Case Study: Enhancing Diversity through our Supply Chain with HP
At Lyreco, Diversity and Inclusion is one of our main sustainability objectives, especially when it comes to supporting our colleagues. It is also important for us to make sure our suppliers are instilling the same values in their organisation. One supplier that has been actively engaged with raising awareness about D&I, as well as human rights, is HP, who Lyreco partners with on their HP Amplify Impact Programme. The following highlights what they have done in the US to enhance diversity in their industry and within their supply chain.
HP’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is a top priority at HP and applies equally to our workforce and to our relationships with suppliers. They foster greater opportunity, equality, and representation through purchasing decisions and business relationships. Building a more diverse supply chain reflects our values while driving greater innovation, fortifying our business, and strengthening local economies.
They encourage small businesses and diverse companies — those owned by women, minorities, veterans, service-disabled veterans, LGBTQ+ individuals, and aboriginal or indigenous individuals—to compete for our business. In 2021 in the United States, they spent US$276 million with small businesses, US$79 million with minority-owned businesses, and US$91 million with women-owned businesses1. During the year, our supplier diversity program in the United States had an overall economic impact of more than US$650 million.
In 2020, they continued to develop their supplier diversity program in the United States. To accelerate their efforts, HP work with the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC), Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, and industry groups such as tech.
Supplier expectations
To advance progress deeper in their supply chain, HP has added a clause in new and renewed contracts for suppliers that provide services to HP in the United States, setting the expectation that they should spend a minimum of 10% of any work subcontracted and/or purchased on behalf of HP with diverse businesses. To strengthen the program’s racial equality focus, top suppliers subcontracting work in the United States must spend at least 5% with certified Black/African American businesses. In 2021, HP’s allocatable indirect spending with diverse suppliers through this program was more than $350 million.
In 2021, HP issued its inaugural Sustainability Bond by partnering with Black/African American-, Latino-, women-, veteran-, and disabled veteran-owned banks, which have received approximately 5% of total underwriting fees. They engaged a Black/African American- and women-owned firm to execute the more than 10% of share repurchases carried out during 2021, and have continued working with a minority-owned firm as one of a small group of commercial paper (short-term borrowing) dealers.
Promoting diversity with their legal partners
HP’s legal department is also focused on improving diversity among their U.S. law firm partners and withholds up to 10% of all invoiced spending of those firms who fail to meet or exceed diverse minimal staffing on work for HP.
Law firms are asked to staff at least one underrepresented minority or one woman partner and one racially/ethnically diverse attorney, each performing at least 10% of the billable hours on HP business. Firms are required to track and share data reflecting compliance quarterly. As of the end of 2020, 93% of engaged firms met the requirements, up from 46% in early 2017 when this initiative was launched.
Overall, 83% of HP’s outside counsel teams were led by a diverse partner at the end of 2020—up from 46% in 2017.
1Data is for the 12 months ending September 30 of the year noted. Figures are for purchases in the United States and Puerto Rico from U.S.-based businesses. Suppliers are categorized as minority-owned or women-owned, not both. These categories include all sizes of businesses.
