Seven real estate trade associations have forged a first-of-its-kind alliance to foster supplier diversity in the real estate industry. The Commercial Real Estate Diverse Supplier (CREDS) Consortium aims to expand economic opportunity for minority and women-owned business enterprises (MWBEs) and further diversify industry supply chains.
CREDS Consortium associations include the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Network, ICSC, Mortgage Bankers Association, NAIOP, Nareit and The Real Estate Roundtable. Participating associations will highlight CREDS tools that their members can use to identify, track, report and procure products and services from MWBEs and companies owned by veterans, LGBTQ+ persons and people with a disability.
“ICSC is committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the Marketplaces Industry and giving our members ways to identify and source MWBEs is one way we can do this,” said Tom McGee, president and CEO, ICSC. “The CREDS Consortium helps meet the growing demand for diversity in service providers and offers our members direct access to the tools and resources they need to support their own DEI goals. We are proud to be a founding member of the Consortium and look forward to working closely with the partner organizations to further this important initiative.”
The CREDS Consortium has launched a two-year pilot program that will run through the end of 2024 with SupplierGateway, a leading supplier management software platform and minority-owned firm that automates and simplifies supplier and vendor management. SupplierGateway’s products include supplier sourcing, registration, risk management, compliance and management — and provide support for corporate responsibility, diversity and inclusion goals.
Members of the CREDS associations can subscribe — at a discounted price — to SupplierGateway’s software platform to search for, connect with and potentially hire MWBEs as contractors, service providers, vendors and joint venture partners. CREDS associations’ subscribing members can access the vendor management software and a comprehensive database of MWBE suppliers through the Consortium’s portal page, hosted by SupplierGateway. Hiring companies will also be able to post their purchase orders and other contracting opportunities through the CREDS portal.
“Our partnership with the CREDS Consortium is an important component of our mission to generate meaningful economic impact at scale for our customers. Each member of the CREDS associations can now create meaningful social impact at the local level without sacrificing efficiency, cost or risk,” said Ade Solaru, founder and CEO, SupplierGateway.
The Consortium said it hopes the pilot program will yield broad insights into supplier diversity trends across the commercial real estate industry.
