What's New
Stay up-to-date on developments to GRESB's reporting experience, resources, and Standards.
Published March 31, 2026
Updated September 4, 2026
Guidance Clarification Log
BC2 scoring: (BC2: Energy Ratings): Clarified that GRESB calculates a percentage of floor area covered by energy ratings, capped at 100%, rather than a "rated floor area" value.
Ownership period (R1: Asset Characteristics): Clarified that the Ownership From and Ownership To fields must be completed when an asset was purchased and/or sold during the reporting year.
To support consistent data entry, the Asset Spreadsheet column headers were updated and a confirmation step was added to the Asset Portal aggregation process, requiring participants to confirm that assets purchased or sold during the reporting year have been reported correctly.
Asset Spreadsheet Header Adjustments
Asset Characteristics Tab
Reporting Characteristics Tab
Asset Portal UI Adjustments
Aggregation Confirmation Page
Validation exemption criteria (PO1-3): Clarified that GRESB reapplies fully accepted validation decisions from the previous year, regardless of whether the entity changes its evidence or selections.
Reporting scope boundary: Introduced conditionality to the reporting scope scenario in which a reporting entity has financial stake in a company that owns real estate (scenario #1 here).
Tenant fit-out & refurbishment program scoring (TC3): Removed an inapplicable sentence from the scoring explanation.
Sustainability senior decision-maker (LE4): Removed an inapplicable sentence from the instructions.
Improved Reporting Experience
In direct response to member feedback, GRESB has introduced several enhancements to reduce workload, improve usability, and strengthen data quality:
Asset Analytics Improvements
Live Data
Available from April 1, the Live Data tab of Asset Analytics experience in the Asset Portal simplifies GRESB reporting by providing real-time asset-level insights, helping you understand, validate, and act on your data before submission.
Real-time asset-level visibility using the GRESB methodology, enabling earlier validation of data coverage, like-for-like and energy efficiency eligibility, and intensities during the assessment cycle.
Early identification of data gaps and quality issues before aggregation, helping streamline review, reduce corrections, and support a more controlled submission process.
Submitted Data
Available from April 15, Submitted Data tab of Asset Analytics gives you access to asset-level records from previous submissions—so you can quickly reference historic Asset Spreadsheet data and review the analytics that were generated from it.
Streamlined Output
Whether you're exporting live or submitted data, the Portal now consolidates Energy, GHG, Water, and Waste metrics into a single file. This makes key performance data easier to access, review, and share.
Additional Asset Portal Improvements
Make asset level workflows more intuitive and easier to navigate
Several improvements are focused on making the Asset Portal easier to use day-to-day. These include more consistent navigation, improved page naming, a permanent left-side navigation menu on the asset page, and clearer back button behavior. Together, these changes help participants move more confidently through asset level workflows.
Improve visibility of asset status and validation issues
GRESB understood a need from members to identify problems earlier and more clearly. Improvements such as a sortable Status column for sold and owned assets, year-level validation highlighting, and showing the number of errors in the left-side menu are designed to help users quickly spot what exactly needs attention and where the error is located.
Strengthen data quality controls at source
A major theme in the Asset Portal improvements is preventing avoidable errors before they flow through to the Assessment Portal, aggregation, and scoring. This includes blocking edits where an asset name is a duplicate, standardizing duplicate-name import error messages, flagging suspicious ownership percentages such as values at or below 1%, flagging assets with extremely low GFA, and distinguishing between days owned for calendar year and fiscal year logic.
Make import workflows more reliable and easier to understand
A number of changes aim to make Asset Spreadsheet imports reflect reality more closely and reduce confusion during the upload process. These include improved import statuses, better alignment between the import modal and portal behavior, aligned column names between the import error table and CSV export, and locking Asset Spreadsheet column formats in the template to reduce formatting related issues.
Assessment Portal Improvements
Make reporting scope workflows easier and less manual
A key improvement area for users based on member feedback is that GRESB introduced a pre-filled Reporting Scope Evidence Template exportable directly from the Portal.
This directly reduces the amount of manual work needed to translate portfolio boundary decisions into assessment responses. This reduces copy paste effort and lowers the risk of errors. With country and property-type level aggregation having become more granular in years past, participants previously needed to re-enter this information into the R1 and DR1 Reporting Scope Evidence templates manually.
In addition, there is now a clearer interface with direct links between the R1 and DR1 tables in the response and the Asset Portal enhancing visibility and interoperability.
Flag indicators with scoring changes
Indicators with a scoring change due to Standards Updates will now be flagged with a 2026 Scoring Update label and linked to corresponding guidance.
Standard Methodology Insights Report
Launched in late 2025 and available to Real Estate Participants in the GRESB Portal, this report enhances transparency around methodological changes and provides participants with early, illustrative insights into potential scoring impacts ahead of the 2026 Assessment cycle.
The analysis in the report applies the 2026 Standard to the data you submitted for the 2025 GRESB Real Estate Assessment. The insights in the report are purely illustrative and not predictive—they are designed to help participants anticipate the possible influence of the 2026 updates, particularly changes related to general Standard updates (embodied carbon and indicator retirement and weighting adjustments) and technical refinements (GHG Scope reclassification and ownership period). Results from 2026 will depend on new data submissions, shifts in relative benchmarking, broader market developments, and reporting behavior that cannot be modeled in advance.
