Program Expanded Opportunities for Hundreds of Small and Diverse Businesses, Helping to Promote Economic Prosperity
San Diego Gas & Electric’s (SDG&E) procurement program generated $2.59 billion in direct economic impact in 2023, contracting with more than 2,000 businesses for goods and services to deliver on the company’s mission to serve the 3.7 million people in its service area with increasingly clean, safe and reliable energy infrastructure.
More than 43% of SDG&E’s total expenditures were with diverse suppliers – enterprises owned by minorities, women, LGBT individuals, service-disabled veterans and persons with disabilities, according to the company’s annual supplier diversity report submitted recently to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). Nearly 600, or a third of the suppliers who did business with SDG&E in 2023, were diverse businesses. In 2023, SDG&E’s spending with diverse businesses reached $450.6 million in San Diego County and $950.7 million in California. For the 19th consecutive year, SDG&E has not only met but surpassed the CPUC’s supplier diversity goal.
“We are laser-focused on maximizing every dollar for our customers, while also growing economic opportunities for small and diverse businesses in our re
gion,” said SDG&E CEO Caroline Winn. “Championing people by creating opportunities through diversity, equity and inclusion is one of our core values.”
SDG&E contracts with suppliers for a wide range of goods and services, everything from vegetation management, undergrounding, civil engineering and electric construction to IT, fire prevention, project management and material procurement and transport. Since launching its supplier diversity program in the 1980s, SDG&E has helped many small businesses grow into primes. Some of the company’s diverse primes are paying it forward by serving as mentors to diverse subcontractors.
Last year, for the first time, SDG&E engaged Rancho Tree Service, a Minority Business Enterprise, as a prime contractor to provide vegetation management services – an important component of the company’s Wildfire Mitigation Plan.
“We are a family-owned business, and we are proud of our local operation and the jobs we have created through our vegetation management work with SDG&E,” said Jose De La Cruz, owner of Rancho Tree Service. “Our crews help keep local communities safe from wildfires by trimming and clearing trees, bushes and other plants to prevent them from coming into contact with our electric infrastructure, such as power lines.”
“Large employers like SDG&E play a significant role in sustaining and growing our region’s economy because of the large volume of goods and services they purchase,” said Mark Cafferty, president and chief executive officer of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation. “Our research has shown that if major companies make small shifts in procurement to direct more spending locally, it can help create thousands of jobs and add tens of millions of dollars to the local economy.”
SDG&E continues to grow its diverse supplier pool through collaboration with community-based organizations and business associations. Learn more about how to do business with SDG&E at sdge.com/SupplierDiversity.