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Speaker 1: Let's get to our guest. Uma Moriarty is with this

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Speaker 1: investment strategist and analyst and E. S. G Lead at

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Speaker 1: Center Square Investment Management, joining us from Philadelphia. Uma, thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for being with us. Were you paying

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Speaker 1: attention to anything that came out of a COP twenty

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Speaker 1: seven over the weekend, and if so, does it give

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Speaker 1: you um kind of a positive feeling? Thanks for having

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Speaker 1: me And yes, you know, absolutely. I think the the

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Speaker 1: urgency around addressing climate change, around the fact that we

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Speaker 1: need to have coordinated global efforts in terms of actually

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Speaker 1: combating climate change and its impacts, I think it's something

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Speaker 1: that is gaining a lot of attention currently. This was

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Speaker 1: the first time that such a meeting happened after the

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Speaker 1: passage of the I r A here in the US.

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Speaker 1: So I think there's a lot of work to be

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Speaker 1: done across across the world, and I'm excited to see

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Speaker 1: what we continue to see from from developments from nations,

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Speaker 1: not only developed nations in terms of our you know,

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Speaker 1: in terms of our fight against climate change Genet's impacts here,

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Speaker 1: but also the way that we're actually bringing along some

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Speaker 1: other emerging countries that really truly need some of our

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Speaker 1: financial assistance in order to make this happen. What about

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Speaker 1: emerging technologies. I mean, we talked a lot about wind,

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Speaker 1: we talk a lot about solar. I'm wondering whether there

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Speaker 1: are a couple of guys in a garage somewhere working

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Speaker 1: on something that is more bleeding edge, so to speak.

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Speaker 1: Are you familiar with with technologies that may be attracting

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Speaker 1: the interest of venture capital, something that may go more

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Speaker 1: mainstream in a year or two, Let's say absolutely. If

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Speaker 1: if we think about what has really been happening in

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Speaker 1: the VC space, especially this year, as we've seen tech

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Speaker 1: in in a broader sense, especially in the public markets,

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Speaker 1: really get re rated. We have seen a continuous amount

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Speaker 1: of interest in climate tech related investments in in the

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Speaker 1: private markets, and that's coming. You know. We we look

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Speaker 1: at rural state here at Center Square and we think

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Speaker 1: about the types of technologlogy really needed in terms of

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Speaker 1: prop tech to understand the impact of the built environment

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Speaker 1: on the climate and then from there start actually making

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Speaker 1: an impact. I mean, this technology is really really at

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Speaker 1: the forefront, and we're seeing a lot of really fantastic

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Speaker 1: investments in this space. So a lot to come here,

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Speaker 1: and I think it's going to be one of the

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Speaker 1: largest areas from a real estate perspective as we move

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Speaker 1: forward in the coming decade, is how we deploy technology

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Speaker 1: across rural estate to really impact the way that the

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Speaker 1: built environment can can have a positive impact on the

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Speaker 1: environment and and help, hopefully at some point even start

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Speaker 1: to reverse some of the impact on global warming and

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Speaker 1: climate change that we have seen. When we look at

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Speaker 1: these new ways of generating electricity, be it wind, be

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Speaker 1: its solar, storage then becomes a critical issue. I mean,

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Speaker 1: is this kind of late if you were looking to

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Speaker 1: get in Is the storage space pretty much mature at

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Speaker 1: this point? There is still a lot of room to run, right,

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Speaker 1: So if you think about just where we are currently

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Speaker 1: sourcing energy from and how we can actually store that

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Speaker 1: alternative renewable energy on site and then deploy in a

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Speaker 1: reliable way, it requires a lot of different sources, right,

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Speaker 1: So you can't solely make make an environment that's dependent

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Speaker 1: on solar. You can't just depend on when you can't

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Speaker 1: just depend on on one of these areas. And so

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Speaker 1: in terms of actually using some sort of additional technology

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Speaker 1: to store that energy on site to be able to

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Speaker 1: deploy in a reliable way, I think is one of

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Speaker 1: the one of the areas in which there is a

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Speaker 1: lot of work happening today and more to come. So

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Speaker 1: when you're a portfolio manager, let's say, of an E

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Speaker 1: s G fund, what is the conventional view on nuclear power?

