Procurement and Supplier Diversity

Strengthening the contract readiness of diverse and local California firms, including women, people of color, veterans, LGBTQ and disabled suppliers, who often face barriers and lack access to supply chain opportunities, can help ensure that rebuilding a California strong supply chain benefits ALL California firms.

We are committed to strengthening inclusive procurement strategies and resilient supply chains. We intend to be champions in our respective industries and leverage our corporate buying power to fight historic inequities and strengthen diverse and/or local California businesses. Accordingly, we resolve to:

Increase Diverse and/or Local Sourcing
We will support diversity, equity and inclusion in our procurement and take necessary steps to increase our dollars spent with diverse and/or local California businesses. We will strive to achieve impact and share outcomes by continuously assessing our sourcing, benchmarking our spending, and developing multi-year sustainable plans to exceed internal benchmarks. We will internally track and elevate relevant highlights and successes.

Improve Contract Accessibility
We commit to finding ways to better support diverse and/or local California firms as they navigate our procurement process to improve access to contract opportunities. This might include:

1. Delivering transparent systems and clear points of contact to share contract opportunities and projected demand, and to provide more clarity and direction to vendors;
2. Supporting internal or external outreach and technical assistance programs to attract new vendors, and provide education, training, mentorship and teaming programs to help diverse, local California businesses get contract ready and access opportunities; and/or,
3. Supporting quick payments, providing working capital solutions, or partnering with capital providers to improve access to capital for vendors.

Serve as Leaders
We believe that sharing knowledge and best practices with the Source Diverse Source Local network can strengthen the supply chain and expand opportunities for new vendors. We will be champions for diverse and/or local California procurement and leverage our relationships with others in our industries to build momentum for the initiative and recruit more pledges. We will also amplify successes in platforms within our networks to highlight and uplift diverse and/or local California businesses.