Responsible Supply Chain

As a global company, AT&T relies on diverse suppliers around the world who are important to our ability to provide customers with the connectivity and services they count on.¹ We encourage our suppliers to pursue the same strict ethical and environmental standards to which we hold ourselves and work with them to advance sustainable business practices throughout our entire value chain.

For more information, see our Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures Report.

In 2023, AT&T took the following actions related to maintaining a responsible supply chain:

• We continued our engagement with suppliers on setting science-based targets to reduce GHG emissions in their operations and in AT&T’s value chain. We continue to push further beyond our 2024 Scope 3 science-based target of 50% of our suppliers by spend setting their own Scope 1 and 2 science-based targets. We met our Scope 3 science-based target two years ahead of schedule by ensuring that suppliers representing 53% of our spend have set science-based Scope 1 and 2 targets. The number increased to 55% in 2023.
• We held trainings for about 200 of our sourcing managers to improve their understanding of climate change, of the importance of reducing the environmental impacts in our supply chain, and of the contents of our Principles of Conduct for Suppliers. Doing so will enable our sourcing managers to better work with suppliers to support our enterprise-wide Corporate Responsibility (CR) goals and to help our suppliers with their own sustainability journeys.
• We launched our new supplier sustainability training, which supports our suppliers in calculating emissions and setting targets to reduce them. This training was completed by employees of suppliers collectively representing more than $6 billion in procurement spend.   
• We continued to foster supplier inclusion in the sourcing process through sponsored and outreach opportunities. Our supplier financing program enables all suppliers to leverage the credit power of AT&T. In 2023, the program benefited over 1,600 suppliers, including more than 200 certified women-, minority-, and disabled-veteran-owned business enterprises.  
• We continued to be a signatory of CDP’s Science-Based Targets (SBT) Campaign, as one way of emphasizing AT&T’s continued support for accelerating the adoption of science-based climate targets across our supply chain.

Supply Chain Management

We engage suppliers around the world⁵ to support our operating units. AT&T works with more than 25,000 suppliers to ensure a geographically diverse and resilient supply chain that reduces our risk of disruption in unforeseen situations. In 2023, we spent more than $60 billion on goods and services worldwide. 

Governance

• Board of Directors: The highest level of oversight of all AT&T activities, including those of our Global Supply Chain (GSC) organization, is provided by the Board of Directors. For more information about the Board of Directors and its committees, please see our Investor Relations website.
• Executive Vice President—GSC: Top managerial responsibility for supply chain management lies with the Executive Vice President—GSC, who is a member of the Corporate Responsibility (CR) Governance Council. Our CR Governance Council is led by our Chief Sustainability Officer and comprises senior executives representing business areas linked to CR topics deemed most material by our stakeholders. Each senior executive member represents their entire department. The council collaborates on a broad range of issues and includes a variety of perspectives. 
• Global Supply Chain: The GSC team manages the daily activities of AT&T’s supply chain, including requests for proposals and quotes, negotiations, contracting, contingency planning, and ongoing supplier management and evaluation. 
• Risk Management: Our Risk Management organization is responsible for preserving our assets and shareowner value by minimizing the financial effects of accidental losses, including activities related to our supply chain. Risk Management is responsible for establishing insurance requirements for contractors and vendors and reviewing insurance clauses within contracts. 

Supplier Conduct

AT&T encourages suppliers to reduce the environmental impact of their products and services, to support energy efficiencies and to respond to AT&T’s sustainability-related information requests. We communicate our expectations and standards and hold suppliers accountable to them through the following:

• Principles of Conduct for Suppliers: We outline our expectations for suppliers on a variety of issues in our Principles of Conduct for Suppliers. These principles align with international standards bodies such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) and cover topics such as freedom of association, collective bargaining, forced labor, child labor and discrimination. The Supplier Principles also encompass all CR considerations, such as health and safety, supplier inclusion and the circular economy. In addition:
  
