Resources & Research

The NAIOP Research Foundation commissioned this report to identify best practices for promoting DEI within CRE firms. The study draws from existing studies on DEI, as well as interviews with a representative sample of practitioners at CRE firms that have pursued DEI initiatives. The authors also interviewed faculty and staff at undergraduate and graduate real estate programs to examine how universities are working to diversify their programs and how firms can partner with them to expand the talent pipeline.

Increasingly, integrating racial equity in the development life cycle is becoming a high priority, and the industry is recognizing that an elevated focus on equity can have benefits for financial and social returns. 10 Principles for Embedding Racial Equity in Real Estate Development shares 10 guiding ideas that can help developers, investors, and other practitioners make racial equity a central part of their real estate practice. Each principle distills insights from industry leaders and includes specific best practices that can be applied to different sectors, markets, and geographies.

After reviewing testimonials and conducting extensive research, the 2017 CREW Network Industry Research Committee selected 10 employers in the commercial real estate industry to interview for case studies. These case studies profiled the organizations’ representation of women employees, top executives, and board members. They explore employee programs, networking and interest groups, mentoring and sponsorship programs, and flexible work arrangements.

We aspire for our organizations to be meritocratic. Studies show that bias reduces meritocracy and disproportionally so for people from underrepresented groups. For our teams, companies, and industry to be more diverse and utilize the full talent pool, we need to improve business practices to improve meritocracy.

These actions enable us and our organizations to move from supporters to committed to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Break down the work in small steps and celebrate each success.

This roadmap is a guide for local associations to plan and identify activities that will identify, engage and mentor leaders representing the diversity of the local community and real estate market. The guide is not limited to a step-by-step approach, but instead includes broad action areas and a list of possible activities and available resources in each area. Tools and training for many of these activities are and will be available, however this roadmap is a useful tool for association staff and leaders to reference as associations work to be more inclusive of diversity.

On October 20, EisnerAmper, Mosser, and StepStone Group brought together a diverse panel of executives in the real estate investment space for Part II of our three-part DEI in CRE webinar series, to share personal insights on navigating their career paths, what they’ve learned along the way, and how they are reimagining the future. Our own Lisa Knee, a Partner and Leader of our Real Estate Practice, moderated, and panelists included:

These worksheets are tools for companies to develop and track Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The goal is to identify and celebrate any progress made, as well as map out a few steps to take that can be most impactful to your organization.

Best Practice Tips:

1. Any working team can start the work. Senior leadership involvement at some stage is ideal.

2. This can be refreshed periodically to track practice and update goals.

3. Can be applied to smaller divisions within very large organizations.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives are front and center in discussions for companies of all sizes and industries. But even with the best intentions, many people are still struggling to understand all of the ways that they can make positive contributions to their company's DEI efforts. Making sure that interviews and hiring practices are expanded to include as diverse of a team as possible is critical, but that is only one area of importance. It is equally important to ensure that you are leveraging a diverse group of suppliers and vendors to support your business - an increasingly important demand as consumers of their business are more and more diverse.

Momentus Capital’s family of organizations, including Capital Impact Partners, CDC Small Business Finance, and Ventures Lending Technologies, is working to help support economic mobility and wealth creation through more equitable access to capital for communities that have been long overlooked by traditional financial organizations.

In line with this commitment, and in recognition of discriminatory lending practices identified within CDFIs, Capital Impact Partners collaborated with Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) to identify and address policies and practices that contribute to it. They conducted research to understand how some local and national CDFIs have successfully taken steps to address inequity within their own lending practices.

Beneficial State Foundation is convening a group of more than 60 underwriters, impact leaders at financial institutions, regulators, innovators in alternative underwriting, and borrowers from across the country to develop solutions to increase credit access to people rising from longstanding systemic inequities and barriers, particularly communities that are majority people of color.

The framework includes best and promising practices for banks to improve Racial and Ethnic Representation within the internal workforce. It also includes best and promising practices to strengthen Racial and Ethnic Representation and Investment within the hiring process.

A policy-focused story told with maps from The Place Database

By Amy DeNinno, Mills College

June 2019

The findings and conclusions of this narrative reflect the views of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

The banking industry is powerful, and like other powerful industries, it can contribute to worsening global problems, or it can help solve them. The choice is up to us—the people who put our money into banks. As a new wave of ethical banking gains momentum around the world, you can turn your money into a force for good.

The Global Real Estate DEI Survey is the only corporate study of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) management practices and data benchmarking in the commercial real estate industry. The Global Real Estate DEI Survey Volume III represents 296,902 full-time real estate employees, $1.98 trillion of assets under management, and a cross section of the commercial real estate industry in terms of size, region, and business classification. The Survey brings together participation from 216 unique organizations which provided 236 submissions detailing their DEI practices in North America (79.2% of respondents), Europe (11.9%) and Asia-Pacific (8.9%).

This webinar begins with a brief review of the headline results of the 2022 Global Real Estate DEI Survey, providing an overview of DEI in the industry and setting the stage for the discussion. Expert speakers then discuss practical questions on DEI faced by investors and investment managers. For LPs, what questions should LPs be asking in DEI due diligence? How do they tell if a GP is “serious” about DEI versus just engaging in window dressing?For GPs, what should they expect to be asked concerning DEI and how do they best communicate their DEI efforts? Are there simple strategies to advance DEI in their organization?

Real estate and society are inextricably intertwined. Buildings provide the places where we live, work, and play; shape our perspectives and impact our health; and offer the places through which the goods and services we buy are exchanged and the data we download flows. Given the centrality of the built environment to how society functions, it stands to reason that to be a successful long-term investment, real estate should reflect the priorities of the society in which it is situated. Increasingly, those priorities include environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. There is increasing awareness within real estate that ESG factors affect investment performance and that a greater alignment of interests across all stakeholders—including capital providers, owners/operators, occupants, suppliers, neighbors, local industry, the environment, and others—can enhance profitability, drive sustainability, and deliver meaningful outcomes for those groups across the investment life cycle.

Within real estate investing, much of the initial ESG focus has been on the “E” (environmental considerations), and the “S” (for example, how an asset interacts with and is affected by communities and stakeholders) has received far less attention, largely because of a lack of market understanding, definitional clarity, and barriers to straightforward measurement and tracking.

The purpose of this guide is to aid real estate investors and investment managers by providing a high-level road map to addressing social factors within real estate investments.