Our Partners
Being a good partner with our communities also means forming partnerships with businesses in those communities.
We’re working hard to expand the number of small, local, and diverse companies we look to for the goods and services we rely on.
We believe in making progress, not just promises. In 2022, we spent $1.4 billion with diverse suppliers — a 33% increase over our record-breaking year in 2021. That translates to 16.9% of our total procurement spending (1.7 percentage points higher than in 2021), bringing us closer to our commitment to reach 20% by 2025.
Supplier Diversity Matters
For us, true DE&I is about more than our employees. It involves making sure we conduct our core business in a way that is inclusive. Our supply chain should involve a broad mix of businesses, including a healthy percentage owned and operated by diverse members of our communities. Supplier diversity matters to our customers, to our communities, and to our stakeholders. We know it can be transformational for individuals, families, and communities — and that its benefits can last for generations.
As with other aspects of DE&I, doing the right thing on supplier diversity also happens to be good for business. It shows our customers and communities that we are committed to their well-being. And a wider pool of suppliers makes the bidding process more competitive: New bidders often bring greater innovation and ingenuity to the table than entrenched incumbents. That’s not just theory: Evidence shows that companies with a strong commitment to supplier diversity earn higher returns on procurement investment.
Relying on local suppliers strengthens local economies. The ripple effects can include more jobs, more infrastructure investment, more resources for basic services, and more investment in education and worker training — all of which benefit Dominion Energy as well.
“Dominion Energy's future looks bright, thanks in no small part to our network of outstanding small, local, and diverse suppliers. As we lead the way into the clean-energy future, we intend to extend that network even further so we and our suppliers can prosper together.”
Carter Reid, Executive Vice President, Chief of Staff and President – Dominion Energy Services
People from a variety of diverse backgrounds live in the communities we serve. When we hire diverse businesses, we help these neighborhoods become vibrant and successful. When it comes to our commitment to working with partners and suppliers as diverse as the communities we serve – Dominion Energy is All In.
We rely on dedicated, competitive, ethical suppliers in order to produce and deliver safe and reliable electricity and gas to our millions of customers.
Partnerships
We’re eager to work with other organizations that promote diverse businesses, and we reach out to them when we’re looking for suppliers. To date, we have formed partnerships with more than 25 advocacy organizations, from Hampton Roads Business Outreach — Virginia’s first LGBT chamber of commerce — to the Salt Lake City Pacific Island Business Alliance to the Women’s Business Enterprise Council Ohio River Valley. We seek to support such organizations by serving on boards or steering committees, including those of The Metropolitan Business League in Richmond, Virginia, the Carolinas-Virginia Minority Supplier Development Council, and the Women’s Business Enterprise Council – Greater D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, and New York.
Other partners include:
- National Minority Supplier Development Council
- Women’s Business Enterprise National Council
- National LGBT Chamber of Commerce
- Disability:IN
- National Veteran Business Development Council
- Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce
- Local chambers of commerce
- Local advocacy groups
While suppliers can self-certify as small or diverse businesses, we encourage potential suppliers to obtain certification from independent third parties, including the organizations above, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Small Business Administration, and similar organizations at the state and local level.
Results
Executing our supplier-diversity strategy has enabled us to increase performance year after year.
Supplier Diversity Spend Trend
$Billion
Supplier Diversity Spend Percentage Roadmap
Outreach
To maximize our outreach to potential business partners, we organize our own supplier diversity events. In 2022, we hosted 338 diverse suppliers representing 279 companies at Convergence, our annual supplier-diversity fair where Dominion Energy employees can engage and connect with prospective suppliers.
Our leaders from each of our business segments also met with diverse suppliers during Supplier Showcase Meetings. Supplier Showcase Meetings are one-on-one virtual meetings with diverse suppliers where decision makers learn more about supplier capabilities and discuss potential upcoming business opportunities.
Case Studies
Wize Solutions
Wize Solutions of Abingdon, Virginia, launched its robotic process automation (RPA) service with a single employee dedicated to Dominion Energy. Since then, the company — a small business led by Wendy Marquez, a Hispanic woman — has grown its RPA segment to 10.
While a small town with fewer than 10,000 residents might not seem the optimal place to start a high-tech firm, Wendy saw an opportunity to employ the college-educated talent that might normally go elsewhere to find work. She says she and Dominion Energy share a commitment to creating economic development in rural communities. “We're unified by that commitment”, Wendy says. “And I think we would always be grateful to Dominion Energy for giving us a start.”
TI Verbatim Consulting
In 2015, when Jean Ibañez Payne left her job as Manager for the Diversity and Inclusion program at Dominion Energy to start her own company, she did not realize she would become one of Dominion’s Energy’s diverse suppliers. Sticking to what she loves — “Helping people work better together,” which is also her company’s motto — she launched TI Verbatim Consulting (TIVC). In support of Dominion’s Energy’s effort to deliver safe, reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy, TIVC provides multi-language translation services to the company across its service area. Among other things, TIVC translates extreme weather event press releases and social media content, website material, brochures, and forms. Jean says, “I am so grateful to continue to support Dominion Energy’s mission as a vendor and admire their commitment to small businesses such as TIVC.”
TIVC is a Hispanic woman-owned, service-disabled-veteran-owned business with a diverse workforce across the United States which provides cultural assessment, DE&I, leadership development, coaching, workforce training, and language services to numerous federal agencies and commercial entities. “My desire to make a change really goes back to being able to walk the talk. That’s what I love most about Dominion Energy — their mission and what they stand for. The work we do aligns well with Dominion Energy’s commitment to DE&I.”
To learn more about the important value our diverse partners are bringing to Dominion Energy and our communities, visit: Supplier-Diversity | Dominion Energyopens in a new window.
