As part of the Commercial Real Estate Diverse Supplier (CREDS) Consortium, Nareit and other real estate organizations are joining with SupplierGATEWAY to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across the CRE industry supply chain.
CREDS and SupplierGATEWAY are launching a two-year pilot program that will help REITs and CRE stakeholders identify, articulate, and track their discretionary procurement spending on service providers, contractors, joint venture partners, vendors, and other businesses and enterprises owned by minorities and women.
This partnership offers a great opportunity for REITs and publicly traded real estate companies to identify and use minority/women-owned business enterprises (MWBEs) for any of their service provider needs and to help make meaningful progress toward creating a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive industry.
The benefits of using Supplier GATEWAY
SupplierGATEWAY is a MWBE, which is used by many businesses, including Nike, Amazon, Target, the city of Boston, the NBA, and more. It offers a range of services, such as:
- a vendor database,
- procurement matching software,
- an online portal,
- MWBE-certification program,
- vendor spending analysis tools, and
- other capabilities to support a cost-effective supplier diversity program.
Other members of the CREDs Consortium
- International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
- Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)
- NAIOP, Commercial Real Estate Development Association
- National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC)
- The Real Estate Roundtable (RER)
- Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Network
Nareit members can participate in the pilot program by signing their own subscription agreements with SupplierGATEWAY, and details about the process are on the CREDS Consortium website.