Statistics show that improvement is needed to increase representation across the built environment.

In 2021, the NIBS Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Leadership Award was inaugurated into the built environment awards, which are presented during NIBS’ Building Innovation conference.

June’s Pride Month honors and celebrates the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) rights and culture.

Since 2017, Build Out Alliance has pursued its mission to promote and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community within the building design and construction industry. Build Out Alliance President Andrew Torres, a licensed architect, said there were few groups for LGBTQ+ people in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professions at the time.

“Build Out Alliance grew out of a need for representation and support,” he said.

NIBS recently held a workshop for building industry executives to discuss social equity and workforce goals. Three breakout groups of 10-15 individuals convened and discussed problems and solutions.

NIBS recently hosted an invitation-only Women Executives in Building symposium.

More than 40 women attended, and speakers included NIBS board members and women executives from both corporate and nonprofit built environment organizations. Event sponsors included Delta Controls, 84 Lumber, Compass Datacenters, Daiken, and Green Building Initiative.

Highlights included:

The National Institute of Building Sciences has released its 2023 Built Environment Workforce Survey, an update to the 2021 survey, which collected thousands of responses on issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the built environment.

The National Institute of Building Sciences takes social equity in the built environment very seriously.

This month, NIBS convened 30 building industry executives to discuss social equity and goals to steer the future of the U.S. built environment workforce.

The roundtable included participants being carried through exercises to develop an envisioned future of the built environment. The exercises involved breakout groups to ultimately create goal statements to work toward.

The highest-performing goal statements included:

NIBS has secured 20 signatures from leaders committed to supporting greater diversity in the built environment.

The primary goals that CEOs agreed to include building diverse staff and volunteer leadership teams, sharing best practices, and promoting this work with association membership.

Lakisha A. Woods, CAE, President and CEO of NIBS, said this commitment ensures real and equitable change will take place for employees and employers throughout the building industry.

Initially, Michelle Buczkowski considered “being the only” an isolating place.

Buczkowski, vice president of talent management with 84 Lumber, shared during the virtual leadership meeting of the Women Executives in Building on August 31, that many times she felt like the youngest – and only – woman in a room.

“For a while I saw ‘being the only’ as a lonely place,” Buczkowski said. “[Later] all the things that made me ‘the only’ became my superpower.”