Responsible Sourcing and Supply Chain Management
Overview
Our commitment to responsible business extends to our supply chain. We carefully manage and collaborate with our extensive global network of suppliers, ensuring legal and regulatory compliance, ethical behavior, supplier diversity and environmental sustainability. These efforts not only benefit our business and suppliers, but also help to safeguard our brand and reputation.
Our Approach
Our approach to responsible sourcing covers several areas, including how we engage our key suppliers, from initial screening to when we may need to exit a relationship, how we codify our expectations through various policy and contractual instruments, how we build the infrastructure to monitor and track risks and performance, and how we use data-driven insights to better understand our supply chain and inform our actions. Our Head of Procurement Sustainability and Diversity, who reports to the Vice President of Procurement, collaborates with teams across the company to make progress in these areas. This enables us to connect our supply chain sustainability program to our material topics including human rights; diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); and those under the umbrella of environmental impact.
S&P Global’s Vendor Code of Conduct (VCOC) is provided to all suppliers and outlines the principles, guidelines and standards we expect them to adhere to, including conducting their business responsibly and with integrity, and fully complying with applicable laws and regulations. The issues addressed by the VCOC include ethical business conduct, data security and confidentiality, child and involuntary labor, racism and discrimination, wages and benefits, fair treatment, employee health and safety, environmental stewardship and supplier diversity. Suppliers are also expected to abide by the provisions of our Global Human Rights Policy and UK Modern Slavery Act Statement. Penalties for noncompliance may include temporary sanctions or losing an S&P Global account.
For information on other material topics connected with our supply chain, see Human Rights; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Community and Economic Impact; and Energy and Climate Change.
S&P Global’s Supply Chain
S&P Global’s supply chain is primarily composed of leased offices, professional and technical service providers, and technology providers. Our key suppliers include:
- Market data and research providers.
- Marketing, human resources, financial, and other consultants and brokers.
- Maintenance, repair and operations contractors.
- Facilities managers and landlords.
- Providers and licensors of computer hardware and software, networking, cloud computing and related services.
- Business process outsourcing providers.
- Travel agencies, airlines and hotel chains.
Supplier Engagement
Engagement with our suppliers is essential to promoting proactive risk management and advancement of our supply chain sustainability program. In 2023, we conducted a survey of 125 key suppliers, including all Tier 1 suppliers, to learn more about their efforts on human rights, supplier diversity, climate change and other sustainability topics. This yielded timely data on suppliers’ strategies and progress, as well as new insights on how to integrate sustainability into our core sourcing and procurement processes. As a result, we redesigned the sustainability questionnaire embedded in S&P Global’s standard supplier RFP, in order to improve engagement and data collection on an ongoing basis.
Our Procurement organization has also invested in efforts to centralize and unify key datasets and improve the use of our systems to support data-driven decision-making. As a next step, we plan to integrate sustainability information including greenhouse gas emissions, science-based target alignment and supplier diversity data, with the aim of further enhancing supplier due diligence.
Supplier Diversity
Identifying, developing and sourcing products and services from diverse and traditionally underrepresented suppliers helps foster innovation, reduce the risk of supply chain disruptions and advance our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. S&P Global is committed to treating all vendors with integrity and in an ethical manner and to supporting and encouraging the aspirations of diverse groups.
Our U.S.-based Supplier Diversity Program provides fair and equal procurement opportunities for all capable and competitive suppliers. S&P Global actively encourages and invites applications from businesses that are managed or led by members of underrepresented groups.
In 2023, we increased internal and external engagement to support staff who make purchasing decisions, connect with diverse suppliers, and share insights with peer companies and other leading organizations. Key activities included the following:
- Implemented a new RFP questionnaire and assessment process to support vendor inclusion and determine if prospective suppliers align with S&P Global’s commitments to supplier diversity and equity.
- Partnered with People Resource Groups to raise awareness about our responsible sourcing efforts.
- Hosted networking opportunities with diverse vendors to be transparent and highlight pathways toward working with our organization.
- Participated in collaborative forums, including the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council and Sustainable Procurement Pledge.
In 2022, S&P Global issued a sustainability-linked bond tied to sustainability targets, including 10% of our addressable spend with U.S. minority and diverse organizations by the end of 2025. In 2023, our percentage spend with U.S. diverse suppliers was 7.9%, while our percentage spend with global diverse suppliers was 6.7%. Our combined count of U.S. and global diverse suppliers grew to 734. At the same time, the percentage of U.S. sourcing events that included diverse vendors continued to decline. We are continuing to take steps to make sure that our sourcing events include diverse suppliers, including additional outreach to our sourcing leads and engagement with diverse suppliers.
See data tables in Appendix.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Our procurement system is a powerful lever to create positive change. Through our comprehensive supply chain sustainability program, we can manage risk, create efficiencies, reduce environmental impact and promote social and economic development.
John King
SVP, Business Services