As people marched and rallied in towns large and small in 2020, utilities, like many other industries, felt the call. Embedded within their communities, natural gas utilities across the United States have continued to meet the challenge of facing—and doing their part to fix—longstanding inequities resulting from systemic racism.
It’s been more than a year since the murder of George Floyd sparked nationwide protests, and utilities, like many other businesses, have done a lot during that time, taking stock of their internal policies and culture and their outward-facing actions, and learning how they can contribute more to the ideals of diversity, equity and inclusion, both in their companies and in their communities.
As soon as Deanna Koppenhofer saw the news stories at the time of Floyd’s death, she knew she wanted to take more specific action to ensure that her company’s employees felt heard and included. So, Koppenhofer, vice president of human resources for Pennsylvania-based UGI Utilities Inc. and UGI Energy Services LLC, engaged with the company’s senior leadership team and its CEO John Walsh. Walsh found himself drawn to several of the company’s core values, particularly those focused on safety, respect, integrity, reliability and responsibility. “Our values are intertwined, but these particular values are the ones that speak directly to relationships and how we respect and care for each other,” he said. “It is the bond of unity that supports us and holds us together.”
Koppenhofer volunteered to lead UGI’s efforts related to inclusion and diversity and began researching best practices. This work informed the creation of the company’s BIDE imperative: Belonging, Inclusion, Diversity & Equity. BIDE “provides the blueprint for achieving greater diversity of thought, experience, culture, gender, race, and sexual orientation throughout the organization,” according to a news release about the effort. The initiative has four pillars of focus—culture, career, community and commerce—each led by a senior team member, with clearly defined goals, action items that include start and finish dates, a spreadsheet to track progress, and monthly reviews to keep the initiatives moving forward.
“We wanted to show that we are serious about this. We didn’t want to just rely on statements or feel-good messages,” Koppenhofer said. “If you don’t have specific actions you measure, you’re never going to manage it.”
Under the community pillar, for example, the company stepped up its commitment to Big Brothers Big Sisters’ Beyond School Walls program. While the stated partnership commitment is to “market it within the organization,” BIDE’s community team put together an action plan for specific ways to communicate with employees about the program, held informational sessions, followed up with people interested in participating and supported potential “Bigs” through the training sessions.
“We have more Bigs than they can get Littles for right now,” Koppenhofer said of the positive reaction the company has seen through its organized efforts. Similar success is being felt through UGI’s partnership with the Urban Affairs Coalition, which confirmed a minority UGI employee to its board in March.
Koppenhofer also set up what she calls a “bold” virtual conversation with a few of UGI’s Black employees, giving them a platform to express to senior leadership their perspectives on what it’s like to be Black in America, at work and out in the world. “Many people struggle with what words to use, what to ask and generally with a comfort level in having a conversation like we had,” she said.
An offshoot of that bold conversation has been the company’s first Black employee resource group, started after one of the conversation’s participants approached Koppenhofer with the idea. “I was so excited,” she said. “I had told the executive team that this needs to be organic, that this can’t come from us. It needed to come from the employees.”
Ameren Corporation, based in Missouri, has long been a supporter of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, including through its Ameren Accelerator program. So, when UMSL came to the energy company last year with an idea for a DE&I accelerator that would provide support for businesses with diverse founders, Ameren executives were immediately interested.
“We’d always focused on DE&I as an inherent part of our values, but we made a conscious decision last year to make sure people know, unequivocally, the rules and values of our company,” said Gwen Mizell, vice president of sustainability and electrification for Ameren. “We took stock of what we had been doing and asked ourselves, ‘Can we do more?’ As a Fortune 500 company, we decided yes.”
In January, Ameren, along with two other sponsors, helped the university launch the first UMSL Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Accelerator for minority-owned startups or small businesses in need of assistance to get their great ideas off the ground. More than 430 entrepreneurs applied, and Mizell and others helped to whittle the field down to six winners, who each received $50,000 in nondilutive capital plus $200,000 in in-kind resources and the opportunity to participate in an eight-week business development program.
“One of the biggest hindrances to starting a business is access to capital. So, this was a huge opportunity for these six founders,” Mizell said. She, like the others involved with the DE&I accelerator, acknowledge that social injustices, from unconscious bias to overt racism, often hinder the underwriting process for minority business owners and entrepreneurs. “I think we were able to bypass many of those barriers that are inherently there,” Mizell said.
One winner who particularly impressed Mizell was Tyrean Lewis, founder of Heru Urban Farming in St. Louis. A fifth-generation farmer, Lewis works to give people who live in urban areas, which are often food deserts, access to sustainable, high-quality produce. He has three gardens around the city and was looking for funding to establish a mobile produce stand and hire an intern for social media outreach, she said. In her sustainability role, Mizell applauds Lewis’ passion for healthy local food systems: “Food is a big part of how we sustain ourselves.”
Other winning companies were DEMIBlue Natural Nails & Creative, a line of vegan-friendly nail polishes and nail services; Hire Henry, a heavy-duty robotic lawn mower that provides landscaping services; St. Louis Assembly Pros, a full-service furniture assembly company; Flipstik, a customizable kickstand for smartphones to enable hands-free use; and The Fattened Caf, a Filipino barbecue pop-up restaurant.