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Speaker 1: You know, that's a really interesting question. And as we

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Speaker 1: think about where we look at E s G, especially

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Speaker 1: from a real estate perspective here at Center Square, one

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Speaker 1: of the big areas of focus for us is understanding

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Speaker 1: how our portfolios are generally reading scope one, scope to

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Speaker 1: Scope three emissions and by that, I mean the emissions

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Speaker 1: that we can actually control on site and then the

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Speaker 1: emissions that are generated off site. And a lot of

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Speaker 1: that really has to deal with the way that you

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Speaker 1: are able to currently deploy some of these really cutting

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Speaker 1: edge technologies, and you know, it might seem somewhat mundane,

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Speaker 1: but even just how we think about concrete, for example,

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Speaker 1: right when you're developing new assets, what type of carbon

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Speaker 1: emissions are associated with that concrete and how it comes

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Speaker 1: into that building, that entire supply chain is something that

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Speaker 1: we're really focused on, and that's how we think about

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Speaker 1: the way that we are generating carbon emissions across our

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Speaker 1: role state portfolio waist in which we can measure ways

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Speaker 1: in which we can manage and that's the way that

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Speaker 1: we're actually managing our E s G portfolios here at

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Speaker 1: Center Square is really thinking about the environmental impact, the

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Speaker 1: social impact of the built environment in terms of our

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Speaker 1: carbon footprint, the social impact between the relationship between human

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Speaker 1: health and well being and the built environment. We spend

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Speaker 1: nine of our time indoors, So these are the types

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Speaker 1: of nuanced ways that we're thinking about the way that

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Speaker 1: rural state impacts E s G. And that's how we're

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Speaker 1: really looking at our portfolios today. Well, that's an interesting

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Speaker 1: point when you mentioned a building material like concrete, and

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Speaker 1: that kind of segues away from the notion of greener

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Speaker 1: energies to the idea of recycling and coming up with

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Speaker 1: building materials that have had a former life maybe as

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Speaker 1: a plastic or it's some kind of composite. Are are

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Speaker 1: you finding companies that are building building materials and investable

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Speaker 1: opportunities companies that are taking recycled components and making new

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Speaker 1: building materials from them. Absolutely. Actually, at Center Square, a

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Speaker 1: big part of our investment strategy, especially on our private

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Speaker 1: equity side, is a value add business right we're taking

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Speaker 1: existing obsolete rural estate and really repositioning it in a

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Speaker 1: way that makes it much more functional and and it's

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Speaker 1: given community. And in order to do that, we're actually

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Speaker 1: taking a lot of what's over the on site in

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Speaker 1: that building and repurposing it, right, And so there are

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Speaker 1: really interesting ways in which you can take that existing

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Speaker 1: material and repurpose it to reduce your overall carbon footprint

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Speaker 1: but also help in terms of going towards a more

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Speaker 1: circular economy to reduce that waste as you mentioned, So,

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Speaker 1: is this more like reclamation of old industrial sites? I mean,

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Speaker 1: I know you're in Philadelphia, the north side of town.

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Speaker 1: If you take the train from New York to Philly,

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Speaker 1: you just see acres and acres of this abandoned the

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Speaker 1: old school industrial real estate. Is this type of Is

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Speaker 1: this the type of land that you're talking about? Absolutely,

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Speaker 1: that's actually a really fantastic example of the type of

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Speaker 1: value add projects we might be able to do. Right, So,

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Speaker 1: we're looking at things like excess corporate rules state. Let's take,

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Speaker 1: for example, a old manufacturing physiclity that no longer really

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Speaker 1: is part of a company's physical footprint. Right, we can

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Speaker 1: take that, we can turn it into Class A last

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Speaker 1: mile industrial distribution centers. We can turn it in to

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Speaker 1: create an office space. There are a lot of ways

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Speaker 1: that we can take these obsolete types of buildings and

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Speaker 1: really reposition them to be more functional in their communities. Uma,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for being with us. Interesting conversation.

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Speaker 1: Uma Moriarty is investment strategist, analyst and e s G

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Speaker 1: Lead at Center Square Investment Management. Joining us from Philadelphia

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Speaker 1: here on Daybreak Asia