Supply Chain Management at Enbridge
Originally published in Enbridge's 2021 Sustainability Report Report
A strong, diverse supplier community is essential to the resiliency and agility of our supply chain and contributes to the vitality of the communities where we live and work. Our contractors and suppliers are often the face of Enbridge and help drive our business and ESG performance; so we need them to be aligned with our values and goals.
We aim to work with suppliers who strive for sustainability in their supply chains, and we expect them to uphold the human rights, labor, health and safety, environmental and business ethics practices prescribed in our Supplier Code of Conduct, and to act in accordance with Our Statement on Business Conduct, Corporate Social Responsibility Policy, Indigenous Peoples Policy and, as of 2021, our newly adopted Supplier Diversity Policy.
We’ve increased the ESG-focused information in our procurement processes by standardizing our RFP, proposal evaluation, contract award recommendation and contract templates to include sustainability, environmental stewardship, social responsibility (including Indigenous engagement and supplier diversity) and ethical procurement.
Our ESG goal
Increase procurement from diverse suppliers and from suppliers that support and invest in diversity, equity and inclusion.
2021 highlights
We evaluated and selected a third-party provider for collecting more rigorous sustainability performance data from our suppliers, such as their carbon emissions data. Once implemented in 2022, key suppliers will be expected to provide evidence-based ESG data that will drive their sustainability scorecard. This data will help us track suppliers’ ESG performance and will ultimately be used in our supplier selection and relationship management processes.
Toward our ESG goal, we completed an inventory of our suppliers to confirm which of them are diverse (i.e., are at least 51% owned, managed and controlled by a diverse person or group with U.S. or Canadian citizenship), and to identify opportunities to increase spending with those that are certified by a nationally or regionally recognized third party.
Our corporate Supply Chain Management team also strengthened our supplier diversity data collection and reporting capabilities and connected with Enbridge business teams to introduce them to prospective diverse suppliers that are a good fit for their business area.
As a result of this work, we’re now able to track Tier 1 diverse dollars (where we buy directly from a diverse supplier) and, where available, Tier 2 diverse dollars (a supplier’s subcontracted work).
$1.59 billion spent directly with one diverse supplier on the construction of Line 3 in Minnesota and an additional $0.12 billion with 159 other certified diverse suppliers (Tier 1). We spent $56 million with verified Tier 2 (subcontract) diverse businesses. This is in addition to our Indigenous economic engagement spend.
