This month's 'Spotlight on Good' shines on Southern Company for its commitment to advance equity and inclusion.
In 2021 Southern Company launched an important strategic initiative to advance equity and inclusion within their offices and communities.
Southern Company created a framework to guide its organization's continuing work addressing racial equity and racial justice to define its actions and commitments. The framework confirms their teams' broader collective responsibilities and ensures a continued and coordinated focus on this work.
"We must fully institutionalize our commitment and actions in our effort to eliminate racism and make them an enduring reflection of Our Values."
-Tom Fanning, Chairman, CEO and President
Within this broad commitment, five key pillars were prioritized for their potential overall impact:
Talent - Southern Company committed to increasing and improving outreach, recruitment, hiring, and retention of diverse groups at all levels of the workforce and ensuring equity in leadership development programs; and a diversity of candidates for management roles.
Work Environment - Southern Company committed to promoting an actively anti-racist culture and ensuring all groups are well-represented, included, and fairly treated within all levels of the organization.
Community & Social Justice - Southern Company and associated charitable foundations committed $225 million to advance racial equity and social justice in their local communities.
Political Engagement - Southern Company promised to advocate for racial equity through political engagement, policy positions, and ongoing public dialogues.
Supplier Diversity - Southern Company commited to increasing their spending allocated to diverse suppliers and committed to supporting the development of more Black-owned businesses.
Progress against this initiative is tracked and shared broadly online (here) and within an annual 'Moving to Equity' report. You can read their 2021 progress report here.