All GRESB Members who participated in the 2025 Real Estate Standing Investment or Development Benchmark can now access their 2026 Standard Methodology Insights report directly in the Portal from the Reports section of each reporting entity.
Please note that the report is not available to Investor Members and cannot be shared with investors in the Portal.
New Real Estate Lender Assessment
Building on a multiyear collaboration with real estate lenders and investors globally, the GRESB Real Estate Lender Assessment is a structured, independently validated framework purpose-built for lenders. It evaluates how sustainability considerations are embedded across lending practices and delivers validated, comparable insights for credit and investment teams.
Explore the guidance and watch an on-demand webinar to learn more.
Real Estate Standard Development
Public Consultation: Road to Performance
From February to April the GRESB Foundation sought feedback on proposed updates to strengthen performance-based scoring in the future Real Estate Standard.
The public consultation is now closed.
2026 Real Estate Standard Updates
The 2026 Real Estate Standard continues the multi-year trajectory toward a more transparent, predictable, and decision-useful framework. This year’s updates focus on strengthening data quality, increasing comparability, and rewarding measurable performance.
In addition, GRESB launched the 2026 Standard Methodology Insights report in late 2025, available to Real Estate Participants in the GRESB Portal. The analysis in the report applies the 2026 Standard to the data you submitted for the 2025 GRESB Real Estate Assessment. Learn more here.
Key changes include:
Reward more credible, measurable performance
Embodied carbon: Now scored, recognizing upfront carbon measurement and transparency
Net zero: Strengthened requirements to improve credibility and alignment with industry frameworks, including clearer target definition and asset coverage
Reallocate points toward higher-priority topics
Retirement of select indicators (e.g., LE3, SE2.2) and weighting adjustments across key areas such as climate risk, human capital, tenant engagement, and target setting
Continued focus on raising expectations without changing the overall structure of the Assessment
Improve technical accuracy of performance data
GHG Scope reclassification to better align with leading frameworks
Ownership period refinements in the aggregation model to more accurately reflect holding periods
Clarify reporting and reduce inconsistencies
Enhanced guidance on estimation methodologies
Additional renewable energy procurement options
New non-binary gender identity option in human capital reporting
GRESB Assessment Q&A Webinar
On April 1st, the GRESB Member Success Team held a live webinar for participants to discuss and ask questions about the 2026 Real Estate Assessment.
Watch the session on-demand here:
Resources & Support
GRESB Guides
GRESB launched the GRESB Guides platform in 2026 to streamline access to key information and create a more intuitive user learning experience.
Updated structure: In response to Member feedback, each assessment now has its own dedicated space consolidating key guidance into an all-in-one platform.
AI-supported search feature (Beta): GRESB Guides now includes an enhanced search feature that provides short, AI-supported answers directly from the search box. This feature is currently in Beta (testing phase) while GRESB continues to refine it and collect user feedback. Always verify responses against the official guidance and review this disclaimer before use.
GRESB Helpdesk
The GRESB Helpdesk is powered by the GRESB Member Success Team, dedicated to providing GRESB Members (Investors, Participants, and Partners) with timely and responsive support on the GRESB Assessment.
GRESB Participants requiring additional assistance with their submission can also refer to our network of contracted GRESB Partners. See our Partner Directory.
Strengthen Your Submission with GRESB
The GRESB Member Success team provides expert support and services to help strengthen your submission and improve outcomes.
Starting April 1, participants can request a Pre-Submission Check—an evidence validation review which includes a one-hour call and a report outlining findings and feedback.
New in 2026 - Premium Support:
Technical Expert Touchpoint: Available year-round, this service provides focused, one-on-one face time engagement with a GRESB Member Success expert, offering tailored guidance at any stage of your GRESB journey.
Success Suite: A new bundled offering that brings together core premium support elements in the GRESB journey, including: one GRESB AP seat, one Technical Expert Touchpoint, one Pre-Submission Check, eligibility to opt in to Assessment Correction, and one Results Performance Review (formerly Results Consultation).
For any questions about the Assessments, services, or products, please contact the GRESB Member Relations team.
About GRESB Guides
This section will guide you through everything you need to know about the improvements GRESB made to its educational material in 2026. It categorizes these improvements as:
Structural changes: Understand how to find the content you're looking for.
Guidance clarifications: Learn about member-driven clarifications to GRESB guidance.
Structural Changes
GRESB Guides replaces the legacy resource areas (e.g., documents.gresb.com) with a more practical user experience that reflects how participants complete GRESB Assessments. The content remains completely aligned with the GRESB Standards; what changed is the accessibility and clarity of guidance.
This section summarizes the location of legacy guidance materials in GRESB Guides. To identify the exact location of key information, GRESB strongly recommends using the search bar at the top of the screen.
Tip: Filter your search for "Only the current section" to generate more precise results.
Guidance Clarifications
General Clarifications
Language Clarity
Modified content for grammatical correctness and consistency, and updated terminology where needed to improve clarity across the site
Indicator Intents
Refreshed indicator intent sections to ensure they remain aligned with the goals of the GRESB Standards
Performance Metric Scoring
Improved the read-ability of performance metric (e.g., data coverage, energy performance, like-for-like) scoring explanations
Specific Indicator Clarifications
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