Responsible Investing

Modern slavery can take many forms, including forced labour, child labour, domestic servitude, sex trafficking and human trafficking.

There are more people in slavery today than at any other point in history, and it occurs in every country globally – not just in the developing world.

Any company that profits from using forced labour is doing so illegally. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean it isn't happening. In fact, the total profits obtained from the use of forced labour in the private economy worldwide is estimated to be around US$150 billion per year.2

Aside from the huge impacts on society and, of course, those individuals involved, modern slavery has negative repercussions for companies and future development. At CFS, we believe modern slavery has no place in society and we all share the responsibility to eradicate it as a matter of priority.

Our Statement reaffirms our commitment to addressing modern slavery risk within our sphere of influence and outlines the ways in which we identify, manage and mitigate modern slavery within our direct business operations, supply chains and investments.

Key actions from the 2024 financial year highlighted in our Statement include:

• enhanced our modern slavery supplier risk assessment process, incorporating third party ESG data, including reviewing their modern slavery statements and broadening the range of risk questions to better identify higher risk suppliers;

• enhanced the ongoing monitoring of modern slavery in our supply chain by including modern slavery as a required embedded risk domain which is reviewed for all suppliers;
  
  
• continued our relationship with our stewardship service provider EOS at Federated Hermes, which enables active ownership for our global equity investments, including a focus on modern slavery and human rights;

• continued to engage and share learnings with peers through collaborative groups, including the Responsible Investment Association Australasias's (RIAA) Human Rights Working Group and Investors Against Slavery and Trafficking APAC (IAST APAC);

• revised our list of targeted suppliers and investments for FY25, with action plans developed to further analyse and monitor for instances of modern slavery. These targeted suppliers are industry rated as 'moderate-low' modern slavery risk on FairSupply, a modern slavery risk management platform that helps us identify, manage and mitigate risks within our supply chain.

View our statement

1. https://www.walkfree.org/reports/global-estimates-of-modern-slavery-2022/
2. International Labour Organisation