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DO THE MATH
CREED Council Speaks Up for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion By Barbara Carss
TYING CORPORATE pledges to measurable actions has been a proven formula for navigating change and opening up new business opportunities in commercial real estate. Industry insiders involved in many of those initiatives — whether related to sustainability, proptech or other kinds of repositioning and investment strategies — are endorsing the same tactics to broaden the base, leadership structure and decision-making insight of the real estate workforce. “We need to give diversity, equity and inclusion the space it belongs in our industry,” says Sunita Mahant, Head of Global Initiatives, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Senior Director of Legal Affairs with Ivanhoé Cambridge. “Some of our industry leaders have put this at the forefront. It is a business priority; it is built into their strategic plans today. But I think we are lagging behind. If you take a look at the industry as a whole, and compare 6 September 2021 | Canadian Property Management
ourselves to other industries, we have a lot of work to do.” She and other likeminded proponents have coalesced into the recently launched CREED (commercial real estate equity and diversity) Council — which officially delivered a call to action via an introductory online forum and panel discussion earlier this summer — to build a supporting network and offer resources. Thus far, the CREED Council’s 22-member volunteer board of directors is influentially placed in senior management roles in property management, development, leasing, finance/ investment and various professional support services, and 12 organizations, including commercial real estate companies, industry associations and service providers, have also signed on as partners in the effort. REBALANCING THE WORKFORCE Joining Mahant in the panel discussion, Sonny Kalsi, Chief Executive Officer of
BentallGreenOak (BGO), outlined his company’s hiring policy, adopted in 2020, requiring that two-thirds of new employees be women or minorities. Given the turnover of approximately 100 to 150 staff annually across the property management/property fund firm’s employment base in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia, he sees the policy as an instrument to meaningfully rebalance the composition of BGO’s workforce and make it more reflective of the general population. “Unfortunately, this is an industry that has not been super diverse,” he said. “There are a lot of things that you can and cannot control as a company. You can control who you hire. You can control who you promote. You can control what opportunities you make available.” Dismissing the perceptions of observers who would ter m t he i n it iat ive “revolutionary”, Kalsi suggests it’s more straightforwardly “math” since women
