DSNY Presents Awards at S.O.A.R Ceremony

SEATTLE (Waste 360): The City of New York Department of Sanitation (DSNY) announced the winners of its Sustainable Operations and Readiness/Resources (S.O.A.R.) Acknowledgment awards. The S.O.A.R. program honored public and private sector entities that best exemplified efforts toward helping to build capacity for minority-owned/women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs) during the past year.

“Since its launch last year, our S.O.A.R. program has worked to advance our standing in specific M/WBE spending categories and has created strategic partners that will enable the agency to address the mayor’s sustainability goals with emerging market women- and minority-owned firms,” said DSNY Commissioner Kathryn Garcia in a statement. “Today, we honor those bureaus, business entities and various individuals whose efforts, diligence and steadfast commitment have helped promote the benefits of the S.O.A.R. program.”  

“I’d like to congratulate each and every one of our honorees,” said Kevin V.G. Wells, chief supplier diversity officer for DSNY, in a statement. “Our team can’t do it alone, and each of these city agencies, bureaus and partners have helped us increase the visibility of M/WBEs. They have helped to elevate and promote our S.O.A.R program and its capacity building efforts for certified M/WBE vendors, and we are thankful for their contributions.”

Honorees include:

•          Economic Development Corporation, Department of Citywide Administrative Services and Housing Preservation & Development were honored with the Strategic Partnership Award. These city-partner agencies were instrumental in enabling M/WBE firms performing micro-hauling and/or composting services to expand their business opportunities.  
•          DSNY’s Bureau of Information Technology (IT) was honored for Outstanding Distributions of Noncompetitive Small Purchase Awards to M/WBEs. This bureau enabled the department to host its first IT-related “diverse vendor” webinar and identified and used M/WBEs for products and services. The bureau is additionally recognized for its policy of equitably awarding contracts to M/WBE information technology firms that have not been used in the past.
•          DSNY’s Bureau of Support Services was honored for Outstanding Distributions of Noncompetitive Small Purchase Awards to M/WBEs. This bureau has been actively engaged in the S.O.A.R. program and worked to identify and aggressively utilize certified M/WBEs for products and services.
•          Anshuman Dash, Marc Nash and Karl Rotstan from DSNY were honored for Outstanding Innovation to Promote M/WBE Utilization. These individuals have performed outstanding achievements in building the DSNY S.O.A.R. web-based vendor database.
•          Tully Construction was honored for Outstanding Achievement to Build Capacity for Certified M/WBEs Award. An active participant in the S.O.A.R. Promoting Readiness Encouraging Partnerships mentorship program, this company awarded contracts to two M/WBEs for a total of $1.2 million, including one valued for $1 million.

In addition, DSNY announced the launch of a new web-based system designed to streamline the identification process of both certified M/WBEs and diverse vendors not recognized as certified for contract opportunities. The system will provide targeted capacity building under the S.O.A.R. program. The enhanced functionalities will enable all DSNY’s internal bureaus to view the current abilities and services of vendors, while also allowing vendors the ability to amend and update their core competency areas in order to be competitive.

Courtesy: www.waste360.com