The Church Commissioners for England has been awarded ESG engagement initiative of the year, EMEA, and Thought leadership paper on sustainable investing, Europe, at the 2025 Sustainable Investment Awards.

The Church Commissioners launched its Initiative on Human Rights Data, an initiative to guide institutional investors on how to use corporate human rights data and advance its availability. It was launched alongside Aviva Investors and Scottish Widows and has since signed up more than 25 investors.

Through a trio of focus groups, the initiative engages with ESG data providers on the methodologies and coverage of human rights data, advises proxy advisers on integrating human rights into voting policies, and assesses companies connected with international human rights standards violations.

On the thought leadership paper entitled 'Integrating human rights into responsible investment: a systematic approach to address systemic risks', the award's judges were impressed by its focus on the topic as part of the just transition. They remarked that human rights issues can often be overlooked, but this paper provided interesting and practical insights.

The faith-based ethical asset owner published the report in early 2024, outlining how human rights can be integrated into asset-, manager- and system-level stewardship activities. It detailed how the Church Commissioners engages with fund managers on incorporating the topic into investment decisions.

In the past year, it also implemented a voting policy setting out its human rights-focused expectations.