Actions for Black History Month & Beyond

As Black History Month draws to a close soon, I encourage you to ensure you are reflecting on how to action the important insights provided by our Black colleagues and allies passionate about driving positive change.

Educate yourself. Understand the barriers. Devise your action plan to shift the dial moving forward.

Whether you are an individual or acting on behalf of an organisation, it is incumbent on you to help create a more inclusive and rewarding environment where Black and Ethnic minority candidates and workers are supported to thrive and grow their careers.

Here are 5 ways to help you do just that:

1. Understand the data - delve into the stats and insights that can be drawn from it.

Understanding critical diversity data is an essential step, and helps to identify areas for focus and your action plan.

• For a discussion of the importance of measuring diversity and summary of the data captured by our annual Diversity Survey (by the Sustainability Tool ) for the built environment: Advancing Ethnic Diversity - The Value of Data.
• For a broader view on data in the context of the skills and talent challenges facing the sector, see this article: Achieving Net Zero: The Talent & Skills Challenge .

2. Listen to the voices of Black experts, changemakers and passionate EDI specialists and allies working together to drive change.

Collaboration is important, and there is plenty of it happening. For example:

• Black & Ethnic Minority Experiences in the Built Environment Conference : Recording of deep dive into applicants and workers from Black and Ethnic minority backgrounds and issues around recruitment, promotion, retention, reward and more, delivered by the Supply Chain Sustainability School (UK) and featuring a whole line up of speakers from across the sector.
• Advancing?Racial Equality in the Built Environment : Joint event recording for event hosted by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) , and jointly presented by RICS ,?The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) ,?Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) ,?Landscape Institute ,?Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) ,?and the?Royal Town Planning Institute .

3. Increase your knowledge and skills to support advancement of racial and ethnic equity.

Knowledge and skills are essential to drive change.

Utilise the Fairness, Inclusion & Respect Programme (FIR) and engage (for free) with virtual and in-person initiatives including:

• FIR Toolkit - online resources in a variety of formats.
• FIR Growth Assessment - structured maturity assessment tool for businesses.
• Training and Events - webinars, workshops, e-learning and conferences on a range of FIR topics including, relevantly, race and intercultural competence , cultural diversity , race and ethnicity in the management pipeline , FIR onsite , and achieving business success through FIR . Simply sign up (for free) or sign in as a member to access all content.

4. Become part of the movement.

Don't just sit on the side lines... commit to upskilling to support positive change.

Join our FIR Ambassador Network to learn how to act and be allies in your business.

With different FIR Ambassador badges to earn, ongoing learning and initiatives and the support from a network of passionate people across the sector, we have made it easier for you to take positive action to support diversity and inclusion.

5. Elevate the voices and achievements of your Black colleagues and clients and those driving change.

Nominate those organisations and individuals who are doing great things to advance fairness, inclusion and respect in the built environment for our annual Inspiring Change Awards !

2024 nominations will reopen early 2024 with the Awards to be announced at our next Inspiring Change Conference to be held in June 2024.

Join us!

Collaborate with us and be part of the action to achieve equity across the built environment.

You can access the FIR Programme on our Website or via our LinkedIn Page .

The Fairness, Inclusion & Respect Programme is an initiative dedicated to helping organisations address workplace culture challenges and building inclusive and respectful environments across the built environment sector.

The Supply Chain Sustainability School is a multi-award-winning initiative which represents a common approach to addressing sustainability within supply chains. The School is part-funded by CITB and industry Partners. It is delivered by an independent third-party consultancy, Action Sustainability , which provides equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) expertise to help businesses drive their EDI agenda.

The Diversity Survey is the largest built environment sector dataset based on industry agreed diversity metrics and delivered by the Sustainability Tool for organisations and their supply chains. It enables organisations to enhance supplier diversity initiatives, improve selection and decision-making, and strengthen stakeholder relationships as they move forward on their EDI goals.