Edison Electric Institute (EEI) today honored three of its member electric companies for their work in advancing purchasing opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses within the electric power industry. 

Southern California Edison won the industry’s overall excellence award, and Georgia Power and We Energies were each recognized for their innovative efforts to encourage diversity among their company’s suppliers.

"These electric companies deserve praise for their efforts to expand purchasing opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses," said EEI President Thomas R. Kuhn. "Their efforts to broaden their supplier base keep them among the nation’s most competitive electric and natural gas delivery companies in the country. Their efforts also help the U.S. electric power industry to be among the strongest industries in the world."

In winning the overall excellence award, Southern California Edison (SCE) was recognized for its consistent, organization-wide commitment to encouraging diversity among the company’s suppliers. SCE’s efforts to both reach a wide variety of ethnic groups, women, and veterans, and its work in mentoring and training those suppliers, were particularly significant.

Electric companies earn the EEI Supplier Diversity Innovation award by setting a standard for other companies to follow. Georgia Power created a new approach to diversifying its supplier base by using its executives and consultants across its business units and by its aggressive goal setting. We Energies earned their innovation award by creating a strong supplier diversity policy statement signed by its CEO, and by successfully seeking out and using minority suppliers for its finance, investing, and banking services.

For the past 27 years, EEI has recognized those electric companies who have demonstrated leadership in advancing purchasing opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses. Contracts with power companies during this time have gone from being written for such traditional services as office supplies and temporary personnel, to critical industry areas such as underground and overhead line construction, meter reading, nuclear engineering services, construction management, and pension fund management. For more information about the industry’s supplier diversity program, please visit www.eei.org/diversity.