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Ethics & Governance

Our commitment to ethics, human rights and corporate governance is a key driver of our business strategy and the foundation on which we build trust.

Creating 360° Value

We are working to embed sustainability into everything we do, with everyone we work with, to create business value and sustainable impact.

Responsible Company

Becoming a sustainability leader

Environmental Sustainability

Making a difference through climate action

Supply chain

Driving responsible change across our value chain

Our people

Caring for our people

360° Value Reporting

All reporting in one place

Living our core values

Our commitment to ethics, human rights and strong corporate governance is a key driver of our business strategy and is essential to safeguarding our people, clients, brand and financial performance. It is the foundation on which we build trust.

Our clear corporate governance structure and Ethics & Compliance program—grounded in our core values and Code of Business Ethics—guide our strategic business decisions and actions as we strive to foster a culture of integrity, transparency, inclusivity and respect for all people.

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Our core values

Our values shape our culture and define our character. We live our core values through individual behaviors that guide how we act and make decisions.

Client value creation

Enabling clients to become high-performance businesses and creating long-term relationships by being responsive and relevant and by consistently delivering value.

One global network

Leveraging the power of global insight, relationships, collaboration and learning to deliver exceptional service to clients wherever they do business.

Respect for the individual

Valuing diversity and unique contributions, fostering a trusting, open and inclusive environment and treating each person in a manner that reflects Accenture's values.

Best people

Attracting, developing and retaining the best talent for our business, challenging our people, demonstrating a "can-do" attitude and fostering a collaborative and supportive environment.

Integrity

Being ethically unyielding and honest and inspiring trust by saying what we mean, matching our behaviors to our words and taking responsibility for our actions.

Stewardship

Fulfilling our obligation of building a better, stronger and more durable company for future generations, protecting the Accenture brand, meeting our commitment to stakeholders, acting with an owner mentality, developing our people and helping improve communities and the global environment.

Conducting business with integrity

Responsibility for environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters starts at the top—with our Board and our Chair and CEO—and cascades throughout the business, including our use of performance objectives relating to being a responsible company.

We have a clear governance structure to help us achieve our goals and reflect these objectives throughout the organization while guiding our strategic approach.

Ethisphere’s 2021 World’s Most Ethical Companies

This is Accenture’s 14th consecutive year on the list.

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Building a strong ethical culture

We rely on our core values and Code of Business Ethics to not only inform our behavior but to also help all our people make ethical choices and consider the full impact of their decisions.

We offer a broad range of resources to help our people better understand and fully engage with our COBE, including annual required Ethics & Compliance training, a Making Good Decisions tool, our COBE toolkit with downloadable job aids, an ethics helpline, an anonymous chatbot, and internal and external platforms to raise concerns, including anonymously.

The first fundamental behavior featured in COBE is “Make Your Conduct Count.” It articulates five locally relevant yet globally applicable standards to guide how we think and act across our unique and diverse culture.

Supporting and respecting the rights of all people

Accenture has been a United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) signatory since 2008. Our commitment to supporting and respecting internationally proclaimed human rights is a common thread throughout our business, requiring the support of our leaders, our people and our suppliers.

As stated in our COBE, we seek to align to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We therefore focus our human rights efforts on areas most relevant to our business and operations in terms of potential human rights impacts.

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Anticorruption policies and compliance

Our COBE and related anticorruption policies, both part of our global Ethics & Compliance program and human rights efforts, require our people, business partners and business intermediaries (and suppliers through our Supplier Standards of Conduct) to comply with the anticorruption laws everywhere we do business.

Digital responsibility

To build and maintain trust, businesses must use data and AI ethically across customer information, product development and workforce training.

Data privacy and information security

Safeguarding data is one of our most important responsibilities. We are continually evolving our approach to information security and data protection.

Responsible AI

We are acutely sensitive to our role in innovating responsibly and consider AI and related technologies one of our highest ESG priorities. Read more.

Adhering to best practices and policies

Accenture’s corporate governance matters are described in our 2021 Proxy Statement, Corporate Governance Guidelines and committee charters.

These documents outline the role of our Board and its committees and our key governance practices as well as the experience, qualifications, attributes and skills of our directors. We are especially proud that this mix contributes to our current 10-director Board being 60% racially and ethnically diverse and 50% women.

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More about sustainability

We are working to embed sustainability into everything we do, with everyone we work with, to create business value and sustainable impact.

The 360° Value Reporting Experience

Download United Nations Global Compact: Communication on Progress 2021 [PDF]

ESG Disclosures

Leadership & Governance

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