If you think forests are only about construction products, think again. Timberland investing has changed and in today’s market requires a differentiated approach to investing, one that includes the kind of climate-smart forestry that creates value for investors, stores carbon and helps mitigate the impact of climate change. Bettina von Hagen, co-founder and CEO of Ecotrust Forest Management explains.

Over the years, it has been impossible to escape the growth story, draw and influence of China — for real estate investors and the global economy. Now, that growth story is being disrupted by a black swan event, which in this case is a microscopic, highly contagious novel coronavirus — officially known as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) — that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei provence in December 2019. As of Feb. 28, the World Health Organization increased its assessment of the risk of spread and risk of impact of COVID-19 to “very high” at the global level.

Bernard Looney, BP’s new chief executive, wants to cut his company’s greenhouse gas emissions down to zero by 2050. To do that, the world’s sixth-largest energy company is committing itself to massive investment in renewable energy, including wind, solar and biofuels.

The optics aren’t good and too often neither is the return on investment. The problem is there might not be a good alternative. That’s the situation for older nontraded real estate investment trusts. Going back about four years, a popular strategy for nontraded REITs facing a liquidity event was to merge with affiliated REITs, meaning one or more REITs under the same management umbrella. It has not been the optimal solution and, on the surface, it appears to be a bit of self-dealing.

The warehouse business has become hyper-localized because of the e-commerce revolution and consumer expectations that instant gratification comes to those who refuse to wait. A study by Deloitte found 64 percent of consumers were not willing pay extra for two-day shipping, and that study dates back to 2017. Three years later the percentage of consumers insisting they will give no-extra-pay-for-anything-but-first-day deliveries has only grown.

Co-living companies plan to open more than 55,000 beds in the next few years and have raised hundreds of millions of dollars of equity to meet their expansion targets. Institutional investors have taken notice and interest by traditional real estate buyers is rising rapidly, says a report from CBRE and Streetsense.

Yes, Pepper is her real name — not a stage or professional name, or even a nickname. She was Pepper Lindsley at the time of her birth, named in remembrance of her grandmother, who had passed away a few years prior, and whose surname was Pepper. She never thought Pepper was an unusual name because she grew up in rural Philadelphia with many family members whose surnames were Pepper.

With the U.S. economy extending its growth streak past a decade, and recession forecasts getting pushed back to 2021 and beyond, it’s easy to lose sight of potential long-term headwinds. However, that doesn’t lessen the importance of issues such as the rising federal budget deficit, weak productivity and labor force growth, and climate change.

Virginia-based utility Dominion Energy recently committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, joining 28 electric sector companies that have publicly put forward ambitious clean energy targets. Policymakers on the state and federal level — and even internationally — are also calling for a reduction in carbon emissions. The momentum is clear: The future will be carbon-free.

Investor confidence continues to ride high behind robust deal flow, increasing M&A expectations and strong portfolio performance, according to the Global PropTech Confidence Index from MetaProp, a proptech venture firm. The fallout from the failed WeWork Cos. IPO, as well as the move into an election year, brings some uncertainty to the space, which may explain the drop from six months ago.

Not all hotels are created equal — or hotel categories, depending on prevailing economic trends. The hotel category has been hot — despite formidable competition from Airbnb and other sharing-economy players of its ilk — but the hotel category is cooling.

The federal government’s latest energy projections are out, and they portray a U.S. energy future that continues to be driven by natural gas and oil. It’s a future noteworthy for continued production growth, greater efficiency, the United States as a net energy exporter and emissions progress. All are connected in various ways to shale reserves and safe, modern hydraulic fracturing — and at risk if fracking were banned as some have advocated.

Infrastructure investment is, perhaps, one of the easiest assets to understand. There are different financing models and ways to acquire the assets, but as stand-alone investments, one-word descriptions such as roads, bridges, airport and grids, paint a pretty vivid picture. That picture, however, is being complicated by the growth of technological needs in everyday life, which has changed the nature of what infrastructure is and what it can be. Broadband, fiber-optic, 5G, hyperloop and smart-city needs are becoming more commonplace — and so has the investment needed to build the 21st century’s infrastructure.