  • AT&T suppliers should hold their subcontractors to the Supplier Principles. We require suppliers and subcontractors to comply with applicable laws and regulations, both domestic and foreign.
  • Suppliers must verify that they follow the Supplier Principles through a supplier self-attestation process every 18 to 24 months. To ensure compliance, we also survey a subset of suppliers based on their risk level, which is determined by reviewing their response to a high-risk activities questionnaire completed by our sourcing managers in cooperation with the relevant AT&T departments. The suppliers’ risk levels also determine the survey frequency.
  • The AT&T Supply Chain Sustainability Officer is available to consult with suppliers on questions about the Supplier Principles. 
• Environmental, Health & Safety Expectations: As outlined in GSC contractual agreements, AT&T expects suppliers to demonstrate robust environmental, health and safety (EHS) policies and practices, and operate in a manner consistent with our CR practices. Suppliers are expected to provide a safe and healthy workplace that meets international and national standards, laws, rules and regulations. They also must agree to share appropriate health and safety information and training with their employees. We expect suppliers to minimize the impact of emergency events by proactively developing business continuity plans and response procedures.

Supply Chain Due Diligence

Through our due diligence process, we screen potential suppliers prior to contract execution and monitor contracted suppliers to ensure that we do not conduct business with entities that pose risks to our operations, brand or reputation. We use a variety of approaches, including online and subscription resources, to assist in assessing and monitoring our suppliers for indications of financial, security and other risks. Our process includes:

• Initial Engagement: During our initial engagement process, suppliers complete an onboarding questionnaire. We deploy applicable risk mitigation, such as contract language and other controls, based on their responses and the presence of any high-risk indicators. We also perform business- and risk-specific compliance monitoring, as appropriate.
• Continuous Screening: We screen suppliers against the restricted parties lists published by the U.S. and other governments around the world to ensure we are not engaged with sanctioned individuals or entities. Our procurement and contracting processes also include a high-risk activities questionnaire that informs risk-management clauses in our supplier contracts. 
• Sharing Concerns: Suppliers and their employees can contact AT&T regarding social responsibility standards or concerns of noncompliance at inquiry@attsuppliers.com.

Responsible Procurement

Modern Slavery

AT&T is committed to assessing and addressing the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking within our business operations and supply chain. We are engaged in an ongoing assessment of the nature and extent of our exposure to the risk of modern slavery by reviewing areas of our supply chain that may be at higher risk. Teams engaged in this review effort include Corporate Responsibility, the Chief Compliance Office and Sustainable Supply Chain. Our efforts are also informed by engagement with industry peers through organizations such as the Joint Alliance for CSR (JAC). 

In addition, employees in specific job functions are trained on modern slavery and human trafficking risk and carry out reputational risk due diligence on new and existing vendors. When this team identifies information that could be a risk factor, they bring that information to supply chain leadership and appropriate legal teams for review. We describe our efforts in more detail in our Modern Slavery Statements.

Conflict Minerals

Conflict minerals pose human rights risks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and adjacent countries. We actively seek to address this issue through the following processes and actions: 

• Supplier Principles: Our Principles of Conduct for Suppliers set expectations that the products we sell will not contain conflict minerals that either directly or indirectly finance or benefit armed groups. We require our suppliers to comply with applicable conflict mineral rules.
• Audits: We reserve the right to audit for any known instances of noncompliance. We work with our suppliers to correct or remedy any identified noncompliance issues and will suspend or terminate contracts with suppliers that fail to demonstrate a commitment to this or any of our Supplier Principles.
• Industry Collaboration: We support industry efforts to address conflict minerals, such as through our participation in the JAC program.
• Oversight: Our GSC organization oversees applicable contracts such that they reference our Supplier Principles and our expectation that suppliers do not use conflict minerals in the products they provide to AT&T.

