California American Water Spends More Than $42 Million With Diverse Businesses In 2020

Spend represents nearly 40 percent of company’s total expenditures

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--California American Water met and exceeded its diverse supplier goal for 2020, by doing nearly 40 percent or $42 million of its business with minority, women, LGBTQ+ and/or disabled veteran-owned businesses during the year.

The California Public Utilities Commission current diverse business spend goal for regulated is 21.5 percent annually. California American Water far exceeded this goal and has become a state leader in this important endeavor.

“We’ve long maintained that our employees should reflect the communities we serve,” California American Water President Rich Svindland said. “We also believe this to be true of those who we do business with. I am very proud of our team. We are now doing nearly 40 percent of our spending with diverse members of our community, which is an important piece of the solution in rectify past disenfranchisement.”

California American Water has made doing business with diverse suppliers one of its core missions. Every year the company conducts extensive outreach campaigns to local, state and national businesses to ensure they are properly registered as a diverse enterprise in California. The company also works with these businesses to ensure they have visibility in the candidate pools utilities consult when looking to hire contractors and other third-party businesses.

California American Water also holds an annual diverse supplier conference and showcase which brings together the company’s business managers as well as its major contractors with diverse vendors to be interviewed, to collaborate and to demonstrate their goods and services.

“To achieve 40-percent diverse spend comes only after years of hard work and committed outreach,” said California American Water’s Business Performance Director Ed Simon, who heads up the company’s diverse supplier mission. “But the payoff of seeing the difference being made in the communities we serve makes it all worth it.”

Some highlights from the company’s 2020 campaign include.

• The company added 27 new diverse suppliers and spending with new suppliers that exceeded $2 million.

• The company’s inaugural Partnering Forward to Success Program resulted in prime suppliers spending more than $5 million with diverse subcontractors.

• The company now has 24 Master Service Agreements with diverse suppliers.

• The company added an additional diverse supplier to its vendors with spend greater than $100,000. Two of the larger spend vendors were diverse and had combined revenues topping $13 million.

California American Water is looking to capitalize on last year’s success and to continue to serve as a leader in this important mission.

About California American Water: California American Water, a subsidiary of American Water (NYSE: AWK), provides high-quality and reliable water and/or wastewater services to more than 880,000 California residents. Information regarding California American Water’s service areas can be found on the company’s website www.californiaamwater.com.

About American Water: With a history dating back to 1886, American Water is the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. publicly traded water and wastewater utility company. The company employs more than 7,000 dedicated professionals who provide regulated and market-based drinking water, wastewater and other related services to 15 million people in 46 states. American Water provides safe, clean, affordable and reliable water services to our customers to help make sure we keep their lives flowing. For more information, visit amwater.com and follow American Water on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.