Responsible Sourcing & Supply Chain Management

Our Vendor Code of Conduct

Our Vendor Code of Conduct (Code) is the cornerstone of our responsible sourcing and supply chain strategy and describes the expectations we have of our vendors to conduct business responsibly.  The Code, first published in 2017, encompasses areas of ethical business practices, compliance with applicable laws and regulations including labor and human rights, creating inclusive workforce practices and addressing the environmental impact of a vendor’s business, managing business continuity, resiliency and emergency preparedness in the provision of goods and services to us, and effective management systems and governance procedures. All vendors who wish to work with us are expected to adhere to the Code and are encouraged to communicate and enforce its provisions throughout their own organization and supply chain.  The Code, which is available in multiple languages, is annually communicated to our suppliers globally.
 

Due Diligence

We require vendors who wish to bid for the provision of goods and services to respond to specific due diligence questions on environmental stewardship and human rights, including modern slavery.

We assess our vendors for various environmental and social risks, including related governance practices, embedding risk screening criteria into our vendor management platform with the aim of identifying vendors with higher inherent risks. This enables us to conduct deeper assessments of vendor controls to identify and mitigate such risks, which may include environmental risks or modern slavery and human trafficking concerns. Additionally, we screen all vendors against an extensive set of media, government and regulatory sources to identify potentially adverse information, both during the on-boarding process and during the life of vendor contracts. 
 

Modern Slavery

We take our responsibility to protect, preserve and promote human rights seriously. We are committed to assessing risks and acting to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking from taking place within our business and supply chain. 

We publish a Statement on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking annually which sets out the actions we have taken to assess and address the risks of modern slavery practices in our business and our supply chain.   
 

Small Vendor Program

At Goldman Sachs, we work hard to partner with competitive small businesses to source the goods and services needed to support our operations and achieve our business objectives.

Our Small Vendor Program aims to break down barriers to market access for small businesses of all backgrounds, enabling them to compete equally for business opportunities. This drives competitiveness and innovation in our supply chain, stimulates positive socio-economic impact and reflects the communities where we live and work and the clients we serve around the world. Our vendor engagement efforts have been previously recognized by WEConnect International. We progressed from a Silver-level Champion in 2022 to Gold in 2023, achieving Platinum-level Champion status in 2024.

Recently, we approached the development and operation of our new Birmingham, UK office, with a distinct strategy that reflects both global policies and local opportunities, while fostering significant community and economic engagement. The Birmingham office is a cornerstone of the firm's UK presence outside of London and its overall development placed a strong emphasis on sourcing goods and services locally. Additionally, the Small Vendor Program has delivered positive impacts within the firm’s operations. The following case studies illustrate a few examples of impressive small businesses making an impact across our UK and global operations: 

 

vPPR Architects