Root Capital, founded by 2005 Skoll social entrepreneur William Foote, has just landed a 2009 FT Sustainable Banking Award.  The FT Sustainable Banking Awards, now in their fourth year, are an initiative by the Financial Times and the International Finance Corporation to recognize institutions that have shows “leadership and innovation in integrating social, environmental and corporate governance considerations into their operations.”

Root Capital took home the award for “Achievement in Banking at the Bottom of the Pyramid.” Root Capital is providing finance for the “missing middle,” funding agriculture cooperatives and other cooperative endeavors in rural communities that are too large for microcredit and too small for commercial lending. Root Capital has been innovative not just in its lending programs, but also in its own capitalization structure, including launching earlier this year a $63 million growth capital offering (PDF) designed to put Root’s lending operations on a self-sustaining basis in the next five years.