Impact Report 2023 Triodos Bank met case study

Care locations in the Netherlands are often located in remote places with committed volunteers and family members usually visiting as ‘guests’ and then returning home. Butterfly started with the conviction that care in the Netherlands needs to be organised in a fundamentally different way.

Butterfly aims for care locations in the Netherlands to be inclusive with more natural connections and spontaneous encounters between clients, volunteers and family members. Butterfly organises the funding and
management of small-scale dwellings (tiny houses) at care locations. The company also recruits and selects intrinsically motivated volunteers to live in the homes. As well as re-imagining care in the Netherlands, Butterfly’s inclusive approach helps to address multiple societal challenges such as the shortage in affordable housing and the staff shortage in the care sector. The houses are rented at affordable rates, which contributes to reducing the affordable housing shortage
in the Netherlands. At the same time, having volunteers to help in care locations frees up staff from basic day-to-day operations, thereby reducing pressure on care professionals.

The tiny houses also have one of the highest energy efficiency ratings in the Netherlands, the EPC-label A+++. By constructing such houses, Butterfly is ensuring a low climate impact. Triodos Bank co-financed the first two Butterfly projects
of ten and five tiny houses in North Brabant. Other social investors and the Province of North Brabant also contributed substantially to the total investment of EUR 1.3 million. With their high environmental standards and inclusive approach to care, the Butterfly tiny house project therefore contributes to both Triodos Bank’s Energy Transition theme and Wellbeing Transition theme.

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