Developing a responsible supply chain

Our ambition is to create more sustainable and more inclusive supply chains through a mindset of responsible buying, both inside and outside our company, while generating long-term value for our clients, suppliers and communities.

We can be the difference

Our overarching buying approach, Procurement Plus, informs every aspect of our supply chain, and helps us build stronger partnerships based on ethical behaviors, transparency, agility and inclusivity. By working with our suppliers through our Supplier Inclusion & Sustainability (SI&S) Program to drive positive change, we can leverage our purchasing power for social and environmental impact. Learn more about our award-winning SI&S Program.

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 commitment 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.

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

Our Supplier Inclusion & Diversity program was developed to promote the inclusion of companies owned by people who have been historically excluded from the labor market. We categorize diverse suppliers as minority; women; small- and medium-sized (SME); service-disabled veteran; veteran; historically underutilized; indigenous; people with disabilities; and LGBTIQ+ enterprises—using locally applicable terms and definitions. The program's scope includes 22 countries in fiscal 2024 and we plan for continued growth.

Some of our partners includes several membership organizations, like:

Global:

The Americas:

Asia Pacific:

Europe, Middle East, Africa:

As the CPO of Accenture, we are proud to drive responsible buying and partner with organizations that represent minority-, ethnic- and women-owned businesses; the LGBTIQ+ community; persons with disabilities; veterans; refugees; and people living away from economic centers.

Binny Mathews

Global Diverse Supplier Development Program

Since 2006, we have brought our commitment to supplier inclusion and diversity to life through our global Diverse Supplier Development Program (DSDP).

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

DSDP mentees demonstrate their progress by completing business health assessments and quarterly progress reports throughout the duration of the program.

As of November 2024, we have graduated more than 280 diverse suppliers since setting up the DSDP program.

To enable the efficient delivery of DSDP programs, we built a Small Medium Enterprise digital ecosystem (SME-DE) platform that facilitates easy interaction between SMEs and Accenture. The SME-DE platform enables us to drive impact and scale our DSDP by having multiple programs running simultaneously, and in different geographies.

Diverse spend in key geographies

We monitor our diverse spend* with suppliers to understand our progress throughout the year, and are industry leaders in this space. In total, our spend with diverse businesses across Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, the U.K. and the U.S. was over $1 billion in fiscal 2024. This year, we are reporting diverse spend in Japan and New Zealand for the first time.

In fiscal 2024, our U.S. diverse spend was 25%, and our Canadian diverse spend was 23%.

*Includes spend with suppliers that are certified, registered with a third party or have self-identified as a diverse business or small business/SME. Diverse spend reported for India, Japan, the Philippines, South Africa and the U.S. (excluding Accenture Federal Services) includes small businesses/SMEs; diverse spend reported for Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the U.K. excludes small businesses/SMEs.

In the spotlight

In South Africa, we continue to lead the way on supplier inclusion, going above and beyond requirements of the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act. In fiscal 2024, we maintained our B-BBEE Level 1 recognition for the 7th consecutive year.

The Sustainable Procurement Hub (the Hub) allows us to assess and track performance in environmental sustainability, human rights, supplier inclusion & diversity and ethics and compliance for suppliers we engage through the Hub. We have also implemented operating model and change management initiatives to support the Hub within our procurement processes.

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 now live globally in more than 50 countries and continues to be advanced with new features and enhancements. In fiscal 2024, we began using generative AI to drive efficiency in reviewing our suppliers' supplier standards documents.

In fiscal 2024, we conducted approximately 6,000 sustainability assessments. We continue to actively engage with our new and existing suppliers to gain better visibility of ESG performance in our supply chain and outline paths forward for increased positive environmental and social impact.

We are working with our suppliers to reduce our Scope 3 emissions.

Our goal is that 90% of our key suppliers* disclose their environmental targets and actions being taken to reduce emissions by 2025. We are on track to meet this goal, with 89% of key suppliers disclosing their targets and 96% disclosing the actions they are taking to reduce their emissions.

_{*Key suppliers are defined as vendors that represent a significant portion of our 2019 Scope 3 emissions}

When it comes to accessibility, we are only as accessible as our supplier’s products. We work to help ensure that the interactions our people have with software, devices and services are compliant with globally defined accessibility standards of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 AA (WCAG 2.2 AA level). Procurement Plus and our Accessibility Center of Excellence embed accessibility requirements into standard procurement practices, including supplier selection, contracts and ongoing supplier relationship management, and we are a signatory of DisabilityIN's Procure Access Statement, which aims to advance accessible procurement.

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.

Our long-standing commitment to human rights includes eliminating modern slavery, child labor and human trafficking. Our Modern Slavery Transparency Statement provides more information about our efforts.

As our business evolves, we recognize the need to continuously adapt our human rights due diligence strategies. We work to be thoughtful and targeted in how we select and engage our suppliers, particularly in relation to higher-risk sectors and countries.

For example, we continue to invest in and develop our Sustainable Procurement Hub and Third-Party Risk Management processes, integrating supplier management functions to more seamlessly identify, prioritize and mitigate risks in our supply chain. Our multidisciplinary 3TG minerals (tin, tungsten, tantalum or gold) working group continues to prepare our annual Conflict Minerals Report by reviewing our supply chain for products that contain 3TG minerals, in conjunction with our third-party specialist.

Accenture is committed to paying a living wage and continues to drive the adoption of a living wage with our suppliers around the world. Our Supplier Standards of Conduct strongly encourages our suppliers to pay a living wage (or higher) to people who provide services directly to our company and/ or our clients.

In the spirit of continuous supplier engagement, we bring together climate thought leaders, sustainability practitioners and suppliers for a virtual Accenture Supplier Summit to discuss how to transform value chains by setting goals and creating innovative initiatives to reduce emissions.

Watch the fiscal 2024 replay and learn about our initiative to encourage sustainability collaboration with our suppliers. Stay tuned to register for our fiscal 2025 summit.