The state’s public utility regulator announced that it expanded efforts to diversify its energy, telephone and water suppliers, adding businesses owned by disabled people and setting goals for suppliers owned by LGBTQ people.
The California Public Utility Commission’s Supplier Diversity Program has led to the agency procuring more than 30 percent of its utility supply from businesses owned by women, people of color, veterans and LGBTQ people.
The commission voted unanimously April 7 to add businesses owned by people with disabilities to the program as well as public sector utility providers and electric service providers.
The commission also voted to set specific goals of LGBTQ-owned businesses, increasing from 0.5 percent of procurement this year to 1.5 percent by 2024.
CPUC staff plan to conduct outreach in the coming months to utility-providing businesses owned by LGBTQ people to encourage their participation in the Supplier Diversity Program.
“The revisions to our Supplier Diversity Program reflect the ongoing changes to the electric retail provider landscape to ensure that we evolve with the changes to California’s utility sector and a clean energy future,” CPUC President Alice Busching Reynolds said in a statement.
Utilities and other businesses included in the program will also be required to report on the diversity of their workforces and governing boards, according to the CPUC.