A newly launched pilot program aims to open commercial real estate’s procurement channels to more minority- and women-owned businesses (MWBEs). Seven prominent industry organizations, including three with a Canadian presence, have formed the Commercial Real Estate Diverse Supplier (CREDS) Consortium in collaboration with SupplierGATEWAY, a digital vendor management registry for U.S. and Canadian companies in which minorities, women, people with disabilities or LGBTQs hold at least a 51 per cent stake.
Corporate and individual members of the seven participating associations — CREW Network, ICSC, NAIOP, Mortgage Bankers Association, Nareit, National Multifamily Housing Council and the Real Estate Roundtable — will be eligible for a 46 per cent discount on SupplierGATEWAY’s annual subscription rate for the period up to Dec. 31, 2024. In turn, subscribers must agree to share data, which is to be aggregated and anonymized, to help inform CRE industry benchmarking of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the supply chain.
The CREDS Consortium lists the following objectives for the pilot program:
- to improve and accelerate real estate business opportunities for MWBEs;
- to identify and develop areas where MWBEs may benefit from technical assistance, resources, and mentoring;
- to promote DEI across the supply chain of businesses that bring the myriad skills, services, assets and materials needed for the real estate industry to operate and thrive;
- to support benchmarking and reporting tools for real estate companies to track diverse supplier spending; andto create a network of diversity and procurement professionals in the real estate sector to share DEI best practices.
“Facilitating access to a minority- and women-owned supplier database is an important first step in creating future opportunities between diverse vendors and developers and owners of commercial real estate,” says Marc Selvitelli, NAIOP’s chief administrative executive. “By working together, we believe this powerful alliance of real estate associations can propel our member companies’ success in achieving their important ESG goals.”
“CREW Network supports this partnership and initiative as an important business strategy to elevate ESG and DEI and create a more equitable industry for all,” concurs Wendy Mann, chief executive officer of CREW Network.
