Skip to main content Skip to footer
Back

SUSTAINABILITY

We believe every business must be a sustainable business

We help our clients advance their environmental, social and governance goals by connecting sustainability to their transformations; operate our business with a strong commitment to the environment, ethics and human rights; and work to create value in communities around the world.

On track

We are on track to achieve our 2025 carbon removal goal and we set new goals for the future

89%

of our key suppliers* have disclosed emissions targets

~5M

people equipped with skills toward employment or entrepreneurship

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

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.

Procurement Plus

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.

 

Supplier Inclusion & Sustainability

Our award-winning Supplier Inclusion & Sustainability (SI&S) Program is at the heart of how we deliver against our responsibility buying priorities and guides how we work with suppliers to promote ethical procurement and supply chain EGS transparency, environmental sustainability and supplier decarbonization, human rights, supplier inclusion and diversity and accessible procurement. 

Our ethical procurement strategy

  • One of our top priorities are to foster an ethical procurement practices that are reflective of our core values and our Code of Business Ethics (COBE).
  • 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.

Payment certainty

  • We realize the economic certainty that prompt payments can provide a supplier, whether a Fortune 500 company or a small- or medium-sized enterprise. 
  • We are proud to be leaders in shifting the payment culture to be more efficient and fairer. We are a signatory to the Prompt Payment Code in the United Kingdom and the Payment Times Reporting Scheme in Australia.

Sustainable Procurement Hub

Our Sustainable Procurement Hub (The Hub) allows us to assess and track our suppliers’ performance in environmental sustainability, human rights, supplier inclusion & diversity and ethics and compliance.

50+

The Hub is available in more than 50 countries

~6,000

We conducted ~6,000 sustainability assessments in FY24

Promoting supplier engagement

We believe supporting our suppliers in their own sustainability journey is a key element of our responsible buying culture and our responsibility towards our suppliers.

In June 2024 we brought 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 our collective environmental impact. Watch the replay to learn more.

Environmental sustainability in our supply chain

Carbon disclosure

We expect our suppliers to prioritize environmental sustainability and provide updates on their carbon emission reduction initiatives, goals and impacts.

Supplier decarbonization support

We are piloting an end-to-end solution 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 ambitions.

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. We have dedicated resources to assess human rights risks in our supply chains and carrying out due diligence processes.

Supplier Inclusion & Diversity

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).

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

As of November 2024, we have graduated a total of 283 diverse suppliers since setting up the Diverse Supplier Development Program.

DSDP was offered in Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States in FY24.

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.

UNITED STATES

25%

Our U.S. diverse spend was 25% in fiscal 2024.

CANADA

23%

Our Canadian diverse spend was 23% in fiscal 2024.

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, maintaining our B-BBEE Level 1 recognition for the 7th consecutive year.

*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.

Accessible procurement

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. We are also a signatory to DisabilityIN's Procure Access Statement, which aims to advance accessible procurement.

Working with our clients

  • Our Global Supplier Inclusion & Diversity (SI&D) offering helps our clients build and scale their SI&D programs, and increase the amount of dollars spent with diverse suppliers.
  • We help our clients improve the social performance within their ESG agendas by integrating small, medium and diverse suppliers into their supply chains through strategy, consulting, mentorship and technology.
  • Our client offering has been shaped by our own forward-thinking, award-winning initiatives, such as our longstanding DSDP and strong leadership support, to drive organizational change.

Back to home

 

 

The information provided on this site reflects our goals, progress and performance across our global operations during fiscal 2024 
(ended August 31, 2024), unless otherwise noted.