Buildings are a major contributor to climate change, estimated by the US Green Building Council to account for 39% of US carbon emissions, and yet less than 1% of construction revenues are reinvested into research and development.

Real estate is known for being an industry that's slow to transact, with every deal requiring the parallel or linear workflows of a number of parties – legal, title, appraisal and finance – and the challenges of making this work happen quickly is a contributing factor to the illiquidity of real estate as an asset.

Set to launch later this year, a global index for private infrastructure debt and equity aims to make a significant and lasting impact in the valuation and risk-adjusted performance measurement of unlisted assets.

The Deloitte report, 'Blockchain in commercial real estate. The future is here.' explores the value proposition of blockchain technology and its applicability to property leasing and management, and purchase and sale transaction processes.

Artificial intelligence (AI) was the focus of the latest in the series of World Built Environment Forum webinars.