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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.

100%

renewable electricity across our offices, achieving our goal

82%

of our key suppliers* have disclosed emissions targets

4.3M

people equipped with skills toward employment or entrepreneurship

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

Human rights

We support and respect human rights around the world.

Accenture Global Human Rights Statement

Our commitment

  • Accenture has been a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact since 2008.
  • We seek to align to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We therefore focus our human rights efforts on those areas that are on areas most relevant to our business and operations in terms of potential human rights impacts.
  • We continue to review our human rights efforts, as well as best practices in marketplace, to understand how we can further strengthen our commitments. If it is unclear how to apply the law consistent with our human rights principles, we are guided by our core values and COBE to support and respect the principles of internationally recognized human rights.
  • We also adhere to relevant international instruments and documents, including the International Labour Organization's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, in addition to the UN Guiding Principles.


Our human rights governance

  • We recognize that support and respect for human rights is an integral part of our sustainability commitments.
    -     Our ESG steering committee, which is comprised of leaders across Accenture, has responsibility across all operational sustainability topics, including human rights governance. This committee is chaired by our Senior Managing Directors and Executive Director-Corporate Services & Sustainability and Business Operations.
    -     We have also appointed managing directors to act as named officers with accountability for compliance with human rights legislation including the UK Modern Slavery Act, the Australia Modern Slavery Act and the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act.    


Our human rights priorities

We focus our human rights efforts on areas most relevant to our business and operations in terms of potential human rights impacts:

Diversity and equal opportunity

Health, safety and security

Employment conditions and working practices

Supply chain

Data privacy

Anticorruption

Human rights and our supply chain

Because of the global scale and diversity of our business, we focus our supply chain due diligence efforts on areas that align with our human rights priorities; areas where we can appropriately make the most impact; and areas of heightened concern or in higher-risk geographies.

Supplier Standards of Conduct

Sets out the standards and practices that Accenture supplies are required to uphold in respect of human rights and reflects our core values, our ethical principles, and our commitment to human rights, and supplements our COBE.

Living Wage

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.

Sustainable Procurement Hub

We continue to invest in new technology and processes to help us have greater visibility into our suppliers' ESG performance, including human rights. The Hub, which is available in more than 50 countries, provides greater transparency from our direct suppliers about their own human rights policies, due diligence and inclusive practices.

Human rights reporting

As part of our commitment to transparency and human rights we assess our human rights risks and report on them.

Modern Slavery

  • Our long-standing commitment to human rights includes eliminating modern slavery, child labor and human trafficking.

  • Given the nature of our business and supply chains, and the risk assessments we have undertaken to date, we believe the risk of modern slavery, child labor and human trafficking in our business and supply chains is low. However, we are not complacent and frequently review how we can improve and evolve in response to changing circumstances and our evolving business.

  • Our Modern Slavery Transparency Statement provides more information about our efforts. While this statement is required by law in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, it also covers our commitment beyond these jurisdictions.


Conflict Minerals

  • 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.

  • As part of our human rights strategy, we have established a multidisciplinary 3TG minerals (tin, tungsten, tantalum or gold) working group that works with a third-party specialist to implement our 3TG compliance strategy and prepare our annual Conflict Minerals Report by reviewing our supply chain for products that contain 3TG minerals.


German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act

  • We promote transparency, accountability and responsible business practices by conducting due diligence assessments on our own business and our supply chain to identify risks related to human rights.

  • We have published our first German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act Policy Statement (LkSG Grundsatzerklärung) and will report to the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (Bundesamt für Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle "BAFA") as required in early 2024.


Raising concerns

We encourage our people, suppliers and subcontractors to raise ethical and legal concerns, including potential human rights issues, and we provide a range of secure channels for them to do so confidentially, and, where allowed by law, anonymously.

Whether internal or external, we treat all concerns seriously and in strict confidence. We protect anyone who raises, in good faith, a concern about a human rights issue or who assists us, or a law enforcement authority, by providing information to address such a concern

Concerns or violations can be reported (anonymously, where permitted by local law) via the web or through a country-specific number available on the Accenture Business Ethics Helpline

All queries are handled by an independent team confidentially—and, where allowed by law, anonymously

The information provided on this site reflects our goals, progress and performance across our global operations during fiscal 2023 
(ended August 31, 2023), unless otherwise noted.