M/WDBE stands for Minority, Women, and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise. The National Minority Supplier Development Council issues a certification for businesses owned by minorities or otherwise disadvantaged individuals, such as people of color, women, veterans, etc. M/WDBE among a project’s subcontractor team is a growing requirement on many construction sites to show their efforts for diversity and inclusion. This blog will explore the importance of having M/WDBE subcontractors on site, how it contributes to ESG, and the easiest ways to track and report this metric.
Understanding the Importance of M/WDBE Subcontractors
M/WDBE subcontractors play an important role in promoting diversity and inclusion within the construction sector. Their involvement stimulates economic growth and job creation in local communities that your organization does business in. M/WDBEs may also be smaller companies, which can provide greater flexibility to fit your needs, or they can provide a different perspective which leads to innovation and creativity. In addition to the positive social impact of hiring M/WDBE, there can be federal and tax incentives for projects that meet diversity goals.
M/WDBE and ESG
ESG (Environmental, Social Governance) is a business strategy that will help your organization become more profitable, attract and retain employees, and guide it to becoming better. M/WDBE contracts on project sites would fall under the social metrics(known as the ‘S’). This is an important metric for general contractors to track for ESG to indicate their support for diversity and inclusion within the construction projects.
Given these points, many GCs are starting to implement minimum M/WDBE contract thresholds across all projects (or across projects above a minimum total contract amount). This can be a powerful tool to demonstrate social metric efforts which can then provide more opportunities for your business. To quantify this, all project teams will need to track and report M/WDBE participation.
Tracking and Reporting M/WDBE Participation
When working with M/WDBE companies, it is important to keep track of the category and contract amount for each certified business. Keeping track is not only important for ensuring that you meet any owner or project requirements, but it also helps your organization report this number for ESG and create a plan for growth in this area.
You will need to collect the following in formation from you M/WDBE subcontractors:
- Company Name
- M/WDBE Category
- Work Period
- Office Location
- Copies of M/WDBE Certificate
- Material Cost (total contract value in lieu of labor and materials cost)
This information will help you determine the percentage of contracts awarded to M/WDBE companies and to keep track of any local labor requirements.
Using Technology to Track M/WDBE Contracts
Surprisingly, selecting a software program is going to be the easiest way to keep track of of M/WDBE contract information and ensure your project is meeting its goals or requirements.
Green Badger provides a user-friendly reporting mechanism to track subcontractor M/WBE participation and local labor use. In addition to teams being able to establish a project goal, they can also set the radius for local labor and demonstrate compliance as they put subcontractor agreements into place. Equally important, Green Badger’s dashboard showcases local participation in real time with a map view that highlights all the local participants in your project.
Some other features of Green Badger’s M/WDBE module include:
- Viewing combined and separated contract values for minority and women-owned businesses
- Customizing goals at the project level, or having a company-wide standard
- Customizing local vendor definitions and goals
- Viewing a custom map of business partners
Finally, for more information on construction ESG, supporting diversity and inclusion, tracking and reporting M/WDBE on construction projects, or using Green Badger, please reach out to Kristin Brubaker by emailing her at kristin@getgreenbadger.com.
