What is GRESB? Everything you need to know.

Sometimes it shows up as a number in an investor deck. Sometimes it’s a yearly reporting headache. Sometimes it’s just one of those initialisms everyone seems to understand except you.

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The GRESB (Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark) caters to real estate investors and asset managers who can use the findings from the annual survey to strategise and improve the sustainability of their investments. 

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What’s changed in recent years is not just how often GRESB comes up, but how seriously it’s being taken. GRESB has grown from a disclosure-focused benchmark into something much closer to a performance and risk signal. And that shift has real consequences for how real estate portfolios are managed, financed, and valued.

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This article explains what GRESB is, how it works today, and – crucially – why recent and upcoming changes matter more than they used to.

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What is the GRESB?

GRESB is a Dutch organisation that provides environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data for financial markets. It was founded in 2009 and helps set benchmarks for the real estate industry by evaluating infrastructure and investments worldwide. The data from GRESB reporting essentially allows investors with real estate portfolios and asset managers to assess the sustainability performance of their properties. 

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It’s a member-led organisation that includes investors and stakeholders from the real estate industry, and therefore, the organisation uses data from those members to evaluate, score, and benchmark. GRESB’s assessments aren’t limited to buildings but also include infrastructure such as roads, railways, and utility systems. 

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It’s not an environmental certification per se, but it may be used with other certifications. If buildings in a real estate portfolio have some green certification, they may receive a better GRESB rating. 

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Each year, participating real estate companies and funds submit data on how their portfolios are governed, operated, and improved across environmental, social, and governance topics. GRESB validates that data, applies a scoring methodology, and benchmarks participants against peers with similar asset types and geographic exposure.

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The result is a standardised ESG performance score that investors can use as a common reference point. Participation is voluntary, but adoption is widespread, particularly among institutional investors who want a consistent way to compare portfolios without reinventing ESG due diligence every time.

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Who is the GRESB for?

GRESB’s assessments are ideal for real estate and infrastructure stakeholders, whether it’s investors, fund managers or developers. Unlike sustainability reporting regulations and certain green certifications, a GRESB assessment is voluntary. 

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It’s a globally recognised assessment that uses comprehensive third-party data validation and helps create industry-wide benchmarks that participating companies can use. By extension, the GRESB rating is also useful for investors who have invested in real estate projects or are planning to. Participants may use the rating to report to investors or attract new ones.

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Besides the assessments, participants can also tap into the ESG tools offered by GRESB that may help improve ESG management and policy-making. 

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How can the GRESB assessment help real estate investors and managers?

GRESB assessments and rankings aim to enable decision-makers behind real estate assets to understand their ESG performance. This can be instrumental in helping investors decide which of their investments meets their sustainability expectations. 

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On the other hand, it can be beneficial for property companies to show investors their sustainability competitiveness. A PWC survey revealed that investors want to see more clarity on ESG data. An assessment like GRESB that follows a comprehensive data validation methodology and turns it into easy-to-understand scoring can be useful in satisfying investors.

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Four types of GRESB assessments

GRESB offers four types of assessments catering to various real estate investments and projects. Let’s dive into each of them.

GRESB real estate assessment

The GRESB real estate assessment is for listed property companies, developers, private real estate funds and investors. Based on data collected from over 2,000 participants and investors, it produces global ESG benchmarks for the industry. In 2024, GRESB's real estate assessment covered over 200,000 assets, a number expected to grow as new companies join the industry. 

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The assessment follows international reporting frameworks and aims to identify material issues relevant to asset sustainability performance. The ESG data submitted by participants and investors undergo a robust validation process. Based on the data from peers, individual companies or investor portfolios are scored and benchmarked. 

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The findings are supposed to help decision-makers identify areas for improvement and adjust their investment strategies accordingly. The data also allows them to find opportunities to decrease the environmental impact of their real estate assets. 

