Skip to Content

ULI Global

  1. Global
    1. ULI Global
    2. Americas
    3. Asia Pacific
    4. Europe
  2. Knowledge Finder

    Explore our latest research and best practices

    For Members Only

  3. Member Directory

    Connect with members around the world

    For Members Only

  4. Navigator

    Find ULI opportunities to lead and volunteer

    For Members Only

    1. Urban Land Magazine
    2. ULI Foundation
    3. ULI Learning
  1. Donate
  2. Contact
Join ULI
ULI Americas

Main Menu

  • About ULI About ULI
    • Overview
    • Mission & Commitment
    • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
    • Contact Us
    • Staff Directory
    • ULI Career Opportunities
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Press Room
    • Advertising & Sponsorship
    • Annual Report
  • Events Events
    • Overview
    • Upcoming Events
    • ULI Americas Digital Program
    • Housing Opportunity
    • Spring Meeting
    • Fall Meeting
  • Membership Membership
    • Overview
    • Join ULI
    • Refer a Member
    • Corporate Partnerships
    • Benefits
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Code of Ethics
  • Councils Councils
    • Overview
    • District Councils
    • Product Councils
    • ULI Forums
  • Programs Programs
    • Overview
    • Advisory Services
    • Awards & Competitions
    • Career Center
    • ULI Learning
    • UrbanPlan
    • Leadership Network
  • Research Research
    • Overview
    • Case Studies
    • Centers & Initiatives
    • Climate & Energy
    • Economy & Capital
    • Infrastructure
    • Housing
    • Planning & Design
    • Public Sector
  • Publications Publications
    • Overview
    • Urban Land Magazine
    • Bookstore
    • Case Studies
ULI Americas

Search

Full Menu

ULI Americas

ULI Global

  • ULI Global
  • Americas
  • Asia Pacific
  • Europe
Knowledge Finder Explore our latest research and best practices Member Directory Connect with members around the world Navigator Find ULI opportunities to lead and volunteer

More

  • More
    • Urban Land Magazine
    • ULI Foundation
    • ULI Learning

Search

Main Menu

  • About ULI About ULI
    • Overview
    • Mission & Commitment
    • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
    • Contact Us
    • Staff Directory
    • ULI Career Opportunities
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Press Room
    • Advertising & Sponsorship
    • Annual Report
  • Events Events
    • Overview
    • Upcoming Events
    • ULI Americas Digital Program
    • Housing Opportunity
    • Spring Meeting
    • Fall Meeting
  • Membership Membership
    • Overview
    • Join ULI
    • Refer a Member
    • Corporate Partnerships
    • Benefits
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Code of Ethics
  • Councils Councils
    • Overview
    • District Councils
    • Product Councils
    • ULI Forums
  • Programs Programs
    • Overview
    • Advisory Services
    • Awards & Competitions
    • Career Center
    • ULI Learning
    • UrbanPlan
    • Leadership Network
  • Research Research
    • Overview
    • Case Studies
    • Centers & Initiatives
    • Climate & Energy
    • Economy & Capital
    • Infrastructure
    • Housing
    • Planning & Design
    • Public Sector
  • Publications Publications
    • Overview
    • Urban Land Magazine
    • Bookstore
    • Case Studies
Donate Contact Join ULI
  1. Research
  2. Centers & Initiatives
  3. Building Healthy Places Initiative
  4. Industry, Buildings, Community

Social Equity Resource Hub

The Social Equity Resource Hub is designed to help real estate professionals learn about social equity and translate that knowledge into real estate practice to help shape more equitable outcomes.

  • Overview

  • Using the Database

  • Glossary

  • Criteria for Inclusion

Featured Resource

10 Principles for Embedding Racial Equity in Real Estate Development shares ten guiding ideas that can help developers, investors, and other practitioners make racial equity a central part of their real estate practice. Using these principles, real estate professionals will be better equipped to urgently work toward creating a more equitable real estate industry that will foster more equitable community outcomes and greater project success.

READ THE REPORT

DEI at ULI

ULI is dedicated to improving the environments in which all people live, work, and play. In line with this mission, ULI has developed a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategy that recognizes DEI as a fundamental force for creating thriving communities for the future. The Hub is aligned with ULI’s DEI work, which you can learn more about here.

Overview

Through educational resources and actionable guidance, the Hub will empower industry actors to foster change at the personal, company, industry, and policy scales. By working at these different levels, real estate professionals can make social equity central to the development process, and, in turn, help shape more equitable outcomes for communities.

Using the Database

The following database contains resources on social equity and real estate, and ULI’s Building Healthy Places Initiative will continue to add to it over time. Please reach out to [email protected] with any ideas for resources.

