Supplier Diversity

While managing Veolia Water Indianapolis, we increased utilization of Minority- and Women-owned Business Enterprise participation from just 10 percent to nearly 35 percent, well exceeding city goals. This increase represents twice the level required by the city and five times more than the previous water manager. In an eight-year span, we kept more than $250 million in the local economy by purchasing goods and services from local businesses 92 percent of the time.

In our work managing a 90-MGD regional water treatment facility for the Atlanta-Fulton County Water Resources Commission, we've developed a joint venture with Khafra Engineering in Atlanta. Khafra was a small local MBE firm with no operations & maintenance (O&M) experience. We assisted them in developing the staffing, management tools and experience needed to perform as an effective partner. Together, we've built a very successful partnership; the facility is routinely recognized as one of the best managed, most award-winning facilities in North America.

During our last contract renewal with Atlanta-Fulton County, we formed a second mentor-protégé relationship to expand the range of MBE and WBE involvement in this project. We added Multi-Energy Group, Inc. (MEG) to our team to support maintenance management. MEG is a local WBE firm that works as a subcontractor to our Veolia Water/Khafra joint venture. Like Khafra at the start of the first contract, MEG was a small, local firm with no experience in the O&M of a water facility. A mentor-protégé relationship has allowed them to gain the management skills and experience needed to deliver this service. Given our success, we have since evolved our relationship and brought MEG into our long-term O&M partnership with Fulton County, Georgia for wastewater facilities that serve the county's north area.

Our partnership with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, MMSD, represents the largest municipal wastewater partnership in the U.S. We proactively engage the small, women, minority, and disadvantaged (SWMBE) business community in the greater Milwaukee area - through annual Supplier Symposiums, on-line SWMBE vendor registration, an active minority supplier development advisory committee and mentor-protégé relationships. The results have been excellent. We have greatly exceeded MMSD's 20% SWMBE participation goal, reaching as high as 36% in any given year.

Our work in Milwaukee includes a mentor-protégé relationship with Eclipse Controls, an MBE firm specializing in instrumentation and control systems. Two more examples of successful diverse suppliers in Milwaukee include Quest, a chemical contractor doing business with us in a multi-million dollar contract, and Sanchez Painting, a vendor whose work with Veolia Water has significantly grown their business, helping them achieve substantial revenues.