Our comprehensive approach to enhancing the sustainability of our supply chain includes a commitment to improving the diversity of our suppliers.
As part of our diversity and inclusion efforts, we aim to reach 8% of total spending with suppliers owned by women, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, veterans and suppliers in historically underutilized urban and rural communities (HUBZones).
Our U.S. Supplier Diversity Program aims to increase domestic spending with suppliers owned by women, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, disabled individuals or veterans or businesses located in HUBZones, areas the Small Business Administration has designated as historically underutilized.
Over the past year, we renewed and added partnerships with organizations that help us increase our supplier diversity. These partners provide valuable services to Zurn Elkay, including certifying suppliers, providing supplier training and development, as well as providing opportunities to engage with diverse suppliers throughout the year.
Disability Inclusion (Disability:IN)
With the combination of Zurn and Elkay in 2022, we aligned our process around a single system to manage our supplier diversity program. We established a dedicated supplier diversity manager position to increase collaboration and opportunities for sourcing within all business units, improve the diversity of our supplier base and increase spend with certified diverse suppliers.
Additionally, we implemented a cross-functional Supplier Diversity Council and developed a KPI scorecard to measure our progress toward our goals. We aim to increase sourcing from certified diverse suppliers to 8% of total domestic spending by 2025, from 1.4% in 2022. We identified improvement opportunities for 2023, which will include holding an inaugural supplier diversity day and incorporating diverse suppliers in bids of significant spend throughout all business units.