Resources on Social Equity and Real Estate

Resource Description Resource Type
Net Zero for All: A Just Transition for Real Estate This report provides an introduction for real estate owners, developers, and investors to understand why and how to center marginalized communities in the process and outcomes of achieving net zero.

Net Zero ● Social Equity
Publication

Business Case
Financing Equitable Development: A Survey of Sources and Approaches This discussion paper outlines key financing sources and approaches and their potential and key challenges to leveraging them more widely for equitable development projects.

Finance ● Equitable Development ● Social Equity
Publication

Business Case
Reshaping the City: Zoning for a More Equitable, Resilient, and Sustainable Future This report shares promising insights and examples of zoning updates from across the US that have been crafted to promote healthy mobility, support increased housing affordability, and build more equitable places.

Policy ● Housing ● Development
Publication

Business Case

Framework
The Case for Social Equity in Real Estate (ULI Los Angeles) This report makes the for focusing on social equity in real estate, and challenges the notion that equitable projects will have a negative impact on return on investment (ROI). It encourages industry professionals to adopt practices that support social equity in the Los Angeles region.

Development ● Social Equity
Publication

Business Case
Unfound Opportunities: Investing in Underserved Communities (ULI Los Angeles) This report aims to increase appropriate and long term sustainable development in under-invested communities in Los Angeles by dispelling misconceptions about financial risks -- ideas which have informed lending practices and governmental procedures.

Development ● Social Equity
Publication

Framework
Change for Good: Lessons from ULI’s District Council Task Forces for Health and Social Equity Member-led task forces organized by ULI district councils in Chicago, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Tampa worked during 2019 and 2020 to address local policy and regulatory barriers to the creation of healthier and more equitable places. This report summarizes local findings and recommendations.

Policy ● Housing ● Transportation
Publication

Program Findings
Environmental Justice and Real Estate This ULI report features interviews with leaders from the Fifth Avenue Committee, Catalyst Miami, Initiative for Energy Justice, and The Greenlining Institute, and seeks to elevate these perspectives to help built environment professionals address the effects of structural racism and community disinvestment through the perspective of environmental justice.

Environmental Justice ● Race and Racism ● Climate Change ● Disinvestment
Publication

Interviews
Global Real Estate DEI Survey 2021 The Global Real Estate DEI Survey 2021 presents results from the only corporate study of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) management practices and data benchmarking in the commercial real estate industry, including 161 unique companies, 435,000 full-time employees, and $2.4 trillion in AUM in North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe.

Diversity ● DEI ● Real Estate Companies
Publication

Survey Results
Global Real Estate DEI Survey 2022 The Global Real Estate DEI Survey 2022 presents survey results and includes DEI management practices and metrics that allow participants to benchmark themselves against the industry and their peers to identify ways to run their businesses more effectively, efficiently, and inclusively.

Diversity ● DEI ● Real Estate Companies
Publication

Survey Results
Health and Social Equity: State of the Market This report presents a snapshot of real estate professionals’ awareness and adoption of practices supporting health and social equity, and identifies opportunities for further implementation of such practices by real estate organizations and ULI.

Health ● Social Equity
Publication

Assessment

Project Profiles
Health and Social Equity: Examples from the Field By demonstrating what companies have already achieved at their properties, and their motivations for doing so, this report aims to accelerate the uptake of health and social equity.

Health ● Social Equity
Publication

Business Case

Project Profiles
Our City, Our Future: Recommendations for Building Resilient Chicago Neighborhoods (ULI Chicago) ULI Chicago convened four task forces to help identify key physical, social and economic elements that help build resilience at the neighborhood and at the city level and developed recommendations to encourage and nurture them in Chicago’s neighborhoods.

Resilience ● Chicago
Publication

Program Findings
Social Impact: Investing with purpose to protect and enhance returns The report explores opportunities and challenges for the expansion of social impact investing from the perspective of strategic approach, risk management and capital sources, making recommendations for the wider real estate industry.

ESG ● Impact Investing ● Social Impact ● Social Value
Publication

Business Case

Framework
Zooming in on the S in ESG This report aims to develop a shared and better understanding of how to define, create, measure and optimize social value across the real estate industry. The report also maps existing frameworks and tools used to measure, manage and report on social value and guidance towards a roadmap on how to incorporate social value creation in real estate.

ESG ● Measurement ● Social Value Creation
Publication

Business Case

Framework
Introduction to ESG in Real Estate By defining ESG and studying its historic, global, and multidisciplinary drivers, students in this eight-hour four-module course will recognize the advantages of launching an ESG program for their real estate companies.

