs around five transition themes: food, resource, energy, society, and wellbeing. Water is not one of them, which tells you most of what you need to know about where this bank sits on the tap.
Triodos reaches water sideways, through the resource-transition theme and the impact funds run by Triodos Investment Management, its wholly owned arm that has been making impact investments for roughly thirty years. Water is a thin slice of a much larger sustainability mandate, not a strategy of its own, which is why (don't) Waste Water rates the bank's water commitment Occasional rather than core.
Triodos's two tracked water companies are both Dutch-speaking and both about the plumbing of clean water rather than headline-grabbing tech. NX Filtration, a Dutch nanofiltration-membrane maker, lets utilities pull drinking water straight from polluted surface water and lets industry reuse its wastewater; it sits inside several Triodos impact funds, including the Triodos Future Generations Fund. Shayp, a Brussels startup whose internet-connected sensors hunt for hidden leaks, drew an early Triodos venture cheque back in 2019. Both bets treat water as infrastructure, not as a sector to dominate.
As of April 2026, Triodos Investment Management opened a fresh front on water through engagement rather than cheques, pressing companies it already owns, especially in pharmaceuticals, to measure and cut the water pollution from their operations, part of a wider plan to put 500 million euros into nature-based solutions by 2030. For a water founder, Triodos is a patient, mission-first backer rather than a water specialist, the kind of investor that turns up when the technology is really a clean-water-infrastructure play wrapped in a strong impact story.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 2 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Triodos Bank invest in?
- Triodos Bank is a values-based bank that finances and invests only for measurable social and environmental impact, organised around five transition themes: food, resource, energy, society, and wellbeing. It invests through impact funds run by Triodos Investment Management, where water is a small part of a broad sustainability mandate.
- Is Triodos Bank a water fund?
- No. Triodos Bank is a Dutch sustainable bank with no dedicated water fund, water team, or water thesis. Water reaches it through the impact funds of Triodos Investment Management, which hold two water companies tracked by (don't) Waste Water: membrane maker NX Filtration and leak-detection startup Shayp.
- Who runs Triodos Bank's investments?
- Triodos Bank's investing is run by Triodos Investment Management, its wholly owned arm with about thirty years of impact-investing history. Managing director Hadewych Kuiper is responsible for its investment activities, and the management board is chaired by Dick van Ommeren. The bank itself is led by a separate executive board.
- Where is Triodos Bank based?
- Triodos Bank is headquartered in Driebergen-Rijsenburg in the Netherlands, where it was founded in 1980. It runs main offices across Europe, including Bristol in the United Kingdom, Brussels in Belgium, Frankfurt in Germany, and Madrid in Spain, and lends across all of those markets.
- Which water companies has Triodos backed?
- Triodos backs two water companies tracked by (don't) Waste Water, both held through Triodos Investment Management. NX Filtration is a Dutch nanofiltration-membrane maker for clean drinking water and industrial water reuse; Shayp is a Brussels firm whose connected sensors detect hidden water leaks. Both sit inside the impact funds rather than on the bank's own balance sheet.
- Is Triodos Bank the same as Triodos Investment Management?
- Not quite. Triodos Investment Management is the wholly owned investment arm of Triodos Bank, and it runs the impact funds that hold the bank's water holdings. The bank does the lending and banking; the investment arm builds and manages the funds. The water companies sit inside the funds, not on the bank's own balance sheet.