In 2020 , Meta announced their public commitment to invest a minimum of US $ 1bn with diverse-owned companies and US $ 300mn with black-owned businesses

In 2021 , Meta recorded a US $ 1.4bn spend with diverse-owned companies and a US $ 306mn with U . S . black-owned businesses , exceeding its annual goal it has expanded across countries and regions ever since .

“ In 2020 , we launched our efforts in APAC , EMEA and LATAM , and the real focus was on making as big an impact for diverseowned businesses as possible ,” she says . Sands knows that one of the main reasons that Meta has been so impactful is because of the way that the company communicates concerning supplier diversity within the business .

“ Everyone at Meta is a buyer ,” she says . “ We want Meta employees to be intentional in the way that they spend their budgets , and I think that ’ s a big part of the reason why we ’ ve been one of the fastest growing supplier diversity programs in the whole world .”

Last year , Meta was inducted into the Billion Dollar Round Table ( BDR ). “ It was an incredible achievement for the team globally , but we ’ ve still got more to do , and much more of an impact to make ,” she says .

As an organisation with such weight , Meta is perfectly oriented to have a serious impact in supplier diversity on a global scale , and we can already see its influence .

Supplier diversity is the branch of DEI that particularly focuses on the economic aspect of the grand project ; recognising that economic empowerment is closely tied to , and indivisible from social empowerment . In the end , it all goes back to first principles .

“ Opportunities shouldn ’ t be based on historical systemic biases and supplier diversity really challenges that ,” says Sands . “ For me , that ’ s why it ’ s so important to hold companies to account in terms of how they spend their money ; and consequently how they affect broader

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