British Land has become the first real estate company to achieve one of the top levels of recognition in the Disability Smart Accreditation programme.
Awarded by the Business Disability Forum, the accreditation recognises companies that have used its Smart Framework to plan for and measure their progress towards becoming “disability smart”, removing barriers in how they interact with disabled customers, employees and candidates.
The accreditation follows British Land’s move last year to sign up to the Valuable 500 initiative, a global project aimed at getting 500 of the world’s largest businesses to put disability inclusion on their corporate agendas.
At that time, now-chief executive Simon Carter described diversity and inclusion as “central to driving innovation, understanding our customers and ultimately the success of our business”.
Announcing the company’s latest accreditation, Leanne Williams, chair of British Land’s enaBLe disability awareness employee network, said the company had pushed to ensure that disability inclusion is “an integral part of our company culture and processes”.
“While we are the first company in the sector to gain this accreditation, we hope to see many more follow suit,” Williams added. “Our journey to reaching this point has been hugely inspiring and all businesses could benefit from a greater awareness of the value and needs of disabled members of our community.”
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