Developing a responsible supply chain

Engaging with small, medium, inclusive and sustainable suppliers—which are core to the global economy—brings new innovations and different perspectives, and drives resilience to support optimized and value-efficient contribution to our delivery.

Procurement Plus

Our overarching buying approach, Procurement Plus, informs our approach to our supply chain, and helps us build stronger partnerships based on ethical behaviors, transparency, agility, and inclusivity. By working with our suppliers through our Global Supplier Impact and Sustainability (SI&S) Programs, we aim to leverage our purchasing power to drive positive change.

Supplier Impact & Sustainability

Within Procurement Plus, our award-winning SI&S Program is at the heart of how we deliver against our responsible buying priorities, and guides how we work with suppliers to promote:

• Ethical procurement and supply chain transparency
• Environmental sustainability and supplier decarbonization
• Human rights
• Supplier impact and development
• Accessible procurement

This program is delivered by a dedicated team of subject matter advisors in environmental sustainability, human rights, supplier impact and development, and data management.

We continue to drive innovation in supplier impact and sustainability by leveraging technology tools such as our Sustainable Procurement Hub to digitize our suppliers' sustainability performance.

Our ethical procurement strategy

One of our top priorities is to foster ethical procurement practices that are reflective of our core values and our Code of Business Ethics (COBE). Our ethical procurement strategy is an underlying component of our business practice and influences applicable training for our people, selection criteria for suppliers and the development of our standards for conducting business with our suppliers.

To encourage broader transparency within our supply chains, we require our suppliers to adhere to our Supplier Standards of Conduct (SSoC), which supplement our COBE, or to make a commitment that is equivalent to our SSoC.

We review our SSOC annually, in line with industry and market conditions, and communicate these standards through a range of mechanisms, including contractual terms and conditions, the Supplier’s Guide to Doing Business with Accenture, as well as our purchase order process.

We continue to reiterate our commitment to our standards through communication to 100% of the suppliers that are included in our supplier management program.*

We also expect our suppliers to apply these standards to their own suppliers.

Our SSoC reflects our support of the Ten Principles of the UNGC—and we have continued working to lead by example in upholding these principles since we committed to the UNGC in 2008. These standards are published in 20 languages and set out the environmental commitments, labor standards, human rights principles, accessibility expectation, and other legal and ethical standards we require our suppliers to uphold when conducting business with Accenture.

Additionally, we review our supply chain strategy through the lens of our COBE and the UNGC Ten Principles as part of our efforts to set industry standards for maintaining an ethical supply chain. This is particularly important as part of our continuing efforts to encourage our suppliers to pay a living wage.

_{^{*Our supplier management program includes third-party suppliers with whom Accenture has a direct and enduring contractual relationship.}}

Payment certainty

We realize the economic certainty prompt payments provide a supplier, whether a Fortune 500 company or a small- or medium-sized enterprise. Our Payment on Time Center of Excellence and technology investment drive continued improvements in this area.

We are proud to be a part of shifting the payment culture to be more efficient and fairer.

Sustainable Procurement Hub

The Sustainable Procurement Hub (the Hub) allows us to assess and track performance in environmental sustainability, human rights, supplier impact and development, and ethics and compliance for suppliers we engage through the Hub.

These due diligence processes support our buyers on selection decisions and ongoing supplier relationships, while also giving us the insights to identify any critical gaps that may require actions from suppliers.

The Hub is available in more than 50 countries and continues to be advanced with new features and enhancements. We are now using generative AI to drive efficiency in reviewing our supplier standards of conduct and policy documents. Additionally, we also gather and review public information, as necessary.

In fiscal 2025, we conducted an additional 4,000 sustainability assessments, which help us actively engage with our new and existing suppliers to gain better visibility of sustainability performance in our supply chain and outline paths forward for increased positive environmental and social impact.

Promoting supplier engagement

We believe supporting our suppliers in their own sustainability journeys is a key element of our responsible buying culture and our responsibility towards our suppliers. To help drive value in this space, our Procurement Plus SI&S and Supplier Relationship Management teams encourage sustainability collaboration with suppliers leveraging insights from the Hub.

