With a focus on the cost-of-living crisis and human rights due diligence, the winner of this year's Insurance Asset Risk Social Investing Initiative award is Aviva Investors, which takes the prize thanks to its Social Transition Engagement Programme (STEP), joint engagement between ESG and buy and maintain analysts, and its human rights advocacy.

STEP is a three-year engagement programme targeting all companies invested in the Social Transition Fund, aiming to ensure fund holdings demonstrate robust human rights disclosure and due diligence (HRDD) by 2030, including a credible living wage commitment, by aligning with Aviva Investors' 'people pillar' expectations.

In its joint work between ESG and buy and maintain analysts, Aviva Investors Credit and ESG teams have been conducting engagements with 10 housing associations where the manager has material exposure, to better understand and encourage improvements in housing quality and energy efficiency using the Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing .

To provide a clear baseline of performance and a trajectory to meet sustainability ambitions, it encouraged providers to conduct a full stock audit, publish timebound and 'smart' retrofit strategies and further disclosure against reporting standards.

Aviva Investors has advocated for updating UK human rights policies at a cross-party meeting with MPs in May 2023, to ensure companies uphold high standards of human rights due diligence.

It is also working with the UN-PRI team on advocacy for the proportionate inclusion of the financial sector under the European Union's Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive through a risk-based approach, aligned with international standards.