When Roger Jones looked at refinancing his home loan, he wanted a loan product which supported his professional and personal passion of protecting the natural environment. Roger has expert knowledge in the field working as a Professorial Research Fellow, at the Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable Cities at Victoria University (VU) in Melbourne and living in country Victoria.

So why did he choose Summerland Bank’s Eco Home Loan? We asked him so we could better understand why he selected Summerland Bank. Here’s a little bit of what he shared with us.

After working at The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) for 13 years, developing methods for climate risk assessment, Roger now co-leads a team at VU who work on climate-related risk, ecological and institutional economics and building research into practice. Qualified in earth science, he has worked on urban ecology, been a museum curator and technical essayist, public radio host and researcher working on past, present, and future climates and their impacts. When Roger sought a Bank to refinance his home loan, his research led him to Summerland. He said we had ‘gone green furthest’, and as a regional bank and having dealt ourselves with natural disasters on the NSW Northern Rivers, Roger said he chose us because we understood the impacts of climate change and were really doing something about helping to address it.

Summerland’s Eco Home Loan is available to borrowers who are keen to adopt new technologies to reduce their own personal carbon footprint and meet the environmental selection criteria for this type of loan. With this loan, borrowers enjoy a reduced variable interest rate for the life of the loan as well as reduced fees. This is part of Summerland’s commitment to assisting others who share our commitment to a lower carbon world.

Roger also shared his thoughts on what he believed we, as Australians, can do to help reduce our influence on the natural environment and buffer ourselves from the impact of climate change and the resultant natural disasters. He suggested we should consider installing more solar power, even though Australia has positive uptake of this, more can be done. Degasification is also important. He noted some progress has been made with the Victorian & some other State Governments not allowing new homes to have gas connections installed. Roger highlighted that prices of many new technologies are coming down making them more affordable so we should all keep abreast of what if happening in this area in case we can take advantage for our own homes and businesses.

He also felt Summerland Bank staff made it easy to refinance their home loan and is delighted to be making a difference, enjoying doing business with a Bank which shares his environmental passion.

Thanks Roger, we’re delighted to have you as a customer.