“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The conversation about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the institutional real estate industry is not a new one, but it needs a new approach — accountability.

For younger people in the commercial real estate industry, the current environment might seem like a novel, inspiring time where real change is going to happen. For the rest of us, we have seen this merry-go-round before, with minimal improvement in increasing diversity over the past 10, 20 and 30 years.

Today, increasingly more data and research support the “business case for diversity” (for more information, see recent research from McKinsey & Co. and Deloitte). Even with research to support the business case to embrace DEI, women and minorities are significantly underrepresented in the institutional real estate industry, especially in the United