RP1: Sustainability Reporting
Maximum Score
3.5 points
Input Method
Assessment Portal
Prefill
Not eligible
Scoring method
Static
Validation
Evidence and Other answer are manually validated
2026 Updates
None
Does the entity disclose its sustainability actions and/or performance?
Assessment Instructions
Intent: What is the purpose of this indicator?
This indicator assesses the level of sustainability disclosure undertaken by the entity. It also evaluates the entity’s use of third-party sustainability reporting review to ensure the reliability, integrity, and accuracy of disclosure.
Input: How do I complete this indicator?
Select yes or no. If yes, select all applicable sub-options.
In all cases:
Select the applicable reporting level. If the entity reports at multiple levels, the most detailed reporting level should be selected.
If applicable, select alignment from the dropdown lists to confirm that your method of reporting is aligned with an external standard or guideline. The list is based on leading international best practice guides for sustainability reporting. If reporting is aligned with more than one standard, select the standard with which there is the most alignment.
The guidelines available for selection are:
INREV Sustainability Reporting Guidelines
EPRA Best Practice Recommendations in Sustainability Reporting
ESRS-aligned reporting
GRI Standards
IFRS Integrated Reporting Framework
INREV Sustainability Guidelines
PRI Reporting Framework
ISSB standards (IFRS S1, IFRS S2)
Other: ____________
State whether the methods of reporting are checked, verified, or assured (select one option; the most detailed level of scrutiny to which the disclosure was subject).
Select the assurance/verification standard (if applicable) from the dropdown menu. If reporting is aligned to more than one standard, select the standard with which there is the most alignment.
Provide a document upload or URL.
The Scheme Lists page contains the complete list of accepted assurance and verification standards.
Additional schemes may also receive recognition if they meet GRESB’s criteria. To submit a new scheme for review, please contact the GRESB team.
The final deadline for submitting a new assurance/verification scheme for review by the GRESB team is March 15th. Schemes submitted for review after March 15th will not be reviewed until the subsequent reporting year.
Terminology
Alignment
To agree and match with a recognized sustainability standard (either voluntary or mandatory).
Annual report
A yearly record of an entity’s financial performance that is distributed to investors under applicable financial reporting regulations.
Externally checked
Applies to instances when a third party has reviewed the data in a structured and consistent process, but no official certification has been awarded.
Externally verified
Applies to instances where a third party has reviewed the reporting against an existing scheme. When this checkbox is ticked, participants must select the scheme name from the dropdown.
Note that GRESB treats verification and assurance equally in the context of the assessment.
Externally assured
Applies to instances where a third party has reviewed the data against an existing scheme. When this checkbox is ticked, participants should select the scheme name from the dropdown.
Note that GRESB treats verification and assurance equally in the context of the assessment.
Dedicated section on the corporate website
A section of the entity’s website that explicitly addresses sustainability performance.
Disclosure
The act of making information or data readily accessible and available to all interested individuals and institutions. Disclosure must be external and cannot be an internal and/or ad hoc communication within the participating entity.
Sustainability actions
Specific activities performed to improve management of environmental, social and governance issues within the entity.
Sustainability performance
Reporting of material indicators that reflect implementation of environmental, social, or governance management.
Entity
Select this reporting level if the disclosure (e.g., Annual Report) directly references the entity being assessed. This includes disclosures that provide specific and detailed actions or performance data for the investable portfolio submitted in the GRESB Assessment, even if the report also covers other entities.
Group
Select this reporting level if the report (e.g., Annual Report) includes the entity being assessed but presents data aggregated for the broader group of companies to which the entity belongs, without detailed performance data specific to the entity itself.
