We work with thousands of suppliers across North America—from major international companies to small, local businesses. Our suppliers cover a wide range of disciplines, including manufacturing, construction, engineering, distribution and consulting, but the majority of our annual spend is in the areas of pipe manufacturing, constructing our pipelines and facilities, maintaining the fitness of our systems and monitoring to ensure the integrity of our systems.
Safety and opportunities for Indigenous involvement are two major considerations in our contract evaluation process, and we have a centralized SCM team and multi-year roadmap to help us further integrate Indigenous socio-economic participation and other environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations and opportunities into our SCM strategies and programs. In 2017, we integrated key elements from Spectra Energy’s SCM CSR approach, providing a unified framework and roadmap going forward.
Sustainability is a high priority for Enbridge, and we believe the thousands of suppliers who work with us across North America can help us advance those priorities.
That’s what inspired Joel Adams, Enbridge’s Supervisor, Warehousing and Logistics in Duluth, Minnesota to bring suppliers in his region together to talk about sustainability collaboration.
“I’m very proud of Enbridge’s efforts to promote sustainability,” said Adams, “and I wanted to share our goals with our suppliers. I also wanted to learn how others are growing and supporting sustainable operations.”
His vision became a reality in November 2017, when 45 people representing regional businesses that supply goods and services to Enbridge gathered in Duluth for our first U.S. Supplier Sustainability Summit, which included presentations on sustainability at Enbridge and break-out sessions where suppliers shared their leading sustainability practices and brainstormed potential environmental stewardship opportunities that could benefit both Enbridge and them.
Feedback from attendees was positive, with many noting a greater understanding of Enbridge’s expectations for environmental stewardship, social responsibility, ethical procurement and Indigenous engagement within the supply chain. Commented one supplier: “I appreciated that Enbridge took the time to present this topic to a broad audience, many of whom were candid in that they hadn't thought all that much about these topics previously. For myself, I came away with some new ideas on how to reduce consumption in several areas.”
As a follow-up to the summit, Enbridge met with several attendees to further discuss how their products, service offerings and ideas may contribute to Enbridge’s and their own sustainability goals. And looking ahead, we plan to hold more sustainability summits for suppliers in the future.
“With this summit, we wanted to start the conversation about sustainability with suppliers who are beginning their efforts and to continue the conversation with suppliers that have proficiently implemented sustainability principles already,” said Charlene Uecker, Enbridge’s Technical Manager, SCM Sustainability. “No matter where companies are on the journey, we can learn from each other and improve together. Enbridge highly values our supplier relationships and recognizes the critical role they have in our sustainability journey.”
In addition to the U.S. summit, Union Gas’s 2017 Supplier Forum in Canada featured Indigenous engagement as a key topic with a keynote speaker from the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business.