According to the Small Business Association, about 64% of all new jobs are created by entrepreneurs and small business owners. Programs like the accelerator can drive innovation to benefit not only society at large, but also Ameren’s gas and electric businesses. “So, this new program was a strong complement to how we can help build up the ecosystem around diverse-owned businesses that then hire more folks from the community and support more families,” Mizell said.
Floyd’s death in Minnesota sparked outrage across the country, and DTE Energy’s CEO Jerry Norcia felt it very close to home. “Twenty percent of our workforce is people of color, and there was a lot of hurt,” said Norcia, who is based in nearby Detroit. “When one part of your family is hurting, the whole family does.”
The Detroit-based energy company already had a strong DE&I initiative, but last year DTE responded quickly to the racial injustice, violence and unrest by leading courageous, listening and healing conversations across the company. Norcia also declared Juneteenth 2020 a paid holiday for a day of well-being, reflection and activation, and he also created a special executive steering committee to drive long-term change and incorporate DE&I into all the company’s business decisions.
While DTE is focused on condemning racial injustice, celebrating diversity and building equity and inclusion, it has also been paying particular attention to an often-overlooked area of DE&I—that of people with disabilities.
To accelerate its mission in this area, last year, DTE became just the third Michigan-based corporation to join The Valuable 500, a coalition of the world’s largest companies dedicated to promoting disability inclusion through business leadership and opportunity. Norcia said he has been excited to learn more about this area of business, and what he is learning has inspired him to keep pushing DTE’s equity and inclusivity initiatives forward.
“What we’ve learned so far is to make a commitment. No matter how small, make a commitment,” he said of DTE’s Valuable 500 lessons to date. “So, we made a commitment that we would drive more hires of disabled persons in our company. That we would make it happen, not just talk about it.”
Norcia says the pandemic has widened perspectives on the ways people work and what’s possible in terms of hiring and retaining employees with disabilities. “We viewed working from home as a special privilege before, and now it’s how we do business,” he said. “We’ve learned to work in a different way, which has created all kinds of possibilities for people with disabilities.”
Through its membership in The Valuable 500, DTE is expanding its partnership with Project Search, which helps youths and young adults with disabilities learn skills and gain employment as they transition out of Michigan’s public schools. DTE has had 36 Project Search interns over the last five years; 12 are now gainfully employed, Norcia says.
The company is also strengthening its support of its Abilities in Motion employee resource group, which has 200 members. The DTE Energy Foundation also is seeking new ways to support the Autism Alliance of Michigan and other disability employment-related nonprofits.
“The leadership team and the whole company has embraced this, making sure we have a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture,” Norcia said.
Nicor Gas, headquartered in Naperville, Illinois, has made longstanding commitments to innovation, clean energy tech and the DE&I space, said Meena Beyers, vice president of business and community development for Nicor: “We have a really strong philosophy around all types of business diversity: women-owned, veteran-owned and minority-owned.”
But in paying attention to the persistent economic inequality across this country, the company’s leadership began looking for a new way to fuel equity and help minority-owned businesses while also supporting the advancement of clean energy tech and uphold Nicor’s sustainability mission.
The result is the Nicor Gas Multicultural Innovator Award, a partnership with the Chicago-based nonprofit Clean Energy Trust that stands to award a $25,000 equity and inclusion grant to a clean energy technology startup with a minority founder or CEO.
According to data compiled by The Business Journals in 2017, minority-owned businesses were generating more than $1.8 trillion in revenue annually nationwide and employing more than 6.3 million people. Bolstering the local workforce along with the environment in this way is a win-win, Beyers said: “We really wanted to focus it on startups founded by minorities in the clean energy tech space, but we also wanted to make sure they were Illinois-based, because we want to support the businesses right here where we serve.”
The application period, which closed in late March, garnered 16 hopefuls who are minority founders of a clean energy startup with at least two employees but no more than $3 million in funding. At press time, an internal committee at Clean Energy Trust was whittling down the list to a smaller portfolio to present to a Nicor Gas team that would determine the winner. “We have such a strong commitment to really help partner with these businesses, so we might be looking at one winner but find other ways to help other businesses through mentoring, support, introducing them to partners, even partnering with us,” said Beyers.
In addition to the $25,000 grant, the winner will receive 12 months of business mentorship and heightened exposure to investors and customers. “There’s just about every type of service or expertise in our company. We have engineers, data specialists, research and development, excellent communicators and marketers, so whatever business needs they have, we’ll be able to give,” she said. “At the end of the day, that’s what it’s about. This award is about access—not just to capital, but to a company like ours and the resources and network we can bring to the table.”
The push for a more equitable and inclusive society is not new, nor is it anywhere close to the finish line. While strides made toward those ideals have had greater visibility over the last several months than in previous years, utility executives involved in these initiatives say their companies’ forward momentum in the DE&I space is longstanding. It is not a response to outer influences, they say, as much as it is a reflection of their inner convictions about what makes a strong company—and country.
“At DTE, we understand that all people thrive and succeed when they feel included, welcome and safe,” said Norcia. “That’s why one of our company’s top priorities is building a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce.”
