Some difficult DEI questions still loom over the commercial real estate industry: What is the industry doing to diversify its ranks? What companies are getting it right and which are not? Why does the industry that decides how all the modern world lives and works not reflect how the world looks — and why does that matter?

Now there is a new question: Does CRE still have the resolve to pursue its DEI push after the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down affirmative action in college admissions?

Bisnow National Reporter Patrick Sisson learned this week that advocates for and against DEI initiatives now expect a wave of lawsuits, shareholder actions and judicial decisions will reshape corporate diversity policies nationwide — and test the multitrillion-dollar real estate industry.

“Some of the passion, enthusiasm and focus has been lost,” CRE Recruiting founder Allison Weiss said. “And people are so afraid of stepping on a land mine, they’re thinking of other ways of pursuing this that aren’t as risk averse; they look at Budweiser, and public examples of taking a principled stance on diversity.” 

— Mark F. Bonner, Bisnow Editor-in-Chief

P.S. To read Bisnow’s award-winning 2022 DEI Data Series, please click here.