Construction Today, Vol 20 Iss- 3 Final Book | Page 119

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JEA goes on to explain , JEA is constantly investing in its local communities .
“ For a start ,” says Alan , “ most of our employees are homegrown – if not from Jacksonville , then they are likely from Florida . This is really important to us .
“ We do quite a bit of work partnering with businesses in the area , and we are constantly giving back to the community . That is not just from an economic standpoint – and it is worth noting that we are one of the key drivers of economic development in northeast Florida – but also from a participation standpoint .”
Clean energy goals
JEA also sponsors a variety of volunteer and ambassador programs . “ We love going into schools and talking about utilities ,” Alan continues . “ In my mind , we are vested – and invested – in local communities ; we want to partner with and help grow different parts of northeast Florida , investing in them with our time and infrastructure to better serve our customers .”
And there are many customers . JEA proudly serves approximately 500,000 electric , 383,000 water , 303,000 sewer and 22,000 reclaim water customers in northeast Florida . With this level of responsibility , fiscal transparency is crucial to establishing trust with its customers “ We are both dedicated to the community and the responsible spending of customers ’ money ,” shares Jenny . “ We always strive to be effective and prudent when it comes to our expenditures .
“ We achieve this by bidding competitively for goods and services , or by negotiating contracts for single-source providers that share our mission . Indeed , we prioritize cost-effectiveness in procurement decisions rather than , for instance , solely focusing on obtaining the lowest cost .
In fact , it will likely include technologies that have not been invented yet
“ To that end , we consider factors such as long-term costs , quality , and local economic impact , in addition to price , all while making sure our projects are on-time and within budget by monitoring supplier performance .” While on the topic of community , Jenny extends its meaning to JEA ’ s commercial network . “ We have very strong supplier relationships ,” she affirms . “ We also have the privilege of working with agencies throughout the US – not just in Florida . This enables benchmarking with them and an opportunity to piggyback off established contracts in situations where we believe it makes sense to do so . Leveraging all of our relationships has helped us mitigate the global supply chain issues .
“ Regarding mitigation , I wouldn ’ t say there is one recipe for success . Our efforts have
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