Supplier fairness certification is one of the tools used to promote equity and inclusion in supply chains and the business ecosystem. It allows historically marginalized groups, including minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned and LGBTQ-owned businesses to participate in the marketplace.
All of Fair360, formerly DiversityInc’s Top 10 Companies for Diversity, track the number of vendors with certification for diverse groups.
“This isn’t a program that’s built on a handout. It really is built on strategic sourcing,” said Constance Jones, Senior Director of Network Success at the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC). “It’s built on being able to communicate an issue with people that traditionally didn’t look like their suppliers but have the bandwidth and the knowledge and are able to actually fix the problem. They just may need a little bit more funding to help them understand how to make that a realization.”
