Our Journey Continues
We’re nurturing a culture where everyone feels valued for who they are — where differences are celebrated, each of us belongs, and everyone is empowered to be the best version of themselves, so we can all move forward together.
Values-Based Culture
Achieving diversity, equity, and inclusion requires intentional action. At Dominion Energy, we cultivate them through company norms, policies, practices, and training.
Our company’s five core values — Safety, Ethics, Excellence, Embrace Change, and One Dominion Energy — depend on, and reinforce, DE&I. We count on employees to coach and hold one another accountable on safety, which is much more likely to happen when there is an inclusive company culture. Ethics involves treating people as they should be treated, which requires fidelity to the principles of DE&I. Excellence is more likely when we welcome the best ideas from everyone — promoting innovation and improving how we understand and serve our communities. Advancing DE&I requires individual and cultural growth, which involves embracing change. And true teamwork happens only in conditions of genuine inclusiveness.
These values intersect with DE&I in another way. Reinforcing organizational standards encourages everyone to participate and speak up. When employees feel comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work — when they feel a part of, rather than apart from — they are far more likely to raise a safety or ethics concern, insist there’s a better way, suggest a new idea, and support one another. Employees who second-guess themselves and their place within the company are more likely to remain silent.
That’s one reason new employees receive instruction about DE&I starting at their new-hire orientation, with information about our DE&I commitment. Dominion Energy has a clear DE&I strategy, an Executive Diversity Council, as well as Diversity Councils within each operating segment. Our Annual Incentive Plan, or AIP, includes a DE&I component. Leaders conduct sessions on inclusion and respect in the workplace. And our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) provide opportunities for employees with shared life experiences to support one another and increase understanding through activities such as heritage festivals celebrating the experiences, traditions, performances, and foods from other cultures.
While our DE&I culture percolates up through the organization, all of it receives oversight from our CEO and Board of Directors. Ultimately, developing our DE&I culture is a collective endeavor, carried out in the true spirit of One Dominion Energy.
Strategy
Our vision is to be the most sustainable energy company in the country. Our commitment to environmental stewardship and to achieving net zero carbon and methane emissions across our operations by 2050 makes up an important part of achieving this vision. But we view sustainability more broadly. To us, it includes community vitality, social justice, safety, workforce development, and DE&I. These are the areas in which we must excel, and the stakeholder needs we must satisfy, in order to support the company’s long-term viability — for our customers, employees, and investors.
As we pursue that vision, and as we carry out our core mission, we highlight sustainability by focusing on our work taking place across five pillars:
- Delivering safe, reliable, affordable, sustainable energy;
- Protecting the environment;
- Serving customers and communities;
- Empowering our people; and
- Creating shareholder value.
The Business Case
DE&I is a core part of our long-term strategy for success. It enables us to better serve our customers, communities, and stakeholders. Drawing on the broadest possible candidate pool to find top-tier talent makes us a stronger, more agile company — and a more innovative one, too.
For example, the 2021 winner of our Chairman’s Excellence Award for innovation was a proposal to use solar farms at night to help regulate voltage on the grid. This innovation advances sustainability by making more efficient use of solar farms and keeping customers’ bills affordable by saving millions of dollars. The diverse team that developed the idea was led by engineer Lindsey Wildman. The team “included individuals in various business units across the company,” Lindsey says. “Having a group of people with diverse backgrounds and experiences working on a project resulted in better planning, decision-making, and results. We would not have been so successful without the diverse team!”
We also find DE&I brings other benefits, including a deeper understanding of our customers and communities. This leads to better insights into challenges and opportunities; better recruitment, as candidates see proof of our commitment to DE&I in our increasingly diverse workforce; and better employee retention that comes from a sense of belonging.
Research consistently shows this is true at other companies as well: Higher levels of diversity correlate with greater innovation and better financial performance. In an era of rapid change, DE&I is not just the right thing to do — it is a business imperative.
