Created in 2020 to coordinate and engage investors with the reporting requirement of the UK's Modern Slavery Act of 2015, Votes Against Slavery (VAS) this year began including Alternative Investment Market (AIM) companies in its engagement scope. The coalition also grew to 154 investors, with £2 trillion ($2.5 trillion) in assets under management (AUM), from 22 in 2020.

This year's ESG engagement initiative of the year, EMEA was created to coordinate the response of the investment community and provide the necessary accountability for compliance with the Modern Slavery Act given its minimal enforcement powers. The act was created to address modern slavery, which is a pervasive risk to supply chains and a major financial drag on productivity.

It aimed to encourage investors to use their voting power to improve supply chain transparency and to reduce the incentives enabling the illicit trade in people to thrive.

The expansion to include AIM entities led to an additional 126 companies in VAS's analysis. Since its creation, VAS has engaged with 313 FTSE 350 and AIM listed companies, with a 95% success rate.

"We're delighted to see the ever-expanding influence of VAS recognised with this award," said Matt Crossman, stewardship director at Rathbones, one of the initiative's founders. "With its largest ever coalition of over 150 investors, we are more confident than ever in the relevance of collaborative engagements on material, systemic risks like modern slavery."

The initiative is also advocating for the reporting requirement of the new Modern Slavery Bill to be strengthened. The coalition of investors argues that given the reputational, financial and legal risks to companies, should their operations be found to be linked to human trafficking and modern slavery, investors want to see it strengthened.

One Sustainable Investment Awards judge described it as a "pioneering investor coalition on an important focus area looking at the appropriate implementation of modern slavery in direct business operations and across the supply chain, particularly pertinent given topics such as just transition".