Unity Trust Bank appoints a new Chief Impact Officer

Award-winning Unity Trust Bank has announced the appointment of Joshua Meek (pictured above) as its new Chief Impact Officer, reinforcing the bank’s commitment to delivering positive social and environmental impact across the bank.

Joshua’s appointment to Chief Impact Officer will see him strengthen Unity’s ‘double bottom line’ strategy, which looks to maximise positive outcomes for people and planet alongside financial returns.

As part of this, he is spearheading the development of Unity’s ‘theory of change’ in partnership with New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), to create a roadmap that will shape activity across the bank in alignment with its mission to create a better society.

Previously Head of Impact and Sustainability at Unity, Joshua has already played a key role in developing the bank’s impact strategy. Under his leadership, Unity was an early adopter of the Impact Management Platform’s ‘ABC Impact Classification’ system, which provides greater transparency on the types of impact delivered by its lending, and it was one of the first to purchase retrofit credits through the Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust (HACT) ‘Retrofit Credits’ programme.

Commenting on his appointment, Joshua said: “As Chief Impact Officer, I look forward to working with my colleagues to continue developing Unity’s proposition to be the bank of choice for socially-conscious organisations across the UK.

In this role, I will work together with our leadership team, colleagues, customers and partners to maximise the positive impact we can create for people and for the planet. This will be achieved through our actions as a business, but also through our strong commitment to support all of our customers in their own sustainability journey.”

He added: “A key component of this is ensuring we support our customers in an inclusive approach to the transition to net zero by 2050. As an ethical bank, we want to help our customers access the support and guidance they need to embark on a transition pathway to net zero emissions and build resilience for the future impacts of climate change. 

This will be critical to supporting our customers to continue delivering positive outcomes in their communities.”

Unity Trust Bank is a proud member of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV), a network of independent banks committed to delivering sustainable economic, social and environmental development and sharing best practice.

Joshua went onto say: “At Unity, we take a proactive approach to impact management to ensure transparency and accountability of our work and to learn and improve the outcomes we support. As CIO, I want to ensure that we help drive forward a culture of delivering meaningful outcomes with our customers.”

Colin Fyfe, CEO at Unity Trust Bank, said: “Joshua’s appointment reflects the way we continue to not only invest in our products and services, but also to evolve our internal strategies to ensure that impact remains at the heart of everything we do.

Joshua’s proven expertise and deep understanding, as well as his strong personal motivation to enact tangible change in the sector, will be invaluable in driving forward our commitment to enabling positive social, economic and environmental impact through responsible banking.

With our relationship-led banking model, we’re here to support our customers in making a positive difference through their operations and in their communities, and I’m proud that Unity continues to lead the way in delivering business banking with a social conscience.”

Unity was founded by the trade union movement in 1984 to serve the common good. It reported a record level of lending in its recent half-year results – increasing to £1,032m in the first six months of 2024, with 40% of loans allocated to organisations in areas of high deprivation.

This year, Unity received the prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development in recognition of its work supporting socially-minded customers and its own commitment to delivering responsible business practices.

To mark its 40th anniversary, the bank pledged to donate £40,000 to good causes in 2024 and launched the new Unity Impact Grants Programme, giving customers the opportunity to apply for grant funding for community-enhancing projects.