LAB IN ACTION

This unique partnership between RealAssetX, Deepki and UCL (University College London) will focus on some of the most pressing ESG topics for commercial real estate today. Below are some of the topics that this pioneering partnership will aim to tackle over the coming years. We believe this partnership is exceptionally placed to tackle these issues given our unique approach and access to unparalleled sets of data and ESG expertise.

Decarbonization 

Our strategy utilizes the energy performance, technical and financial data of PGIM Real Estate's assets to implement a decarbonization strategy in conjunction with the ongoing research work at UCL. We believe the combination of this data together with Deepki's ESG and data expertise, can lead to innovative ideas and retrofit strategies such as:

• Comparing retrofit strategies across different asset classes and countries 
• Linking retrofit strategies with construction costs and raw material shortage
• Assessing the relationship between retrofit strategies and local regulations

Green Premia

One of the challenges we face is determining how to accurately measure and quantify the green premium and/or the brown discounting across different asset classes and markets. This cross-disciplinary area of research requires the expertise of both valuers and economists.

Examples of greenium and brown-discounting effects include:

• Quantifying the impact of sustainability on valuations through regional variations. Greeniums may vary across different regions due to variations in local regulations, market demands and even cultural perspectives in sustainability.
• Taking a broad approach to evolving standards.  As sustainability practices and techniques continue to evolve, we will compare and contrast various standards against the data collected to refine our strategies for the future.