Here are a few of our key achievements in fiscal 2020 with respect to responsible business.
Shareholder Value Creation. Our shares provided a 23% total return for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2020—again outperforming the S&P 500 Index—and also provided a 23% compound annual total return to shareholders over the last five years, compared with 14% for the S&P 500 Index.
Inclusion and Diversity. We have an unwavering commitment to inclusion, diversity and equality, as demonstrated by personal impact and overall results; have the courage to change and the ability to bring our people along the journey; and actively innovate—looking across Accenture, at what we are doing for clients and externally to partners, competitors, start-ups, clients, academia and analysts—to learn, respectfully challenge our assumptions and apply the innovation, and cultivate and reward our people for doing the same. Listening to the voices of our people provides the input to ensure that they have the tools and resources to do their jobs and the right learning opportunities, and that they experience a positive, respectful and inclusive work environment. We do this on an ongoing basis across various channels, including surveys and forums. One of our surveys, our Conduct Counts Survey, which measures how our people experience our culture, shows that 87% of our global respondents believe they can work to their potential because they are in an environment where they are treated with respect and in an appropriate manner. Our Commitment to Inclusion and Diversity. Our commitment to inclusion and diversity unleashes innovation and we believe creates an environment where all of our people have an opportunity to feel they belong, advance and thrive. In connection with our priorities around inclusion and diversity, we set goals, share them publicly, collect data to continuously improve and hold our leaders accountable. We now have more than 275,000 women, representing 46% of our workforce, which is core totracking well against our values asgoal of 50% by 2025. And, after achieving our goal of 25% women managing directors by the end of fiscal 2020, we set a companynew goal of 30% by 2025 and critical towe are tracking well against our successgoal with 27% women managing directors currently. We are also making progress against our 2025 race and continued innovation. Our areas of focus include cross-cultural diversity, disability inclusion, ethnicethnicity goals in the U.S., the U.K, and racial diversity, gender, LGBTI, mental health and wellness and additional areas as determined by our local markets.South Africa, which we announced in 2020. We are now 45%46% women on track to meetachieve our gender-balancedgoal of 50% by 2025 We are now 27% women managing directors on track to achieve our goal of 30% by 2025
Accenture 2021 Proxy Statement Corporate Governance 14 Below are some of the goals we have announced for 2025 for increased race and ethnicity representation and our goals around gender equality. Our Inclusion and Diversity Goals 2025 Race and Ethnicity Goals* In the U.S. African American and Black colleagues from 9% to 12% Hispanic American and Latinx colleagues from 9.5% to 13% In the U.K. Black colleagues from 4% to 7% In South Africa African Black colleagues from 45% to 68% Coloured*** colleagues from 6% to 10% 2025 Gender Equality Goals** Gender parity in our workforce 50% women Grow percentage of women managing directors to 30% * Data in goal by 2025. In Februarystatements is reflective of announcement date - for the U.S., September 1, 2020, we began offering Thriving Mind,and for the U.K. and South Africa, October 1, 2020. ** For those whose gender is binary. *** Coloured is a voluntary, holistic mental well-being program, withmultiracial ethnic group native to Southern Africa who have ancestry from more than 138,000one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including Khoisan, Bantu, Afrikaner, Whites, Austronesian, East Asian or South Asian. Pay Equity. Through the entire talent lifecycle, we are committed to being inclusive and diverse—from discovering, to hiring, to developing and advancing our people. This commitment extends to equal pay. Pay equity at Accenture means that our people participating so far,receive pay that is fair and consistent when considering similarity of work, location and tenure at career level. We conduct an annual pay equity review, and our last review was conducted in November 2021. As of November 5, 2021, we also offer Mental Health Ally programshave dollar-for-dollar, 100% pay equity for women compared to men in every country where we operate.† By the end of calendar year 2020,race and ethnicity, we willlikewise have implemented same-sex or equivalent benefitsdollar-for-dollar, 100% pay equity in 100% of the countries where we are legally allowed.
Incollect this data (the U.S., the face of more tragic losses of African AmericanU.K. and Black lives in the U.S., we reaffirmed our unwavering commitment to equality and justice for all, zero tolerance for racism, bigotry and hate of any kind—and our stand against all violence.South Africa). The Way We announced three next steps: to fight racism, create more opportunities for employment and advancement for our African American and Black and Hispanic American and Latinx communities and become more inclusive and diverse.
We are firmly committed to pay equity and have robust processes in place to ensure that all our people are compensated fairly based on their markets and skills, from the moment they are hired through the milestones of their careers at our Company. If we find an issue, we fix it.
Skilling ofDevelop Our People. We have a relentless focus on helping our people develop skills to remain at the forefront of both technology and industry. To do this, we invest nearlyinvested $900 million annually in continuous learning and professional development opportunities that are customized to ensure thatso our peoplepeopl remain highly relevant. In fiscal 2020, this included upskilling over 70,000 people in hot skill areas, such as cloud, after the pandemic was declared. We were able to seamlessly redesign our learning during the pandemic by usingWith our digital learning platform, Accenture Connected Learning, andwe delivered 6% moreover 31 million training hours, an increase of 43% compared with fiscal 2020, with an average of approximately 60 hours of training per person. We promoted more than 120,000 people in fiscal 2021. In addition, we paid a one-time bonus to all of our people below managing director to recognize their contributions and dedication to our clients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health, fiscal 2021 Safety and Well-Being. We are committed to creating a place where people can be successful both professionally and personally. We take a holistic view of well-being—including physical, mental, emotional and financial well-being—providing specially defined programs and practices to support this year while reducing training costs by 11%.
