Operational Excellence

Supply Chain

Our Supply Chain organization embraces sustainable supply chain best practices to support Con Edison’s commitment to environmental and social responsibility, cost savings and operational excellence.

By collaborating with our internal operating groups, key vendors, and peers within the utility industry, Supply Chain has helped us enhance safety, reduce our carbon footprint, and support economic growth within the communities we serve. 

In 2017, we continued our Gold Shovel Program – a safety training program for all our construction vendors involved in excavation work. We also demonstrated our commitment to lowering our greenhouse gas emissions by awarding over $100 million in contracts to help our customers convert from oil to cleaner natural gas.

Supply Chain purchased over $9 million of environmentally-friendly products (e.g. hybrid vehicles, low-carbon fuels, recycled paper, toner, and carpet) and awarded over $5 million in contracts to support infrastructure for electric vehicle charging stations.

In addition to supporting these safety and environmental initiatives, Supply Chain led efforts to divert waste from landfills and support small businesses and minority- and women-owned businesses. We diverted more than $11 million of waste from landfills by focusing on items such as scrap cable, meters, transformers and paper.  

Thanks in part to the recruitment and development efforts of our Supplier Diversity Team, we made positive contributions to job creation and economic growth within the communities we serve. In 2017, we purchased $307 million in goods and services from women- and minority-owned companies. Including expenditures from non-diverse small businesses, these efforts yielded over $600 million in purchases.  

Members of our Supply Chain team are working to extend the impact of our sustainability efforts by collaborating with some of the nation’s largest energy companies. Con Edison recently took on a leadership role within the Electric Utility Sustainable Supply Chain Industry Alliance and we are working with our colleagues to develop and share best practices with our major suppliers to reduce water, energy, waste, emissions, risks and costs.