Independent third party
In the context of data review, an independent third party is any entity free from conflicts of interest and undue influence from the organization whose data is being assessed. To be considered independent, the third party must:
Lack corporate affiliations and financial ties
Not be exposed to conflicts of interest (i.e., lacks incentive to bias outcomes)
Be accredited to impartiality standards (e.g., ISO 17029 for verification/assurance or ISO 14065 for GHG verifiers, and ISO 17020)
Uphold internal impartiality policies and/or oversight
Formalize impartiality within the review's contractual engagements
Work completely outside of the organization being assessed (i.e., cannot be contracted to produce the data). However, if the data reviewer does consult the organization on sustainability-related activity, it must:
Firmly separate data review and sustainability consultancy roles
Firmly separate data collection and verification roles
Integrated Report
A report that is aligned with the requirements of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS) Integrated Reporting Framework (formerly the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) Integrated Reporting Framework). Integrated reporting joins relevant information about both the entity's financial and non-financial strategy, governance, performance, and prospects in a manner that conveys the holistic commercial, social, and environmental context in which it operates.
Note that a CSRD-compliant annual report can be considered an integrated report if:
The CSRD sustainability disclosures are embedded within the management report (annual report) rather than presented solely in a separate document.
The narrative in the document aligns sustainability impacts with financial reporting, following principles from the Integrated Reporting Framework.
Investment Manager
Select this reporting level if the disclosure (e.g., Annual Report) includes the entity being assessed but does not provide specific or detailed performance data for it. Instead, the disclosure focuses on aggregated information about the investment management entity or company overseeing the participating entity.
Standalone sustainability report
A report solely dedicated to sustainability or performance.
Reporting Level
Entity: related specifically to the named entity, where entity is defined as the investable portfolio for which you are submitting an Assessment response.
Investment Manager: related to the investment management entity or company of which the participating entity forms a part.
Group: related to the group of companies of which the participating entity forms a part.
Validation: What evidence is required?
Evidence
The evidence provided will be subject to manual validation.
The evidence should sufficiently support all the items selected for this question. If a hyperlink is provided, ensure that it is active and that the relevant page can be accessed within two steps. It is possible to upload multiple documents, as long as it’s clear where information can be found. A piece of supporting evidence cannot be uploaded for more than one disclosure method selected, i.e., identical documents will not be accepted for more than one disclosure type.
General evidence requirements
Content requirements: All evidence must explicitly address sustainability and include actions and/or performance undertaken by the entity; a list of general goals and/or commitments is not sufficient. In order for evidence to be accepted, it should cover at least two of the three pillars of sustainability (i.e., environmental, social, and/or governance). If it meets all other requirements but only one pillar is referenced, the evidence will be ‘partially accepted’.
An exception to this requirement is given for ‘Dedicated Section on Corporate Website.’ If the website covers actions and/or performance for at least one of the three pillars and details about the sustainability program, strategy, and/or objectives, it will be fully accepted.
Reporting level requirements: Answers must clearly reference the applicable reporting level. If entity-level is chosen, then the sustainability actions and/or performance must be directly associated with the entity by name. For example, a fund manager or corporate group can only select entity-level reporting if there is a specific section of the disclosure dedicated to the entity that fully meets validation requirements. Group-level disclosures that do not have sustainability actions and/or performance specific to the reporting entity are not entity-level reports.
Alignment requirements: The evidence provided must support the alignment chosen (if applicable). If listing an alignment that is not predefined, the external standard or guideline must be specified in full (i.e., avoid using acronyms). The evidence should clearly specify the standard to which the disclosure is aligned.
Third-party review requirements:
The evidence provided must support the selected level of third-party review (if applicable).
The assurance and/or verification statement and selected scheme (if applicable) must be included within the evidence uploaded for the chosen disclosure method. Supplementary evidence, such as a letter, can be provided if the disclosure itself does not include confirmation of review.
The evidence relating to the check, verification, and/or assurance must be in reference to the uploaded disclosure method provided (i.e., Annual Report). If submitting an assurance and/or verification letter externally to the report, it must be made clear that the letter applies to the respective evidence.
The assurance and/or verification of sustainability disclosure is separate from the assurance and/or verification of performance data reported in the Performance Component. The scope of assurance/verification of the selected option should cover all sustainability-related information contained in the report and not only the environmental data.
However, note that for evidence validation purposes in 2026, GRESB will only seek to confirm that the third-party review covers a single sustainability topic (e.g., all GHG emissions data). Verification/assurance covering only a single data point (e.g., Scope I emissions) will not be accepted. GRESB will consider more stringent validation requirements regarding the scope of verification/assurance in the future.