ESG ● Real Estate Companies
Learning Module

Leading with Impact: Becoming a Force for Good in Commercial Real Estate Developed for those working in real estate development, finance and investment, or related industries, this course provides insight and guidance into how to conduct yourself more ethically and provides skills and tools to empower better decision making.

Finance ● Development ● Personal
Learning Module

Special Topics in Development This is a two part course for development professionals and others in the real estate industry interested in learning about the principles and concepts related to equitable development and how equitable development goals can shape community engagement processes and development outcomes.

Equitable Development ● Community Engagement
Learning Module

Real Estate and Social Equity This reading list compiles non-ULI resources on real estate and social equity.

DEI ● Housing ● Urban Planning ● Parks ● Real Estate ● Transportation
Reading List

Moving Towards More Equitable Development This reading list compiles Urban Land articles on equitable development, an approach for meeting the needs of underserved communities through policies and programs that reduce disparities while fostering places that are healthy and vibrant. [Member Wall]

DEI ● Equitable Development
Reading List

On the Rise: Social Equity and Health in Real Estate This ULI webinar provides an overview of key takeaways from the Health and Social Equity in Real Estate companion reports and profiles of real estate leaders who clearly show how social equity and health in real estate is on the rise.

Health ● Social Equity
Webinar

See the related Health and Social Equity in Real Estate companion reports.
Beyond the Building Real Estate Strategies for the Social Equity Imperative In this innovative 2021 Fall Meeting session, real estate leaders shared their health, social equity, and racial justice journeys, and reflected on how they are translating their personal values into their professional practice.

Personal ● Race and Racism ● Development ● Finance
Webinar

2021 Fall Meeting Session
Parking Policy Innovations in the United States This interactive report allows users to access information on policies from cities across the United States. A searchable, filterable database includes a range of recent policy examples that represent significant shifts from the status quo depending on the local context.

Transportation
Database

Equitable Finance Resource List This resource list shares challenges and opportunities related to real estate finance and social equity.

Race and Racism ● Development ● Finance
Resource List

Personal Journey Toward Anti-Racism Resource List This resource list shares challenges and opportunities related to personally working toward anti-racism.

Personal ● Race and Racism ● Anti-Racism ● Education
Resource List

Return to top.

Glossary

Antiracism: active, intentional actions toward racial justice and against all forms of racism.

Belonging: the feeling of security and support when there is a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity for a member of a certain group. (Cornell)

BIPOC: acronym for Black, indigenous, and people of color.

Diversity: intentional representation of different minorities or underrepresented populations with considerations of race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and disability status. (PNC)

Equality: ensuring that every individual has an equal opportunity to make the most of their lives and talents, and believing that no one should have poorer life chances because of where, what or whom they were born, what they believe, or whether they have a disability. (Equality and Human Rights Commission)

Equitable development: an approach to creating healthy, vibrant, communities of opportunity. Equitable outcomes come about when smart, intentional strategies are put in place to ensure that everyone can participate in and benefit from decisions that shape their neighborhoods and regions. (PolicyLink)

Equitable processes: broadly, processes that define workflow or approaches with an equity lens. Processes are broad and industry-specific. In the real estate industry, they range from customer-facing ones such as the real estate development process to internal business ones such as hiring and communications. (Juanita Hardy)

Equity: just and fair inclusion into a society in which all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential (PolicyLink)

There are many types of equity. Definitions from the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) include procedural equity (inclusive, accessible, authentic engagement and representation in processes to develop or implement programs or policies) and distributional equity (fair distribution of benefits and burdens across all segments of a community, prioritizing those with highest need, as a result of programs and policies).

Equity lens: consideration of equity dimensions of involvement, process, values and assumptions, and outcomes, from a perspective that highlights how practices hold potential to shift power toward inclusion and equity. (Center for Nonprofit Advancement)

Inclusion: authentically bringing traditionally excluded individual and/or groups into processes, activities and decision/policy making in a way that shares power. (Racial Equity Tools)

Intersectionality: the complex and synergistic ways in which different aspects of identity combine and overlap.

Justice: the elimination of barriers that create the need for equity-focused interventions. (Combination of several definitions)

Marginalized: groups and communities that experience discrimination and exclusion (social, political and economic) because of unequal power relationships across economic, political, social and cultural dimensions. (National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health). This report uses marginalize as a verb to describe the act of discriminating against or excluding people within unequal power relationships.

