Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) today announced that it spent $2.1 billion with diverse suppliers in 2014, accounting for 41 percent of its total procurement. For the third straight year, diverse suppliers accounted for $2 billion-plus of the utility’s spend and more than 40 percent of the utility’s total spend for the second year in a row.
In addition, PG&E surpassed the California Public Utilities Commission’s diverse spending goal of 21.5 percent for the ninth consecutive year, spent more than $1 billion with women business enterprises (WBEs).
“Diversity is one of the cornerstones of PG&E’s success in our mission to provide safe, reliable and affordable energy. We’ve worked diligently for 34 years to build the supplier diversity program. We maintained our spending last year at levels on par with the strongest in our history. We are aiming to do more, through our technical assistance program, to strengthen the competitive profile of small and diverse businesses,” said PG&E President Chris Johns in the 2014 Supplier Diversity Annual Report.
PG&E has been committed to supporting a diverse supply chain for more than three decades. The company has developed one of the leading supplier diversity programs in the energy industry.
PG&E’s dedication to supplier diversity is shown in numerous ways. For more than five years, in addition to maintaining high levels of spend with diverse suppliers, PG&E has focused on elevating the quality of its supplier diversity program by addressing key success factors for suppliers:
- PG&E was the first utility and one of the initial 26 companies to participate in President Obama’s SupplierPay Pledge, which encourages large corporations to develop ways to assist small business suppliers address financial challenges.
- In 2014, PG&E introduced “Diverse Suppliers are Cyber-Secure,” a program to raise cybersecurity awareness within the small and diverse business community by highlighting the risks associated with cybercrime, and resources to help mitigate risks.
- PG&E has actively supported the development of its diverse suppliers through mentorship, scholarships, opportunity identification, and value chain analysis. In addition, PG&E’s formal Supplier Development Program has matched 24 diverse suppliers with PG&E senior executive mentors.
- In 2012, PG&E was the first utility to add LGBT-owned enterprises, certified by the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), to its supplier diversity program.
PG&E’s Supplier Diversity Department has produced many industry-leading events to support diverse businesses. Some of the most popular have been workshops that provide networking opportunities and useful information to help enterprises compete for PG&E’s business.
On Feb. 23, the utility held a targeted business workshop for African American-owned enterprises. On March 2, PG&E played hosts to the first LGBT Business Builder sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration and the NGLCC. Last December, PG&E joined the SBA in convening the second “Boots to Business” workshop for disabled veteran-owned enterprises (DVBE).
PG&E’s diversity programs have received numerous honors (partial list):
- Recognized this year by Black Enterprise as one of the “40 Best Companies for Diversity.” The publication cited PG&E’s Supplier Diversity Program as one of the company’s strengths.
- DiversityBusiness.com named PG&E as one of the “Top-50 Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities in 2015.” The utility was recognized for providing business opportunities to diverse American business owners.
- Received a perfect 100 percent rating on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2015 Corporate Equality Index for its consistently strong commitment to embrace diversity and inclusion.
- The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce named PG&E to its “2014 Million Dollar Club” for spending a record $554 million with Hispanic-owned businesses in 2013.
- The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) recognized PG&E on its 2014 list of “America’s Top Corporations for Women’s Business Enterprises.”
PG&E’s Supplier Diversity website contains more information about the program. The site also provides details on how to become a certified diverse supplier.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with more than 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation’s cleanest energy to nearly 16 million people in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit www.pge.com/ and www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/index.page.
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What Diverse Suppliers Are Saying About Working With PG&E
“As part of the PG&E Supplier Development Program, Campos EPC has been given an opportunity to be mentored by PG&E executives and to grow the volume of our services across multiple business units. PG&E has worked diligently to promote Campos EPC to its industry network/partners, as demonstrated by their recent sponsorship of Campos EPC into the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) Corporate Plus Program. In addition, PG&E has worked hand-in-hand with Campos EPC to secure our ISO 9001/14001 certification in 2015.”
-- Marco Campos, Managing Principal/Founder, Campos EPC, LLC
Campos
EPC was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Denver with offices in
San Ramon, Los Angeles and San Diego. Nearly 33 percent of its employees
are based in California. Campos EPC employs a staff of highly-qualified
engineering, procurement, and construction professionals specializing in
providing services for oil and gas pipeline/facility organizations.
“PG&E is at the forefront of supplier diversity and understands diversity promotes inclusiveness which directly benefits communities and local economies. Through our work with PG&E over the last five years, our revenues have increased three-fold allowing us to employ a culturally diverse staff that mirrors California’s demographics, gain recognition throughout the company and beyond, and launch our own supplier diversity program. PG&E’s Supplier Diversity Program is truly a win-win.”
-- Tracy Craig, President, Craig Communications Inc.
Based
in Oakland and Richmond, Craig
Communications provides community outreach, education and
communication consulting services in support of large, technically
complex, multi-stakeholder projects with a focus on risk and reputation
management. Founded in 2000, this woman-owned business credits much of
its growth to their partnership with PG&E. Craig Communications was also
named PG&E’s 2014 Small Business Supplier of the Year.
“PG&E has been incredibly supportive, including us in its supplier diversity program, offering mentoring, education and training to help my business grow and be the best, and safest, supplier possible. Today, PG&E is including Blair, Church & Flynn in competitive opportunities to support land services, power production, corporate real estate and transmission and distribution. I am grateful for their commitment to supplier diversity.”
-- David Mowry, PE, President and CEO, Blair, Church & Flynn
Consulting Engineers
Blair,
Church & Flynn Consulting Engineers is a Native American-owned
professional consulting engineering firm offering comprehensive services
including land surveying, planning, engineering, landscape architecture
and construction management. Since 1958, the Clovis-based (Central
California) firm has been a trusted advisor to their clients throughout
the state in supporting the development and operation of their most
critical infrastructure and facilities.
Contacts:
Tony Khing, 415-973-5930