GRESB Roundup: Reflections and Roadmap 

  1. GRESB Real Estate Benchmark grew to cover 7.2 trillion USD in asset value 

The United States recorded the highest number of new participants this year (up from 380 to 433), with the average GRESB scores increasing by a point to 75 for the Standing Investments Benchmark and by two points to 83 in the Development Benchmark. 

It was also promising to see that participation in GRESB jumped by 15% globally, covering 2,084 listed and non-listed portfolios, encompassing approximately USD 7.2 trillion of gross asset value (GAV) across 75 countries and regions.​  

2. Net Zero policies are being set, but commitments and actionable targets are falling behind  

The GRESB results from 2023 revealed that 55% of real estate participants in the Americas have a net-zero policy in place, reflecting a significant step toward sustainability within the industry. However, it’s essential to note that only 39% of these companies have taken the additional step of making their net-zero commitment public, and only 38% have set concrete and measurable net-zero targets. These statistics underscore both the growing importance of sustainability in the real estate sector and the room for improvement in ensuring that these commitments translate into greater transparency meaningful impact. 

3. Waste, Water and Building Certifications have the lowest data coverage across America  

While participants demonstrated almost perfect completion of the qualitative components of the GRESB standards, the quantitative aspects of the performance component presented a different picture, revealing notable data gaps and representing the challenges of collecting data at the asset level.
Specifically, areas that exhibited the lowest data coverage in the Americas in 2023 included waste management (48.3%), building certifications (47.2%), and water efficiency (53.4%). GRESB works with a series of partners, including WatchWire, to help participants increase their data coverage across these areas.   

4. The GRESB Survey in 2024 will see changes across several areas, including energy consumption and performance, GHG performance, building certification, TCFD alignment, physical climate and transition risk, and more 

GRESB announced several changes to the 2024 Real Estate Standards, which include:  

• Defining validity periods and impose an expiration for building certifications 
• Introducing scoring for net-zero target setting 
• Isolating EV charging station-related energy consumption from real estate asset operational energy consumption. 
• Introducing scoring for energy efficiency as “supplemental” insight into operational performance of reported assets 
• Introducing country-level benchmarking and scoring methodology, and provide additional insight into portfolio representativeness of intensity values in cases of incomplete data coverage by participants 
• Allowing residential assets to report multiple energy ratings 
• Expanding an indicator scope to cover strategy around climate-related opportunities 

5. Road to 2024 

While it was promising to see greater participation in GRESB and notable improvements across some areas, there remains room for growth. We look forward to seeing what next year’s reporting journey brings, and to supporting clients through the process. 

Congratulations to everyone who participated this year, and for those of you who didn’t – it’s never too late to start! 

 References 

https://www.gresb.com/nl-en/2023-real-estate-assessment-results/ 

https://gresb-prd-public.s3.amazonaws.com/2023/2023_Reference_Guide/2024_Changes_Real_Estate_Standard.pdf 

https://www.gresb.com/nl-en/insights/2024-gresb-standards-roadmap-changes-and-events/ 

https://gresb-prd-public.s3.amazonaws.com/2023/Foundation/GRESB_Foundation_2024_Roadmap.pdf 

https://www.gresb.com/nl-en/gresb-assessments/ 

https://www.gresb.com/nl-en/road-to-2024/

https://www.gresb.com/nl-en/insights/gresb-esg-benchmarks-grow-to-cover-usd-8-8-trillion-and-shed-light-on-net-zero-momentum-across-real-estate-and-infrastructure-globally/

 Authors 

Annika Prinz & Prerana Tirodkar