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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 Global Supplier Impact and 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 Global Supplier Impact and Sustainability program was developed to ensure that companies owned by people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences have the opportunity to participate in our supply chain. Purchasing decisions are merit-based and our program works to help increase the number of companies we consider for each opportunity. We look to include a wide range of suppliers including diverse suppliers, which we define 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:

Supplier Development program

Since 2006, we have brought our commitment to supplier inclusion and diversity 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 diverse suppliers in our seven SDP countries: Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States. SDP 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.

SDP 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 SDP program.

To enable the efficient delivery of SDP 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 SDP by having multiple programs running simultaneously, and in different geographies.

Spend in key geographies

We monitor our spend* with suppliers to understand our progress throughout the year, and are industry leaders in this space. In total, our spend with 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 spend in Japan and New Zealand for the first time.

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

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

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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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