Accenture – Procuring more sustainably by adopting smarter forward planning

Year

2013

Company Description:

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 275,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$28.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2013. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

 Business Issue:
At Accenture, our efforts to ensure sustainable growth span our entire operations, from how we run our business to the services we provide to our clients to how we engage with employees and suppliers.  It is at the heart of our environmental strategy, which comprises four areas: running efficient operations; working sustainably; enabling client sustainability and providing insights to advance sustainability.  As we strive to improve the sustainability of our own operations, we also seek to use our knowledge, experience and technologies to encourage our suppliers’ sustainability efforts.

Solution Applied:

In 2011, a key provider of our personal computers and laptops began shipping our purchases via ocean freight rather than air whenever possible.
Company Benefits:

As the change in shipment mode requires a longer shipping time, by ensuring that we adopted smart forward planning, we have been able to reduce our carbon emissions and still meet business requirements for new equipment.

Stakeholder Benefits:

This change reduced associated shipping-related emissions by 92 percent for shipments to Accenture in the United States and 93 percent for shipments to Accenture in Europe.

Challenges:
Changing operational planning to ensure requirements for new equipment are met.

Tip:

We ask all new suppliers in our Procurement process questions about their environmental performance. Working collaboratively with suppliers will open opportunities to deliver environmental operational efficiencies.

Departments Involved:

IT Telecoms Teams, Procurement Teams