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It produces two benchmarks, which consider the assets’ management and performance indicators. These are the GRESB real estate benchmark (for operational buildings) and the GRESB development benchmark (for buildings in planning or construction). Each participant receives a score, which can be compared with peers. 

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GRESB infrastructure fund assessment

Infrastructure funds invest in public assets and services such as roads or utility systems. The GRESB infrastructure fund assessment examines the management of such funds in terms of ESG impact. It’s similar to a real estate assessment, resulting in individual scores and industry benchmarks. 

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With validated ESG data from this assessment, infrastructure funds can report to their investors or attract new investment. The assessment mainly focuses on the management component, which examines policies, leadership, target-setting, reporting, risk management, and stakeholder engagement. 

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The performance component of the assessment is optional, and assets under the fund may choose to participate. However, at least 25% of a fund's assets must participate to receive a performance score.

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GRESB infrastructure asset assessment

As you can probably guess, this GRESB infrastructure assessment is conducted at the asset level for investors, fund managers and asset operators. It looks at the ESG data of individual assets and scores them. This type of assessment can enable asset operators, their investors, or fund managers to understand the ESG performance of assets and identify where they stand relative to their peers.  

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The assessment process and timeline are similar to those of real estate assessment. The data is self-reported by participating members. This type of assessment is available to infrastructure assets across different sectors, including power generation, transport, data infrastructure, energy and water resources, and social infrastructure. Unlike the fund assessment, the asset assessment has a mandatory performance component, which looks at the ESG performance of individual or multi-assets. 

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GRESB infrastructure development asset assessment

The GRESB infrastructure development asset assessment is the organisation’s latest offering. It focuses exclusively on planned or under-construction infrastructure projects and the sustainability of pre-operational infrastructure assets. 

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The assessment applies materiality based on location, sector and development phase. The idea is to provide actionable data and create benchmarks for large infrastructure projects worldwide in the early stages. With this assessment, asset operators and investors can pivot their plans and efforts to improve ESG performance during and after the development phases. 

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Shortcomings of the GRESB benchmarks

GRESB has been scrutinised for its structure, as it relies on industry insiders for data. Their motto, ‘for industry, by industry,’ reflects that. As data used in the survey is self-reported by investors or companies, the integrity and quality of that data have been questioned. 

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However, the organisation's advocates say that its assessment standards are in line with international frameworks. They also argue that involving stakeholders from the real estate sector is important so they have a say in shaping ESG standards. 

How the GRESB Real Estate Assessment works today

The GRESB Real Estate Assessment is submitted annually and covers both how sustainability is managed and how buildings perform in reality.

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Assessments follow an annual cycle, starting on April 1 and closing on July 1. Members report their data in a member portal, and once they’ve done that, the assessment period begins. This is followed by the early release of the assessment exclusively for members. GRESB reporting for a particular year isn’t made public until late in the year (September and October). 

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Here’s a breakdown of the process:

• Survey: GRESB conducts the annual survey that collects information from real estate and infrastructure companies and funds regarding their sustainability performance. The survey covers various aspects such as energy consumption, carbon emissions, water usage, waste management, and social responsibility initiatives

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• Scoring: Based on the information provided in the survey, GRESB scores each participating entity on different criteria related to ESG performance. These criteria typically include management practices, performance indicators, and stakeholder engagement

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• Benchmarking: GRESB compares each participant's performance against its peers within the same sector or region. This allows companies and funds to see how they compare to wider industry standards and identify areas for improvement

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• Assessment Correction: Before the results are announced publicly, the assessments are released to the members, which kicks off the assessment correction period (previously called the review period). During this period, participants may request corrections if they find errors in their assessments and scoring

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• Reporting: GRESB publishes the results of its assessment, providing investors, asset managers, and other stakeholders with insights into the sustainability performance of real estate and infrastructure investments. This phase also involves the review period, where participants can consult on the assessment findings and scoring based on benchmarks

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On the management side, the assessment looks at governance, policies, risk management, and target-setting. These elements still matter, but they no longer dominate the score in the way they once did.

