Even Your Mortgage Can Be Ethical

By Author: Bonny Kominek
Total Articles: 32
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I am always amazed at the sheer number of ways that money, the root of all evil if you believe what some say, can be turned into something good. Take one look at Green mortgages and you''ll see what I mean. Previously, this is something that has been viewed as a simple and self interested financial transaction, but nowadays even this can be bent to help others.

Allow me to explain; green mortgages are just like everything else that is ?green.? Sometimes known as ecological mortgages, these follow in the vein of other environmentally friendly products and have grown out of the wider movement of consumer demand for environmentally-conscious and ethical products in all aspects of life. Now mortgages are part and parcel of that.

Up until now the move for green products has yet to make a serious impact upon the financial services.?That may soon change. There are currently only a handful of lenders offering green mortgages in the UK, each working in a different way including offering financial incentives for you to install energy-efficient products in your home, but that number is slowly growing.

So where are ...
... you going to start looking. It would be prudent to start your research with the well regarded Ecology Building Society. Their mortgages are given to properties that are considered to be environmentally-friendly: for example, old properties in need of renovation or newer houses that are made from newer and more sustainable materials. Something they like to tell potential customers is that despite being ridiculed for their ideology by other lenders when they started up, they have just celebrated its 25th birthday.

There are plenty of other options but they depend on what you are looking for. Some lenders offer what is called a ''carbon neutral mortgage,'' whereby by using tree planting schemes they can offset the carbon dioxide emissions produced by your house. Another, less palatable sounding option is the brown mortgage'' which caters to people wishing to restore or renovate a property in a green manner.

Some mortgages centre around donations made on your behalf. Lenders can give you green mortgages by which for which after an agreed time, say one year, the provider donates a contribution to a Climate Change charity. These are by far the most common type of green mortgage, and the one you are most likely to find creeping onto the high street in recent months into the branches the likes of Alliance and Leicester.

This is heartening news, as research for the Ethical Investors Group suggests that demand for green mortgages is about to increase considerably. In the current climate of economic uncertainty and the slow realization that it was overt greed on the behalf of some that has caused the crisis it is becoming ever more desirable to be seen to do something worthwhile with your money.

So, next time you are buying something that you hadn''t thought could ever have an ethically focused dimension, think again sport. If mortgages can be green, then what else could there be out there? Bonny Kominek is the author of this article. Alliance