SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGY
Our strategy is focused on championing a culture of EESG among our employees while also promoting supplier diversity and improving our suppliers' performance. We work to implement our strategy while demonstrating high standards for ethics and integrity – all with the goal of driving business unit success and creating value for FirstEnergy.
Sustainable Supply Chain
Partner with suppliers to achieve our goals and demonstrate the value of a sustainable supply chain
Supplier Diversity
Expand our roster of diverse suppliers through a targeted diversity program
Culture of EESG
Empower employees to champion our EESG initiatives and create a culture that values EESG
Supplier Performance
Develop a program focused on improving supplier performance, achieving goals and managing supplier risks
BUILDING A MORE DIVERSE SUPPLY CHAIN
Diversity is a core value inherent to our company's business operations and increasing supplier diversity is a major component of our Supply Chain group's business objectives and long-range strategies. It helps us to provide business opportunities to traditionally underrepresented suppliers and advance inclusive economic growth in the communities we serve.
Our Supplier Diversity Program helps to ensure the development of mutually advantageous relationships with businesses owned and operated by minorities, women, veterans, members of the LGBTQ+ community, individuals with disabilities and individuals in HUBZones. Through the program, we strive to make our supplier base as diverse as our customer base, and we work with governmental agencies, diverse business advocacy groups and peer companies to identify diverse suppliers for potential opportunities. We also strive to continually increase our dollars spent on diverse suppliers, and over the past three years (2019-2021), we have exceeded our targets for diverse supplier spend. Continuing these efforts, we'll work toward our goal of achieving 20% of our Supply Chain spend with diverse suppliers by 2025.
In 2021, we launched our Diverse Supplier Development program, which is a two-year program designed to provide minority-owned businesses in our service area with support and coaching from FirstEnergy supply chain experts and business unit leaders. Candidates are vetted to help ensure there is an opportunity for them to work with FirstEnergy as a direct Tier I or Tier II supplier. The program includes training modules on topics such as working safely with FirstEnergy, understanding the terms and conditions of their contract, mastering our supplier bid technology and more.
WOMEN'S BUSINESS ENTERPRISE CENTER-EAST (WBEC-EAST)
In recognition of its commitment to supplier diversity and women-owned businesses, FirstEnergy has been presented with the 2021 "Regional Council Member Done Deals" award by the WBEC-East.
As advocates for women business owners, WBEC-East offers training and education for entrepreneurs and provides certification for businesses across Pennsylvania, Delaware and Southern New Jersey. FirstEnergy serves as a corporate member on WBEC-East's Supplier Diversity Council.
Additionally, the program links the suppliers with relevant business unit leadership to facilitate relationship building. By the end of the program, participants will have worked with FirstEnergy's business units and supply chain experts to develop an understanding of our supplier standards, management system and bid process. Our goal is to position these suppliers for success and improve their probability of winning supply contracts.
We successfully brought five minority-owned businesses into the inaugural 2021 Diverse Supplier Development program and look forward to identifying candidates for the 2022 program.
For additional metrics on our Supply Chain spend, please visit our EESG data table.
INCREASING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF SUPPLY CHAIN
FirstEnergy is an active member of the Electric Utility Industry Sustainable Supply Chain Alliance, a group of utility companies and industry suppliers that work together to improve environmental performance and advance best practices.
As part of participation in the Alliance, we implemented the addition of a sustainability section in our supply chain RFPs. This section comprises questions that help us to assess suppliers' focus on reducing environmental impacts.
ETHICS, COMPLIANCE AND OVERSIGHT OF SUPPLY CHAIN
Ethics and integrity are central to our Supply Chain group. Our new Supplier Code of Conduct, The Power of Collaboration, establishes business standards our suppliers must meet in their day‐to‐day activities and reinforces our expectation that suppliers use good judgment and act with integrity in their business dealings with FirstEnergy. The Supplier Code of Conduct is embedded in the purchase orders we establish with each of our suppliers.
Our Supply Chain group has improved supply chain management and oversight functions. These changes enable the integration and centralization of our procurement, analytics and standards and material operations functions, creating better coordination of material fulfillment and more strategic alignment to drive cost savings.
In addition, we’ve developed stronger oversight of consulting agreements. Supply Chain is implementing a Spend Control Tower (SCT) for select supplier categories including consulting and, professional services that will determine how and when our employees enter into consulting agreements. As part of the process, employee spend requests in these supplier categories require detailed information for review, including safety, compliance and risk considerations, as well as a detailed cost analysis.