Supply Chain Resilience

In recent years, the world’s supply chain has faced unprecedented disruptions, highlighting the importance of improved supply chain resiliency. To address such challenges, we’re enhancing our capabilities to proactively respond to and manage risks by improving our visibility into the impact of events and situations on our suppliers. This effort includes: 

• Supply Chain Mapping: We implemented an extensive data collection program that has allowed us to map and better understand where our suppliers concentrate manufacturing of key products and components. With this improved visibility, we will continually evaluate our supplier base to ensure we are achieving an industry-leading cost structure balanced with risk mitigation and resiliency.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) Applications: We have integrated a spectrum of AI applications into our operations, including robotic automation, real-time routing and Internet of Things (IoT) sensing, to build a more resilient and responsive supply chain.    
• Diversification: Geopolitical actions such as tariffs and trade restrictions enacted over the past few years have encouraged us to ensure the resilience of our supply chain and prepare for supply chain impacts such as those that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, when 2022 restrictions were imposed on the export of high-performance chipsets to China from the U.S., we anticipated the impacts of counter-restrictions from China on manufacturing and device assembly processes. As a result, our suppliers diversified their manufacturing footprint to reduce their reliance on a single country.  

Supplier Environmental Sustainability

As part of our efforts to reduce our environmental impact within our value chain, we work with suppliers individually to help them set their own science-based Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG targets. In 2023, we hosted a training for suppliers that emphasized the importance of using reporting and sustainability disclosures to reduce the environmental impact of their operations. The participating suppliers represented more than $6 billion in annual spend.

Strategic Supplier Assessments

We annually engage our strategic suppliers in sustainability assessments. Through these assessments, in conjunction with supplier evaluations, we have exceeded our 2025 goal to integrate sustainability performance metrics into sourcing decisions for 80% of our spend for the third consecutive year.² Our supplier assessment activities include:

• CDP Climate Change Questionnaire: We utilize the CDP Climate Change Questionnaire as part of our sustainability assessments. CDP responses provide a holistic view into our suppliers’ sustainability performance. The survey includes questions around areas such as sustainability program governance, risks and opportunities, emissions accounting methodology and data, biodiversity and more. We also request that our suppliers provide additional information about emissions allocated specifically to AT&T, product-level emissions data, and areas for collaboration. In 2023, 240 suppliers reported data to AT&T through CDP. For more information about how we manage our Scope 3 emissions, please see our CDP response and our Climate Change & Greenhouse Gas Emissions issue brief.
• Joint Alliance for CSR (JAC) Audits: AT&T is a member of JAC, an association of telecom operators aiming to verify, assess and improve supplier responsibility in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry. The JAC process involves a coordinated on-site audit and implementing appropriate corrective actions to improve CR-related conditions at the site. JAC also shares resources, including audit results and corrective actions, among members to promote best practices within the global ICT supply chain. JAC utilizes a common audit framework based on the SA8000 and ISO 41001 Standards. The audit covers topics such as child labor, forced labor, health and safety, freedom of association, non-discrimination, disciplinary practices, working hours, wages and compensation, the environment, and business ethics.
  • AT&T is committed to JAC’s collaborative audit initiative and conducts audits annually within our supply chain. We engage selected suppliers through JAC with on-site audits conducted by globally recognized, independent auditors at the suppliers’ manufacturing and assembly facilities.
  • Through JAC, AT&T also uses Mobile Worker Surveys to supplement on-site factory audits. These surveys enable two-way communication directly between auditors and factory workers without management intervention. With the surveys, we are able to increase insight and visibility into potential human rights issues that would otherwise go unreported.
  • The results of our 2023 JAC audits and surveys included:
    • JAC audited 137 factory locations (of which 123 were JAC-led audits and 14 were RBA-led Validated Assessment Program (VAP) audits),⁴ including 78 at AT&T suppliers’ facilities. AT&T led a combined eight audits and Mobile Worker Surveys of AT&T suppliers’ factory locations. Each audited AT&T supplier was provided a corrective action plan based on the findings of the audit.
    • Of the 123 JAC-led audits conducted in 2023, 93% resulted in corrective actions and mutually agreed-upon corrective action plans, due to audit findings. 84% of corrective actions were in the following four areas: Health & Safety (45%), Working Hours (18%), Environment (11%), and Wages and Compensation (10%). 
  • Corrective actions resulting from the audits are managed with the relevant suppliers to ensure resolutions are implemented. If a factory receives a result that raises concern, they may be reaudited after one year.

