S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of real estate news stories published throughout the week.

Companies in the real estate sector have increasingly been adopting carbon-neutrality goals across their portfolios in recent years, outlining various measures to cut energy usage and to use renewable sources, among other things. A company can purchase carbon offsets and renewable energy credits, in theory neutralizing its own carbon footprint by slashing emissions somewhere else. Buying offsets means sponsoring measures to reduce emissions by the same amount elsewhere, allowing a company to claim carbon-neutrality, The Real Deal reported.

Experts say that while carbon-neutrality is good, the key to fighting climate change is reducing overall emissions as much as possible, according to the report. Real estate properties account for up to nearly one-third of U.S. emissions. Striving for net-zero emissions means cutting emissions as much as possible, including retrofitting older buildings, weather-proofing properties and installing more efficient energy systems, and then striving to offset the remaining emissions somewhere else.

While carbon-neutrality has its critics, supporters argue that a greater amount of emissions can be reduced for the same cost as would be put toward implementing internal changes. Critics point out that carbon-neutral goals will not stop global warming, and that the climate crisis requires net-zero carbon emissions going forward, according to the report. Future changes in laws may end up costing property owners who have not upgraded their portfolios to make their buildings more energy efficient.

M&A beat

* Canada-based WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust received the go-ahead from the Supreme Court of British Columbia for the sale of its entire outstanding trust units to an affiliate of Blackstone Inc.'s Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc. in a US$3.1 billion transaction.

* Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. CEO Christopher Nassetta said at a session held by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing that the hotel industry is expecting to see a wave of consolidation, but his company will not play a meaningful role because it does not lack a strategic gap, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Shareholder activism

* Activist investor Elliott Investment Management LP urged Healthcare Trust of America Inc. to conduct a strategic review to maximize shareholder value after the departure of Chairman and CEO Scott Peters.

Property moves

* Starwood Capital Group Management LLC paid $407 million for 11 industrial sites in the Phoenix metropolitan area, the Phoenix Business Journal reported, citing county records and real estate database Vizzda.

* Easterly Government Properties Inc. formed a joint venture with an unnamed investor to acquire a 10-property portfolio for roughly $635.6 million. The 1,214,165-square-foot portfolio is fully leased to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Easterly will have a 53% stake and the partner will have a 47% stake.

* Dream Industrial REIT signed a deal to buy properties in Ontario totaling 1.4 million square feet for C$270 million, taking its total expected 2021 acquisitions up to at least C$2.5 billion.

* An entity associated with communications REIT American Tower Corp. acquired a 130,000-square-foot data center in Orlando, Fla., for up to $154 million, the Orlando Business Journal reported, citing documents filed with Orange County.

* Former U.S. President Donald Trump's company is in advanced talks to sell the rights to the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., to CGI Merchant Group, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The lease deal is expected to be priced at nearly $400 million, one of the people told the news outlet.

J.P. Morgan maintains top spot in real estate common equity underwriters YTD

Morgan Stanley, Citigroup move up in REIT M&A league table in Q3

Morgan Stanley set to earn landmark REIT M&A fee on VICI Properties deal

75 US REITs announce dividend increases YTD through September-end

REITs see slight drop in overall short interest during latter-half of September

Canadian real estate capital market activity in Q3 up by almost 20% YOY