EEI Announces 2022 Business Diversity Award Winners
EEI Announces 2022 Business Diversity Award Winners
Earlier this month, EEI announced the winners of its annual Business Diversity Awards. The awards were judged by an esteemed panel of energy industry professionals and recognize companies for their outstanding efforts to advance purchasing opportunities for diverse suppliers, including minority-, women-, veteran-, and LGBTQ-owned businesses, within investor-owned electric companies. The winners were selected over a two-year period.
- Southern Company has earned the Excellence Award, which recognizes stellar contributions in diverse supplier inclusion, development, growth, partnership, and economic impact. Southern Company’s accomplishments include active CEO and executive-level involvement; embedded supplier diversity strategy teams across the enterprise; diverse supplier mentoring and training focused on supply chain equity, social justice, and cybersecurity; participation in the City of Birmingham’s Valuing Inclusion to Accelerate and Lift (VITAL) program, which is designed to grow spending with minority- and women-owned suppliers; and the Move to Equity Framework, which includes a diverse supplier investment fund benefitting diverse communities and historically Black colleges and universities.
- Entergy has earned the Innovation Award, which recognizes the implementation and execution of innovation in supplier diversity practices, as well as proven successes and benefits for diverse suppliers and for the company. Entergy spent $1.3 billion with diverse firms in 2021, more than double the amount the company had spent in 2018, and the amount spent by its prime suppliers with diverse suppliers in 2020 and 2021 totaled $578 million.
- Franklin Energy has earned the Prime Supplier Leadership Award, which is presented to an EEI member company prime supplier that has made impressive strides in diverse supplier utilization and development. Franklin Energy, which delivers energy efficiency programs for more than 60 electric companies and government partners across the United States and Canada, has a comprehensive approach to supplier diversity.
- KDM Engineering has earned the Diverse Business Award, which is presented to a diverse supplier that does superior work and supports fellow diverse suppliers in its supply chain. KDM Engineering’s diversity and inclusion is supported by its contracts and the diversity in its workplace, where 32 percent of its employees are women. Other key contributions include its ability to build long-standing strategic partnerships that are mutually beneficial for KDM Engineering and for prime suppliers.
“This year’s Business Diversity Award winners have exceptionally demonstrated their commitments to providing an inclusive and diverse supplier network," said EEI President Tom Kuhn. “By continuing to be leaders, these companies are creating a better future for all and are showcasing the talents of the many suppliers that directly impact the electric power industry and the communities in which we live and serve.”