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Developing a responsible supply chain

With our inclusive procurement, we lead by example, promoting diversity in supply chains. Empowering businesses and fostering innovation.

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We can be the difference

Responsible buying allows us to work within our ecosystem to identify, develop and work with smaller, more diverse suppliers with increased agility. We also request select suppliers to provide information and data on how they are improving their business performance to reduce their environmental impact, which, in turn, helps us improve our performance.

Our Supplier Inclusion & Diversity Program is in 22 countries in fiscal 2022, with additional countries to follow in the year ahead. We continue to evolve this program with digitalization efforts, leveraging technology tools such as our Sustainable Procurement Hub (The Hub) to streamline activities such as supplier environmental, social and governance assessments. By incorporating diverse businesses into our supply chain, we gain access to innovative, responsive and cost-competitive solutions for our clients.

Some of our partners includes several membership organizations, like:

Accenture Supplier Inclusion & Sustainability: Be the Champion

Join Accenture in building inclusive and responsible supply chains and workforces.

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“As the interim CPO of Accenture, we are proud to 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”. 

— Tricia Miller

Diverse Supplier Development Program

Accenture's Diverse Supplier Development Program (DSDP) reflects our commitment to developing and expanding relationships with diverse businesses owned by minorities, women, persons with disabilities, LGBT, veterans, disabled veterans, and service-disabled veterans, and others.

The formal 18-month program matches Accenture executive mentors with diverse supplier companies to help them grow their businesses. In turn, our company, clients, and communities benefit from their innovative contributions. Not only does DSDP represent a strategic sourcing strategy for Accenture and our clients, but also strengthens communities by creating more businesses, jobs, and economic growth.

To enable the efficient delivery of DSDP programs, Accenture built Small Medium Enterprise Digital Ecosystem (SME-DE) platform that facilitates easy interaction between SMEs and Accenture. It supports SMEs through the entire DSDP cycle, from having an automated application selection process, business assessment for targeted development, providing business tools and exposing commercial opportunities as they mature.

We continue to prioritize diverse suppliers, including through our Global Diverse Supplier Development Program (DSDP). In fiscal 2021, we set a new DSDP goal to graduate 250 diverse suppliers by the end of fiscal 2023. By the end of fiscal 2022, a total of 217 had graduated. In fiscal 2022, we also launched DSDP in Australia.

5 reasons why you should prioritize supplier diversity

Supplier diversity is more relevant – and necessary – than ever before. It’s long been a corporate focal point, thanks to federal requirements to demonstrate inclusiveness and equal opportunity. But many companies with Supplier Diversity programs historically have treated them like “check the box” or non-essential programs, which are often deprioritized when things get though.

By making supplier diversity essential within their procurement strategy, companies can generate value in five key ways.

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By the numbers

217

Small, medium and diverse suppliers developed through our DSDP.

1

Level 1- Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment in South Africa.

6

6th consecutive year on the CDP Supplier Engagement Leaderboard.

Sustainability commitment

We are committed to advancing sustainable procurement practices both within and outside our company. To that end, we expect our suppliers to provide updates around their environmental initiatives, goals and impact, and we encourage local and regional teams to discuss sustainable procurement during their regular supplier meetings. By engaging our suppliers on the benefits of sustainability, we are increasing the number of participants that monitor, measure and report their environmental impact.

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

68%

of our key suppliers* disclosed targets and 75% have disclosed actions to reduce their emissions

CDP’s supply chain program

As a corporate member of CDP’s Supply Chain Program, we use CDP tools to promote engagement, transparency and sustainable business practices with our suppliers.

As part of our goal to reach net-zero by 2025, we set an ambitious target requiring 90% of our key suppliers* to disclose their environmental targets and actions being taken to reduce emissions by 2025. Scope 3 emissions are an important and often overlooked metric in addressing climate change.

As of December 1, 2022, 68% of key suppliers disclosed their targets and 75% disclosed the actions they are taking, up from 58% and 60% as of December 1, 2021, respectively.

Sustainable Procurement Hub

We continue to invest in new technology and processes to help us have greater visibility into environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of our suppliers.

We are proud of the launch of our Sustainable Procurement Hub (The Hub), which launched in fiscal 2021 and continues to roll out globally. This new technology is providing greater transparency from our suppliers about their own human rights policies and sustainability practices.

The tool also allows us to perform due diligence processes to inform our buyer selection decisions, onboarding and ad hoc ESG assessments. The Hub is currently operational in over 30 countries with further deployments and program enhancements planned in fiscal 2023. We have utilized The Hub to conduct more than 3,000 sustainability assessments to better understand our suppliers’ ESG performance.

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Highlights

East Meets West / Winner in Category Corporates

In 2021, Accenture won the East Meets West Category Corporates award for our continued efforts to improve the status of the LGBTQI community through Corporate Social Responsibility and a responsible supply chain.

Recognized in the market


Accenture was named Corporation of the Year by the Canadian Aboriginal and Minority Supplier Council for our work in Supplier Inclusion and Sustainability in Canada. Learn more about CAMSC.

Empowering champions of change

Our Diverse Supplier Development Program matches Accenture executive mentors with diverse supplier companies to help their businesses grow. Learn more about our approach in South Africa.

Connect with us

Guide to doing business with Accenture

Read about our requirements for suppliers and onboarding processes.

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Accenture Supplier Connection

See information and links for our supplier portal, invoicing and more.

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Supplier awareness

Learn how we can all collaborate to improve the way the world works and lives.

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