This week the bank has celebrated its two-year anniversary.
Speaking to CSW, Oliver Griffiths, Head of Government Affairs and Policy at GIB, said: “Two years ago was the really important point for us as a team in the civil service because this is the point at which the agreement was launched off.
“You can spend an awful lot of time thinking about a policy issue and then ultimately it can turn out to be beneath the water line and not float. I think that what we’ve demonstrated over the past couple of years is that [the GIB] is both floating and is moving forward really well.”
GIB have mobilised more than £5bn for green infrastructure projects and yesterday announced their 37th project — a £5.2m transaction to help global bank Citi reduce energy use at its data centre in Lewisham, London.
“Across those 37 projects we’ve been able to invest in the four home countries of the UK and I think what’s been great, looking at the type of projects that we’ve done and looking back to when we were in government thinking ‘is this the right mandate?’, I think what we’ve been able to demonstrate over the past two years is - actually it was,” Griffith said.
Set up by government in 2012, the bank aims to accelerate investment in green energy infrastructure while building an enduring institution and is regarded as the most active investor in the UK renewables sector.
As well as generating £3 of private sector investment for every £1 invested by themselves, the bank’s ‘green’ achievements include: reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 3.6m tonnes, which is the equivalent of taking 1.6m cars off the road; producing 13.1 TWh of renewable energy, the equivalent energy consumption of 3.1m UK homes; and preventing the equivalent of 1.5m homes’ waste (1.5m tonnes) going to landfill sites.
"Their achievements tell their own story – in just two years, getting 37 green infrastructure projects underway in the UK, committing more than £1.6bn of capital and mobilising a total of £5.2bn, and creating thousands of jobs,” the prime minister said, adding: “I’m delighted to congratulate GIB on its second birthday.”