Our firm
Responsible Supply Chain
We support our suppliers to accelerate environmental, social and governance action.
Working with key suppliers as part of our Responsible Supply Chain Programme, we are driving change in their organisations and beyond.
With over 2,000 suppliers, the impact and reach we can have if we harness our influence is vast. Our Responsible Supply Chain Programme is ESG-focused and backed by science-based targets. It drives improvements across each of our four strategic pillars, which are:
- Climate and decarbonisation
- Nature, waste and lifecycle management
- Inclusive and equitable supply chain
- Integrity and transparency
By encouraging our supplier organisations, we help them to become more transparent on their ESG performance and to make commitments to improving this performance. To support our suppliers on this journey, we share our own insights on best-practice and run training sessions too.
Environment
When setting our own science-based targets, we made a bold commitment to significantly reduce the carbon impact of our supply chain. Our supply chain accounts for a significant proportion of our firm’s environmental footprint and we know we have a responsibility to help our suppliers on their journey and work collaboratively with them to share best-practice.
We ask our suppliers to report their carbon data, helping us to measure, and encourage, progress.
To help share best-practice, we facilitate roundtables, workshops and webinars for organisations in our supply chain. These cover topics such as: the importance of reducing emissions; what good reporting looks like; and the approach to setting science-based targets. We also facilitate events for suppliers and industries that need extra support.
Updates to the below figures for 2024 are not yet available. These will be updated in due course.
161 / of our suppliers reported their carbon data to CDP this year
FY23
(2022: 100)
127 / of these suppliers have an emissions reduction initiative
FY23
(2022: 76)
76 / of these suppliers have reduced their emissions this year
FY23
(2022: 52)
82 / of these suppliers have set, or have committed to set, a science-based target
FY23
(2022: 45)
Social
Living Wage
We encourage our suppliers to pay the Living Wage rate or above and pursue accreditation and we are proud to have one of our colleagues as the Chair of the Living Wage Foundation Advisory Council. As an accredited Living Wage Employer, we require that sub-contracted and supplier staff working in KPMG offices are paid the applicable Living Wage or London Living Wage by their employers. Since the increase in Living Wage in November 2024, KPMG has been engaging with suppliers who provide personnel to work in our offices to confirm salaries have been increased in line with the update.
Inclusion, Diversity and Equity
We work with our strategic suppliers to create and promote inclusive environments. Our Responsible Supply Chain tender questions and Supplier Code of Conductopens in a new tab reiterate our expectation on suppliers to promote inclusion, diversity and equity within their businesses.
Modern Slavery
KPMG operates in the professional services industry which is not typically considered a high-risk sector for labour-related breaches, given most of our people are highly skilled, permanently employed professionals. However, we remain acutely aware that risks can arise across our operations and value chains and, as such, we recognise that we have a critical role to play in identifying and mitigating potential harm to people.
In August 2024, firmwide modern slavery training was provided to all KPMG employees, members, and contingent workers, and additional specialist modern slavery training will be provided to our Procurement team and Supplier Managers in FY25, to support our identification, management, and prevention of modern slavery risks.
The majority of our procurement spend resides in the UK and the US. According to the Global Slavery Index, these geographies have a lower prevalence ranking for modern slavery, however we are aware that slavery-like practices can, and do, occur in the UK and US in certain higher risk categories. When assessing modern slavery risk in our supply chain, we also consider those industries where there is a material reliance on base-skilled labour (i.e., roles where qualifications, preparation or material training is not required), manual labour, and vulnerable worker populations including temporary, seasonal, and migrant workers. In FY25 we will finalise our modern slavery risk assessment which will support us in formalising our understanding of the higher risk areas of our operations and value chain, to ensure we are taking appropriate steps to address these risks.
In FY24 we conducted our biennial supplier risk assessment and due diligence process. This involved assessing our suppliers based on sector and jurisdiction risk and sending a self-assessment questionnaire (“SAQ”) to those who were deemed high- or medium-risk according to our procurement taxonomy, which determines risk by sector, very high-risk according to our assessment of jurisdiction risk, or where adverse media had been identified. The SAQ focuses on the key policies and procedures that our suppliers have in place to identify, assess, and address modern slavery risk in their operations and value chains. We have made a commitment to engage with those suppliers who scored lower in the SAQ over the course of FY25, with the aim of supporting improvements to their modern slavery programme.
Governance
Our policies
Our Supplier Code of Conductopens in a new tab, which is underpinned by the United Nations Global Compact, describes the expectations we have of our suppliers to conduct business in a responsible manner. It is incorporated in our standard supplier terms and purchase orders. Suppliers are required to align their guidelines, policies,
and practices with these expectations and to communicate and enforce the Code of Conduct provisions throughout their organisations and supply chains. If a supplier falls short of our standards, we will engage with them and provide recommendations on how they can improve their policies and processes. If a supplier fails to implement remediation processes within an acceptable timeframe, we will consider terminating the relationship.
Risk assessment and due diligence
As part of strategic tenders, suppliers with estimated spend greater than £100k are requested to complete the Responsible Supply Chain Questionnaire. Suppliers’ responses are reviewed and scored to assess the controls they have in place to mitigate potential risk, including of modern slavery. All suppliers also undergo adverse media screening at the on-boarding stage. Our suppliers, across all categories of spend, are risk-assessed into high, medium or low risk
categories. Suppliers that are rated as high and medium risk are subject to additional due diligence through a biannual self-assessment questionnaire.
Training
Members of our Procurement team receive Responsible Supply Chain training. This helps colleagues to understand the alignment of our approach with our business strategy and our ESG commitments (Our Impact), and how their role within the Procurement team supports the achievement of these. The training covers our current Responsible Supply Chain policies and processes, and our plans for evolving these in the future.
In FY24 this included:
In FY24 this included:
- Supplier Diversity and Social Enterprises with Social Enterprise UK
- Science Based Targets and Environmental reporting
- Modern Slavery risks
Internal governance
The Responsible Supply Chain Programme is led by our Chief Supply Chain Officer, and in 2023 the Head of Responsible Supply Chain and Travel was appointed. Our Responsible Supply Chain Steering Group, which comprises representatives from our Procurement, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, and Inclusion, Diversity and Equity teams, oversees the implementation of the Programme. These members also represent the Programme on Working Groups, such as the Modern
Slavery Working Group, which reviews the effectiveness of KPMG’s Modern Slavery Programme and drives forward our approach to tackling modern slavery.