Atlantic City Electric purchased $178 million in goods and services from diversity-certified suppliers in 2023, accounting for nearly 40% of the company’s total purchases for the year. This expenditure, a $49 million increase from 2022, is the most spent with diverse suppliers in the company’s more than 100-year history and reflects Atlantic City Electric’s ongoing efforts to support local and diverse communities.
“Supplier diversity is just one of the ways we support our customers and local communities with more than energy,” Rodney Oddoye, senior vice president of government, regulatory and external affairs at Pepco Holdings, which includes Atlantic City Electric, said. “Our continued increase in investments with these valuable partners reinforces our commitment to the local communities that we proudly serve and supports local business growth, helping our communities thrive.”
In line with Atlantic City Electric’s dedication to enhancing procurement efforts with local diversity-certified suppliers, the Empowerment Academy, formerly known as Target 25, offers prospective suppliers a chance to gain insights into Atlantic City Electric’s procurement procedures and those of its parent company, Exelon. This initiative contributes to the growth and development of each vendor’s relationship with the energy company. Since establishing the Empowerment Academy, Atlantic City Electric has graduated 13 diversity-certified suppliers and looks to expand this opportunity to even more local, diverse suppliers.
In 2022, Exelon launched the Community Impact Capital Fund in partnership with RockCreek, one of the world’s largest diverse-owned global investment firms, which has invested more than $8.4 billion in diverse firms over the last two decades. The CICF, formerly known as the Racial Equity Capital Fund, expands capital access to businesses that have traditionally been challenged in accessing and securing funding so they can create more jobs, grow their companies and reinvest in their neighborhoods and communities.