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On the performance side, GRESB relies heavily on asset-level data: energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, water, waste, and building certifications. This data is aggregated to portfolio level and benchmarked against comparable peers.

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That design choice has become increasingly important. Because the assessment is built from the bottom up, the quality and coverage of asset-level data directly shape the outcome. Weak data doesn’t just create uncertainty; it limits scoring potential.

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How GRESB has evolved – and why it matters

If GRESB once had a reputation for rewarding good intentions and well-written policies, that reputation is now outdated. Over the past few years, GRESB has been very explicit about the direction it’s moving in: away from disclosure for its own sake, and toward measured performance, comparability, and accountability. The updates rolling through 2024, 2025, and into 2026 all reinforce that trajectory.

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What’s changing in practice

One of the most important shifts is the growing emphasis on real-world performance. GRESB increasingly rewards portfolios that can demonstrate how energy use and emissions are actually changing over time, not just how ambitious their strategies sound on paper. Improvement trajectories matter. Stagnation shows.

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At the same time, data quality has moved to centre stage. GRESB now looks much more closely at how much of a portfolio is genuinely covered by reported data, how much is estimated, and how consistent that data is across assets and years. Gaps are no longer easy to gloss over. If large parts of a portfolio rely on assumptions, the score reflects that.

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There’s also a clear move away from portfolio averages as a comfort blanket. Asset-level granularity matters more than it used to, and underperforming buildings are harder to hide. From an investor perspective, that’s deliberate: it makes transition risk easier to spot.

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Climate risk and net-zero targets have also come under sharper scrutiny. It’s no longer enough to declare an ambition; targets are expected to be clearly defined, to cover relevant parts of the portfolio, and to connect to actual performance and investment planning. In other words, GRESB is asking whether a transition plan could realistically survive contact with the assets it applies to.

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Looking ahead to 2026, embodied carbon becomes part of scoring rather than just a data-collection exercise. That’s a meaningful shift. It signals that development choices, major renovations, and material decisions are now considered part of long-term sustainability performance – not something separate from operations.

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Finally, there’s a stronger expectation that ESG data should be defensible. Clear methodologies, documentation, and audit trails are increasingly encouraged. This mirrors a broader industry trend: ESG data is well on the way to being treated less like marketing material and more like financial information.

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What this means for real estate owners

For owners and managers, the implication is fairly straightforward, even if the execution isn’t. GRESB is no longer something you can deal with once a year by assembling spreadsheets and narratives. It increasingly reflects how well buildings are actually understood and managed on an ongoing basis. Asset-level insight matters. Data gaps matter. Weak performance shows. Put simply, GRESB is becoming a proxy for operational grip.

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What this means for investors

For investors, the changes make GRESB more useful – and more demanding. Scores are becoming easier to interrogate, less reliant on narrative, and more closely linked to real performance and transition risk. That makes it easier to challenge managers, to identify portfolios that rely heavily on assumptions, and to focus engagement where it really counts. 

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The bigger picture

GRESB hasn’t changed overnight. But it has grown up. It’s evolving into a framework that rewards measured performance, relies on granular and credible data, and reflects long-term asset resilience rather than short-term storytelling. For real estate owners and investors alike, understanding GRESB today isn’t just about chasing a score. It’s about understanding how buildings perform now – and how exposed they may be in the future.

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FAQs

What does GRESB stand for?

GRESB stands for Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark. It’s an organisation that rates and benchmarks real estate portfolios and assets, as well as infrastructure funds and assets, based on self-reported ESG data from members. 

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What is the GRESB rating in real estate?

The GRESB Rating depends on the GRESB Score and where the entity stands compared to others in the GRESB group. They adjust this every year. If a company is in the top fifth, it gets a five-star rating. If it's in the bottom fifth, it gets just one star.

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Is there a GRESB certification?

GRESB doesn’t certify real estate assets. Instead, its assessment provides a score and ranking. Participating real estate companies and investors can compare their scores with their peers to see where they stand regarding ESG performance.

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