AvalonBay Launches Partnership With the National Urban League and Commits to 2025 Leadership Diversity Goals
December 01 2020 - 4:15PM
Business Wire
AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE: AVB) today announced a
partnership with the National Urban League and new company goals to
increase diversity in leadership by 2025.
AvalonBay will make a $150,000 commitment in 2021 to the
National Urban League, an historic civil rights organization
dedicated to economic empowerment, equality, and social justice.
“We’re excited to launch this multi-year partnership which will be
led by our Black Associate Coalition, one of several AvalonBay
employee resource groups,” said Rukus Esi, Senior Vice President,
Chief Digital Officer and Leadership Sponsor of AvalonBay’s Black
Associate Coalition (BAC). “We will engage associates as well as
residents living in our apartment communities across the country to
work with and support the National Urban League’s pursuit of racial
equity and justice.”
"Corporations that recognize the value of a diverse and
inclusive workforce are able to draw from a vast pool of talent and
experience,” said National Urban League President and CEO, Marc H.
Morial. "AvalonBay is helping to create an economy that is not only
more equitable, but more dynamic and robust."
AvalonBay also set goals to increase the diversity of its
leadership team (defined as officers and director-level associates
and above), specifically to:
- Increase the representation of women in leadership from our
current level of 35% to a level at parity* with the overall
presence of women in the relevant workforce (currently 41%) by
2025.
- Increase under-represented minorities in leadership from our
current level of 15% to 20% by 2025 and to 25% by 2030.
AvalonBay will seek to meet these goals not by quotas or
mandatory preferences, but by broadening recruiting methods and
recruiting sources, by training ourselves to understand and address
everyday biases, and by continuing to develop a diverse group of
qualified associates for potential promotion to leadership.
Additionally, over the past six months, AvalonBay implemented
several programs to continue to create and promote an inclusive and
diverse workplace where everyone can thrive, including:
- Joining the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion pledge and,
most recently the Nareit Dividends Through Diversity, Equity &
Inclusion (DDEI) CEO Council.
- Launching three new Associate Resource Groups: Black Associate
Coalition (BAC), Latinx Employees of AvalonBay for Diversity (LEAD)
and Associate Rainbow Coalition (ARC) as well as broadening the
reach of our Women’s Leadership Network (WLN).
- Offering Disrupting Everyday Bias and Building Ally Skills at
Work training courses.
- Hosting Empower Hours where associates share and listen to
topics related to inclusion and diversity.
“We have made significant strides during the past year and
recognize that there is still much more to do to ensure our
leadership team reflects the diversity of the labor force and the
customers that we serve, and we are committed to communicating and
tracking our progress in our annual Corporate Responsibility
Report,” said Timothy J. Naughton, Chairman and CEO of
AvalonBay.
*Please note that parity is defined as achieving a level within
+/-2% of the available workforce as documented by third party
resources by level and function. Source: TalentNeuron (which uses
Census NAICS industry codes, years of experience, education, and
65k sources of data including Census, job boards, proprietary
database and Gartner Insights).
About AvalonBay Communities, Inc.
As of September 30, 2020, the Company owned or held a direct or
indirect ownership interest in 294 apartment communities containing
86,676 apartment homes in 11 states and the District of Columbia,
of which 19 communities were under development. The Company is an
equity REIT in the business of developing, redeveloping, acquiring
and managing apartment communities in leading metropolitan areas
primarily in New England, the New York/New Jersey Metro area, the
Mid-Atlantic, the Pacific Northwest, and the Northern and Southern
California regions of the United States. More information may be
found on the Company’s website at http://www.avalonbay.com.
About National Urban League
The National Urban League is a historic civil rights
organization dedicated to economic empowerment in order to elevate
the standard of living in historically underserved urban
communities. The National Urban League spearheads the efforts of
its 90 local affiliates through the development of programs, public
policy research and advocacy, providing direct services that impact
and improve the lives of more than 2 million people annually
nationwide. Visit https://nul.org/ and follow us on Facebook,
Twitter, and Instagram: @NatUrbanLeague.
Copyright © 2020 AvalonBay Communities, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
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Mark Delisi Vice President Corporate Responsibility AvalonBay
Communities, Inc. 703-317-4707 CR@avalonbay.com
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