Dive Brief:

• Google aims to spend $2.5 billion with diverse suppliers in 2022, Jennifer Moceri, vice president of global procurement & chief procurement officer, announced in a company blog post Thursday.
• The tech giant plans to expand its supplier diversity program beyond the U.S. this year, Moceri said. Google’s 2022 supplier diversity plans also focus on mentoring, development and partnership programs, especially as the supplier diversity program expands globally.
• The tech giant is boosting its diverse supplier spend plans after surpassing last year's $1 billion goal by $500 million.

Dive Insight:

The supplier diversity program is nearly a decade old, but like many other companies, Google placed renewed emphasis on its social justice initiatives following the brutal killing of George Floyd by police — and the nationwide protests that followed — in 2020.

"We want to help build an inclusive economy that works for everyone," Moceri said. "This extends within our company, and accounts for the economic impact that we can have when we buy goods and services."

The new spending goal is in addition to several other efforts already underway to make the procurement process more inclusive for Google suppliers.

Google's Certification Access program, developed in 2021 with San Ramon, California-based R Mo Diversity Solutions, offers eligible suppliers financial support and removes administrative burdens to obtaining diversity certification. The Accelerated Payments Program endeavors to pay eligible suppliers within 15 days of invoice approval, instead of the typical 45 days.

Google's partnership with Dartmouth College provides digital technology training for entrepreneurs from minority and underrepresented communities. The Google Tuck Digital Excellence Program at Dartmouth and the Accelerated Payments program launched in 2014, and the payments program expanded in 2020, according to a spokesperson.

More than 425 diverse business leaders will have graduated from the Dartmouth course and received more $750,000 in scholarships by the end of 2022. The program is free but requires applicants to register as Google suppliers, and registration does not guarantee admission, according to the Dartmouth website.

"The Digital Excellence Program is designed to help make participants' businesses more attractive suppliers to corporations, prepare them for growth in the market, and ensure they are working with clients for increased business," the site says.

Google is also encouraging its existing suppliers to contract with diverse-owned businesses. For instance, the company noted, Holder Construction has contracted CD Moody, a Black-owned construction company based in Atlanta, as a supplier for Google data center retrofit projects in Virginia and Ohio.

"We are proud of exceeding our first spend goal and the programs we have created to elevate diverse suppliers," Moceri said. "Yet we know we have more to do and look forward to continuing that work."

Google will join the ranks of other tech giants spending billions each year with diverse suppliers and partners.

IBM spent $2.1 billion with first-tier diverse suppliers worldwide in 2020 — its 13th year over the $2 billion mark, the company said. Microsoft spent nearly $4 billion with diverse-owned businesses globally in FY2019.

"These companies are being challenged to put their money where their mouth is," said Douglas Kent, executive vice president of strategy and alliances for the Association for Supply Chain Management, last year. In terms of DEI goals, "a lot of companies have made these statements at overarching, broad levels. This is where we're seeing it come together."