Avison Young: Portraits of Progress

Avison Young is powered by people, and we have a strong passion for and commitment to creating economic, environmental and social impact wherever we operate.

Our impact report looks back to summarize our ESG performance alongside perspectives from our people on the topics that matter most to us – climate action, diversity, equity, inclusion and community impact. We continue to share our challenges, learnings and achievements along the way, in the spirit of transparency, cooperation and collaboration – knowing that the more we all share, the further we’ll go together.

We’ve created a library of stories of impact championed by just a few of our people, but there are thousands more of us all dedicated to creating environmental and social impact in our roles every single day. We’re proud to present this collection as evidence of the global impact that comes from the intense collaboration and everyday local transformations we’re making for ourselves, our industry and our clients.

An intentional approach to an impactful report

Women Photograph is a non-profit that launched in 2017 to elevate the voices of women and nonbinary visual journalists. Their private database includes more than 1,400 independent documentary photographers based in 100+ countries. Their mission is to shift the makeup of the photojournalism community and ensure that the industry’s chief storytellers are as diverse as the communities they hope to represent.

This year, Avison Young has partnered with Women Photograph and engaged some of their incredible photojournalists to capture powerful portraits of our people and at the same time, shine a light on gender equality – a shared challenge for our industries. While industry-wide change has been slow, we are committed to supporting a gender-balanced workforce and industry. We’re a Globe St Diversity Champion, CREW Partner and are actively working to advance women in real estate. 

Partnering with female and nonbinary photographers is just one more way we can highlight the diversity challenges facing our industries. “The vast majority of documentary and commercial photographers working today are men. That has a huge impact on how we see the world — from what communities we’re able to access to how we choose to portray them. Women Photograph is dedicated to building community and resources that will help us collectively push towards parity, and a more holistic way of documenting our world”, explains Daniella Zalcman, Founder and Executive Director of Women Photograph.