Building Inclusion: Driving Greater HUB Engagement Through Design-Build
How Design-Build Drives HUB Participation
FMI Consulting and the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) recently released the 2025 “Design-Build Utilization Study” on the state of design-build. This report includes valuable feedback from owners and contractors about the state of design-build, and useful feedback on how design-build can drive participation by historically underutilized businesses (HUBs).
HUBs — also referred to as Underutilized Business Enterprises (UBEs) or Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs)—, play an important role in the construction industry. The federal government and the states all have different rules for how to encourage HUB participation in publicly funded construction projects. Respondents in the DBIA report identified three different ways design-build can help or hinder HUB participation.
Design-Build and HUBs
Respondents in the DBIA report emphasized several advantages HUBs bring to construction projects:
- Diversity of thought and innovation
- Stronger community ties and local insight
- Greater flexibility and responsiveness due to smaller firm size
- Enhanced collaboration and open communication
Respondents also noted, however, that a shortage of qualified HUB firms made high participation rates a challenge. They also noted how if HUBs are included as a “check the box exercise”, they won’t be included early enough in the project and their participation may be superficial rather than integral to the project team.
HUB Participation on Design-Build Projects in North Carolina
North Carolina statute has a 10% HUB participation goal and requires documentation of good-faith efforts to recruit HUB subcontractors. This has driven significant increases in HUB participation on public projects over the past two decades. Design-build also has HUB participation and good-faith effort requirements, but owners can also use HUB participation as a selection criteria.
One recent example of how design-build drove increased HUB participation is in Guilford County Schools. They released two design-build RFQs for building renovations that required a higher HUB participation rate and included the HUB plan of the contractor as part of the scoring matrix. This drove both increased HUB participation at the prime contractor level, and pushed teams to get creative in how they were going to meet the aggressive HUB participation requirements for subcontractors.
As one of the DBIA survey respondents put it, design-build helps drive HUB participation through its “ability to select trade partners on criteria other than price.” The qualifications-based nature of design-build allows owners to set the scoring criteria in ways that reflect their values and project goals.
By embedding HUB goals into the early stages of procurement, design-build helps transform what might otherwise be a compliance exercise into a strategic opportunity for innovation, community engagement, and long-term industry change.
Let’s talk about what HUB participation could look like on your next project.
With the flexibility of design-build and a clear commitment to early, intentional engagement, there’s real opportunity to turn inclusion goals into lasting project value.
Curious about the advantages of design-build for your projects?
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