The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2024–2025
Bank of Ireland's EcoSaver cuts mortgage rates as homes get greener — a first
EcoSaver, the first mortgage of its kind, lowers interest as Irish homes get more energy efficient; by Sept 2024 sustainable lending hit €13.5bn, up 28%.
Bank of Ireland
What it had to solve
Bank of Ireland wanted to reshape how Irish people think about retrofitting their homes. Its answer was to change the product rather than the message: EcoSaver, billed as the first mortgage of its kind, lowers the interest rate for borrowers who improve their home's energy efficiency.
How it works
EcoSaver is a Bank of Ireland mortgage that ties the interest rate to the house: borrowers who improve their home's energy efficiency pay a lower rate, which makes a retrofit a financial decision inside the loan rather than a separate cost. The bank bills it as the first mortgage of its kind, built to reshape how Irish people think about retrofitting their homes.
The mechanism turns an abstract climate goal into a price. Improve the property's energy efficiency and the mortgage's interest rate improves with it; over the lifetime of the loan the proposition promises up to €92,000 in savings on interest-rate and energy costs. Folk VML handled the product as both agency and design partner for Bank of Ireland.
Since launch EcoSaver has driven record-breaking business growth. As of September 2024 Bank of Ireland's sustainable lending reached €13.5 billion, up 28% year on year, with €2.4 billion in green mortgage growth and a 26% rise in Irish energy-efficiency upgrades — evidence that letting the loan itself reward retrofitting changed behaviour at scale.
Why it lands
- The rate falls as the home gets greener, so retrofitting pays back through the mortgage instead of through goodwill.
- The saving is concrete — up to €92,000 over the loan's lifetime — giving homeowners a number to act on.
- Sustainability sits inside the bank's core lending product rather than in a separate green fund, so scale follows the main book.
- Results moved at system level: sustainable lending up 28% year on year and energy-efficiency upgrades up 26%.
What it did
Since launch the product drove record-breaking growth for the bank: as of September 2024 sustainable lending reached €13.5 billion, up 28% year on year, green mortgage growth reached €2.4 billion, and Irish energy-efficiency upgrades rose 26%.
What you can take
Price the behaviour you want into the core product — a lower rate for a greener home — and the change scales with normal lending, not with appeals to conscience.
Since then
By September 2024 the numbers had compounded into record growth: €13.5 billion in sustainable lending, €2.4 billion in green mortgages and a 26% rise in Irish energy-efficiency upgrades. The structural point outlives the launch — the retrofit incentive lives inside the mortgage itself, so the bank's everyday product, not a special fund, carries the climate behaviour.
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