Environmental sustainability in our supply chain

Carbon disclosure

Our suppliers contribute to our own Scope 3 emissions, and so we expect them to prioritize environmental sustainability and provide updates on their carbon emission reduction initiatives, goals and impacts. As a corporate member of CDP’s Supply Chain Program, we use CDP tools to promote engagement, transparency and sustainable practices with our suppliers. Since 2010, we have invited select suppliers to respond to CDP’s supply chain self-assessment questionnaire. 

In addition, we continue to use our Sustainable Procurement Hub for supplier sustainability assessments to gain carbon insights from select suppliers.

Supplier decarbonization support

We continue to help support suppliers in assessing their decarbonization maturity and, depending on the identified maturity, in emissions base lining, target-setting initiative selection and development of a roadmap to progress toward their decarbonization goals.

We have created several Supplier Decarbonization Handbooks, which are now available on the Hub.

These handbooks serve as self-learning tools and reference documents for suppliers to better understand greenhouse gas emissions terminology, key emission calculation concepts, and practical reduction measures.

We also continued to engage suppliers in a virtual supplier learning session to introduce Accenture’s sustainability assessment.

Insights from investing in supplier decarbonization to drive emission reductions are shared in the Sustainable Procurement Pledge (SPP) Guide Deepdive.

Human rights in our supply chain

Our commitment to human rights is an integral part of our sustainability commitments and informs our supply chain and supplier selection. Our human rights obligations, including conflict minerals due diligence, are an integral part of our responsible buying strategy.

We have dedicated resources to assess human rights risks in our supply chains and carry out due diligence processes. In addition, we are supporting local compliance programs to help increase awareness within relevant procurement teams.

Supplier Impact & Development

We recognize the opportunity that we have to encourage economic growth and social equity through inclusive procurement practices.

Our Global Supplier Impact & Development program was developed to provide companies owned by people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences the opportunity to participate in our supply chain. Purchasing decisions are merit-based—our program works to help increase the number of companies we consider for each opportunity, using locally applicable terms and definitions and in compliance with local laws. The program's scope included 22 countries in fiscal 2025. In addition, through our experience developing and implementing this program, we have created a credential which is used by our clients to help build capacity of their small and medium suppliers.

Global Supplier Development Program

Since 2006, we have brought our commitment to supplier impact and development to life through our global Supplier Development Program (SDP).

We deliver SDP, a formal typically 12- to 18-month training and mentoring program, to develop and expand relationships with suppliers in our seven SDP countries: Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. SDP offers two main pillars of support: one-on-one mentoring between Accenture mentors and suppliers, and training, including quarterly symposiums, webinars and access to Accenture’s online training academy.

SDP mentees demonstrate their progress by completing business health assessments and quarterly progress reports throughout the duration of the program. As of the end of fiscal 2025, we have graduated more than 290 suppliers since setting up the SDP program.

We continue to partner with accredited learning institutes to deliver the training component of several SDP cohorts. In the United Kingdom, we continue to partner with Henley Business School’s Centre of Entrepreneurship and recognize our graduates with a Henley Business School Advanced Learning Certificate. In South Africa, we partnered with Tshwane University of Technology's Centre of Entrepreneurship Development for the 2025 SDP class.

To enable the efficient delivery of SDP programs, we run an SME-digital ecosystem (SME-DE) platform that facilitates easy interaction between SMEs and Accenture as well as a global ecosystem of SDP graduates, increasing collaboration opportunities among the alumni network.

The SME-DE platform enables us to drive impact and scale our SDP by having multiple programs running simultaneously and in different geographies. Several clients also use SME-DE now for their supplier development programs.

Inclusive/small business spend in key geographies

We monitor our inclusive and small business spend* with suppliers throughout the year. In total, our inclusive and small business spend was over $1 billion in fiscal 2025.

_{^{*Reflects countries reporting on spend with suppliers that are certified, registered with a third party and/or that have self-identified as an inclusive business or small business/SME and reported spend varies by country.}}