Privilege: unearned social power accorded by the formal and informal institutions of society to all members of a dominant group (e.g., white privilege, male privilege). Privilege is usually invisible to those who have it because they are taught not to see it, but it nevertheless puts them at an advantage over those who do not have it. (Colours of Resistance Archive, “Privilege” via Racial Equity Tools)

Racial equity: the condition that would be achieved if one’s racial identity no longer predicted, in a statistical sense, how one fares. When we use the term in this report, we are thinking about racial equity as one part of racial justice, and thus we also include work to address root causes of inequities, not just their manifestation. This includes elimination of policies, practices, attitudes, and cultural messages that reinforce differential outcomes by race or that fail to eliminate them. (Racial Equity Tools)

Alternative definition: transforming the behaviors, institutions and systems that disproportionately harm people of color. Racial equity means increasing access to power, redistributing and providing additional resources, and eliminating barriers to opportunity in order to empower low-income communities of color to thrive and reach full potential. (Greenlining Institute)

Racism: both individual acts of prejudice and discrimination and systemic and structural factors leading to inequitable outcomes on the basis of race.

Social equity: impartiality, fairness and justice for all people. (United Way of the National Capital Area). Distinct from racial equity, it refers to all people; in addition to race, it includes gender, ethnicity, age, and other factors.

Structural racism: a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity. It identifies dimensions of our history and culture that have allowed privileges associated with “whiteness” and disadvantages associated with “color” to endure and adapt over time. Structural racism is not something that a few people or institutions choose to practice. Instead it has been a feature of the social, economic, and political systems in which we all exist. (Aspen Institute)

Systemic racism: in many ways synonymous with structural racism. If there is a difference between the terms, it can be said to exist in the fact that a structural racism analysis pays more attention to the historical, cultural, and social psychological aspects of our currently racialized society. (Aspen Institute)

Underserved: people and communities who were historically and are systemically provided with inadequate services, infrastructure, and other essentials, denied opportunity and investment, and often discriminated against. This report uses underserved rather than other commonly used terms, such as disadvantaged, to highlight unjust policies and practices. Other terms can inaccurately imply differences in community characteristics. (Combination of several definitions)

Return to top.

Criteria for Inclusion

The Hub includes a combination of educational materials on social equity and resources for implementing best practices. Each resource is also geared toward a specific audience within real estate and tagged with the topic(s) it covers. To be included in the Hub:

  • Each resource must be designed for a real estate audience and focused on social equity.
  • Each resource must either be educational or provide practicable guidance.
  • Each resource must advance knowledge or action at one or more of these scales: personal, company, industry, or policy.

The Hub primarily features resources developed by the Urban Land Institute to address gaps in existing resources for real estate professionals, or by ULI in partnership with other organizations doing aligned work. Resource lists also direct members to relevant resources that already exist outside of ULI.

Return to top.

Get in touch!

Connect with Building Healthy Places to suggest resources that are missing from this page by emailing [email protected].

Contact Us

ULI Global
  • Member Directory
  • Join ULI
  • Career Center
  • Foundation

Customer Service

Phone: 1-800-321-5011

Email: [email protected]

ULI Americas

URBAN LAND INSTITUTE AMERICAS
2001 L STREET, NW
SUITE 200
WASHINGTON, DC 20036-4948

Mission Statement

The mission of the Urban Land Institute:
Shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide

Footer Links

About ULI

  • Mission & Priorities
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
  • Contact Us
  • Staff Directory
  • ULI Career Opportunities
  • Leadership & Governance
  • Advertising & Sponsorship
  • Press Room
  • Annual Report

Events

  • Upcoming Events
  • ULI Americas Digital Program
  • Spring Meeting
  • Fall Meeting

Membership

  • Join ULI
  • Refer a Member
  • ULI Subscriber
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Benefits
  • Code of Ethics

Councils

  • District Councils
  • Product Councils
  • ULI Forums – Old – Spring 2022

Programs

  • Advisory Services
  • Awards & Competitions
  • Career Center
  • ULI Learning (opens new window)
  • UrbanPlan
  • Leadership Network

Research

  • Case Studies
  • Centers & Initiatives
  • Climate & Energy
  • Economy & Capital
  • Housing
  • Curtis Infrastructure Initiative
  • Planning & Design
  • Public Sector

Publications

  • Urban Land Magazine
  • Bookstore
  • Case Studies
  • Marketplace
Facebook. Will open in a new window. Twitter. Will open in a new window. LinkedIn. Will open in a new window. . Will open in a new window. YouTube. Will open in a new window.

©2023 Urban Land Institute. All Rights Reserved. Legal Notices

Sign in with your ULI account to get started

Forgot password?

Don’t have an account? Sign up for a ULI guest account.