(Black PR Wire) As we continue our journey to build a better Walmart for our associates and the communities we serve, we are working to advance racial equity in and outside of our company.

We recently put out our 2020 Culture, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Report that details our progress to create greater racial equity across society and in our company. We’ve also announced a new program that provides diverse and minority-owned businesses with convenient and consistent access to reliable funding sources. Last year, Walmart Inc. sourced more than $13.1 billion in goods and services from diverse suppliers and we want to continue to accelerate our commitment to diverse and minority-owned suppliers.

We’ve also made specific commitments within our marketing organization. We are transforming our marketing approach to embrace racial equity and ensure that (1) the broad and diverse set of customers we serve can see themselves represented in all the work that we put out to promote our brand and business and (2) we support and provide opportunities to diverse and minority creative and media companies across the advertising ecosystem. Some of these commitments and action steps include:

• We’re committing to deeper and longer-term relationships with minority-owned media partners. In particular, we will spend at minimum 2% of our total budget with Black-owned media businesses this year and 4% next year, and that figure will continue to grow.
• We’ve created a DE&I Review Board to ensure diversity and inclusion is at the forefront of all our creative product. This team leverages the identities, experiences, abilities and perspectives of our diverse group of associates to review every aspect of creative to strengthen the inclusivity of our messaging.
• To ensure we’re telling more inclusive stories, we’re focused on fostering diversity behind the camera. We’ve committed that 40% of all production directors and photographers will be women or under-represented minorities. And 40% of the crew will also be women or under-represented minorities.
• We are working with our agency partners to ensure their teams are reflective of the profoundly diverse market we serve. We have set an expectation with all our partners that their teams represent the diverse demographics of our country so that we can have different perspectives and better representation in our work.

We’ve always believed that we have a responsibility to be a force for good in the communities we serve. We know that responsibility has never been more important than it is today.

The recent initiatives and commitments outlined here to support diverse and minority-owned businesses are just the beginning. With our size, scale and buying power, we will continue to do more in marketing and across our organization.