Supplier Inclusion

AT&T is proud to be a longstanding leader in supplier inclusion. We were one of the first corporations in the U.S. to establish a supplier inclusion program. We launched it in 1968 as a response to the civil unrest and economic disparities many diverse businesses were encountering. Over the last 55 years, we have invested $242 billion with businesses and enterprises owned by underrepresented individuals. In 2023, we achieved $11.9 billion in total procurement expenditures with underrepresented business enterprises.

Supplier Inclusion Programming

Our Supplier Inclusion Program allows for suppliers from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences to be identified, considered and mentored throughout the sourcing process. Our Supplier Inclusion Program managers are dedicated to working with our sourcing teams and business units to identify areas of opportunity and to include businesses in competitive bids. Examples of these efforts include: 

• Increasing the Pipeline: We interview prospective suppliers at regional and national supplier inclusion events and share important information and criteria about doing business with AT&T. We work with several business inclusion organizations, such as the National Minority Supplier Development Council, to meet new potential suppliers. In 2023, AT&T vetted and provided feedback to more than 400 diverse suppliers and sponsored or participated in about 300 in-person and virtual supplier inclusion outreach events..
• Prime Supplier Program: Our Prime Supplier Program is an essential effort within our Supplier Inclusion Program. Through this program, we work with our largest suppliers to encourage them to build a pipeline of inclusive subcontractors. A dedicated supplier inclusion manager works with our prime suppliers to consider voluntary inclusion efforts, develop strategies, and track and review results.
• Supplier Financing Program: Our supplier financing program enables suppliers to leverage the credit power of AT&T. Our suppliers benefit by freeing up additional cash flow at a low interest rate that many are not eligible to receive at their financial institutions. In 2023, the program benefited more than 1,600 businesses, including over 200 certified women-, minority-, and disabled-veteran-owned business enterprises.

To learn more about our supplier inclusion programs, including Supplier Advocacy and our Business Development and Education program, visit the AT&T Supplier Inclusion Program website.

Supply Chain Recognition

In 2023, our Supplier Inclusion Program received the following awards:

• Women's Business Council Southwest – Corporation of the Year
• Greater Women's Business Council Georgia – Top Corporation
• Fair360 (formerly DiversityInc) – #1 Corporation for Supplier Diversity
• Minority & Multicultural Business News – Buyer Recognition
• U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce – Corporation of the Year
• Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council – Corporation of the Year
• DiversityPlus Magazine – Top 15 Chief Procurement Officer

AT&T is committed to doing our part to address responsible business practices associated with our supply chain. We will continue to monitor our supply chains for sustainability risks, and support our suppliers in reducing their climate-related impacts, through the following efforts: 

• AT&T was recently elected to the JAC Board of Directors. Our board participation indicates a redoubling of our commitment to JAC’s mission and the expansion of its efforts into environmental sustainability and supporting supplier sustainability programming. 
• In order to support our emissions reduction plans, AT&T recognizes the need to collect and utilize improved emissions data from our suppliers. We continue to evaluate supplier-specific data to be incorporated into our emissions accounting as well as supporting our suppliers in improving their own emissions accounting through training.
• In early 2024, AT&T released new Supplier Artificial Intelligence Requirements, outlining the requirements for our suppliers—and their subcontractors—when creating and using AI tools, systems, solutions and activities on AT&T’s behalf. These standards encourage suppliers to act responsibly and build appropriate frameworks to use, design, develop and deploy AI in a transparent and controllable manner.  

• AT&T Investor Relations website
• AT&T Modern Slavery Statements
• AT&T Principles of Conduct for Suppliers
• AT&T Supplier Artificial Intelligence Requirements
• AT&T Supplier Inclusion website
• CDP
• CDP's Science-Based Targets Campaign
• DiversityPlus Magazine
• Fair360
• Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council
• Greater Women's Business Council
• Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• JAC
• Minority & Multicultural Business News
• National Minority Supplier Development Council
• Validated Assessment Program
• Women's Business Council Southwest