Supporting Our People. Our people are our most important source of competitive strength, and after the pandemic was declared in March,holistic view. In fiscal 2021, as it relates to COVID-19, we worked 24/7 to provide for their safety and well-being. Remote working became a requirement for most organizations, including our Company, and wehave supported our people with the expansion of critical programs, including, in many countries, 24/7 telemedicine, care-at-home services, proctored distance learning for school-aged children, virtual childcare, enhanced insurance coverage, mental health support and testing and vaccination services. The pandemic has negatively affected many people’s mental health around the globe. We used new or expanded services tailoreddigital tools and initiatives to help employees cope with the needsdemands and stresses of the local markets.compounding crises, and to strengthen their mental resilience. Those programs include access to in-person and virtual counseling and support, to digital tools like Calm and Wysa, to our Mental Health Ally program and to our many Thrive Global programs—Thriving Together, Thrive Reset and Thriving Mind—which have collectively been completed by nearly 180,000 of our people (as of December 1, 2021) and bring science-based solutions to lower stress, enhance well-being and productivity, and build resilience and belonging. To promote health and safety, we actively connected our people and their families to effective testing in multiple ways—home testing kits, in office testing, and through pharmacies close to where they live. We have facilitated the administration of vaccinations in ten countries, including the U.S., India and the Philippines, through Accenture-hosted or organized onsite events and clinics. We have also provided paid time off for all our people to receive their full vaccine course, as well as their † Countries with de minimis headcount were excluded from the analysis. Dollar-for-dollar 100% pay equity
Investing in Innovation. Continuous innovation is critical to delivering on the promise of technology and human ingenuity. We invested $871 million in fiscal 2020 in research and development to accelerate adoption of new technologies. At year-end, we had more than 7,900 patents and pending patent applications worldwide.
Accenture 2021 Proxy Statement Corporate Governance 15 The Environment Our Commitments for the Environment. For more than a decade, we have continually set bigger and bolderbold environmental goals for ourselves, innovating our Company. For example, we are the largest professional services companyapproach to have a target for emissions reduction approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative, which alignsenvironmental sustainability and making strategic investments. In alignment with the Paris Climate Agreement, we have pledged to limitdo our part to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. In fiscal 2019, we committed to using 100% renewable energy in all our facilities globallybelow 1.5° Celsius by 2023—and we procured 26% of our energy from renewable sources in our first year.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and ESG Metrics. Wejoining the 1,100 companies that have a longstanding partnership with the United Nations Global Compact, championingsigned the UN SDGs,Global Compact’s Business Ambition for 1.5° Pledge to date. We are particularly focused on emission reductions related to Scope 2 electricity usage and we are working to address several goals, including decent work and economic growth; gender equality; industry innovation and infrastructure; responsible consumption and production; reduced inequalities; peace, justice and strong institutions; good health and well-being; quality education; clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; and climate action. Building on our own partnership with the United Nations Global Compact, we launched SDG Ambition with SAP and 3M to encourage companies to set ambitious targets and accelerate integration of the UN SDGs into theirScope 3 business strategies. This year, for the first time, we incorporated in our annual letter to shareholders our latest reporting on the relevant UN SDGs. The actions we take totravel. To meet these goals are an important part of our commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2025, we are focusing first on actual reductions across our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. We plan to meet our office energy needs with 100% renewable electricity by 2023 and equip our people to make climate smart travel decisions. We will require 90% of our key suppliers* to disclose their environmental targets and actions being a responsibletaken to reduce emissions by 2025. To address remaining emissions, we are investing in nature-based carbon removal solutions that will directly remove carbon from the atmosphere. Committed to net-zero emissions by 2025 and already powering our offices and centers globally with renewable 53% electricity To move towards zero waste, we will reuse or recycle 100% of our e-waste, such as computers and servers, as well as all of our office furniture, by 2025, and post-pandemic we have committed to eliminating single-use plastics in our locations. To plan for water risk, we are developing plans to reduce the impact of flooding, drought and water scarcity on our business and our people in high-risk areas. Our Environmental Goals Path to Net-Zero by 2025 Meet our market leadership as a trusted partner. Additionally, we are partscience-based target (against 2016 baseline) 11% reduction in absolute greenhouse gas emissions 65% reduction in our Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions 40% reduction in Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions per unit of the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council, which is workingrevenue intensity Achieve net-zero emissions 100% renewable electricity by 2023 90% of our key suppliers* required to simplify a subset of metrics commondisclose their environmental targets and actions to all industriesreduce emissions by 2025 Address remaining emissions by investing in nature-based carbon removal solutions that will providedirectly remove carbon from the atmosphere * Key suppliers are defined as vendors that represent a consistent framework across ESG initiatives.significant portion of our 2019 Scope 3 emissions.
Accenture 2021 Proxy Statement Corporate Governance 16 Our Communities Our Commitments to Our Communities. We believe strongly in our responsibility to contribute to the strength and resilience of our communities. Together with our partners,continued making substantial impacts in the past decade,communities where our globalclients and our people live and work. Our Skills to Succeed
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