*The evidence should confirm that the assurer/verifier is an independent third party to the reporting entity.
*Beginning in 2026, GRESB will request additional documentation from a random sample of participants to confirm the third-party independence of their data assurance/verification provider (as defined in the Terminology section above). GRESB may reject an entity's evidence if it cannot confirm third-party independence.
Disclosure of GRESB results alone (i.e., without any additional analysis or sustainability performance disclosure) is not sufficient for any disclosure type.
Specific evidence requirements per disclosure type
Integrated Report: The document upload or URL provided must contain clear evidence of alignment with the IFRS Integrated Reporting Framework (formerly the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) Integrated Reporting Framework (December 2013)) within the report itself. Note that references to the IFRS accounting standards, IFRS S1 or S2, and SASB are not equivalent. Integrated reports can reference 2025, 2024, or 2023 performance and/or actions.
Annual Report: Annual Reports should cover the reporting year as described in EC4. Annual Reports from the prior reporting year detailing actions and/or performance are acceptable if it is explicitly stated that the Annual Report for the current reporting year has not yet been published. If an entity reports on a semi-annual basis, both semi-annual reports must be uploaded to cover the 12 months of reporting identified in EC4. Similarly, if an entity reports quarterly, all 4 quarterly reports must be uploaded to cover the 12 months of reporting identified in EC4.
Standalone sustainability report: Sustainability reports referencing the current or previous reporting year, as described in EC4, are accepted.
Dedicated section on corporate website: The webpage(s) must include sustainability actions and/or performance undertaken by the entity during the reporting year, as given in EC4, explicitly addressing at least one pillar of sustainability (but can address all three sustainability pillars: environmental, social, governance). A hyperlink to the Annual Report, Sustainability Report, or any other document is not valid. A list of general goals and/or commitments on the website is insufficient.
Evidence requirements ‘Other’: An additional disclosure method, such as third-party forms of disclosure like CDP Questionnaires or UN PRI Transparency Reports, is considered valid. Disclosure methods with a different reporting level can also be provided (i.e., if an entity-level report is provided for a standalone sustainability report, a group-level sustainability report can be provided for ‘Other’). Quarterly updates, Board reports, investor presentations, newsletters, or press releases disclosing sustainability actions and/or performance are considered valid. Ensure applicability to the reporting year as provided in EC4 based on the actions and/or performance disclosed.
Other Answer
The other answer(s) provided will be subject to manual validation.
Add a disclosure method that applies to the entity but is not already listed. Ensure that the ‘Other’ answer provided is not a duplicate or subset of another option selected. It is possible to report multiple ‘Other’ answers. If multiple ‘Other’ answers are acceptable, only one will be counted towards scoring.
Scoring
Scoring: How does GRESB score this indicator?
The scoring of this indicator is equal to the sum of the fractions assigned to the selected options and respective sub-options, multiplied by the total score of the indicator.
Evidence: The evidence is manually validated and assigned a multiplier, according to the table below. The evidence must support the validation requirements.
If any requirements are not met, the evidence may be partially accepted or not accepted depending on the level of alignment with the requirements.
Accepted
2/2
Partially Accepted
1/2
Not Accepted
0
Other: The 'Other' answer is manually validated and assigned a score which is used as a multiplying factor, as per the table below:
Accepted
1/1
Not Accepted
0
Duplicate
0
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use Annex 4 SFDR Periodic disclosure in RP1 as an "Other" accepted disclosure?
Yes. While SFDR would not be sufficient on its own to fulfill the function of a standalone sustainability report, it still contributes to the disclosure of sustainability-related information and can therefore be reported as "Other" ESG disclosure.
Get Support: Solution Providers
GRESB Solution Providers are independent, third-party organizations within the GRESB Partner network that offer specialized products, tools, and services to support sustainability performance outside the GRESB Assessment process.
The organizations below deliver commercially available solutions designed to help drive improvement for this indicator. Engagement is managed directly between the reporting entity and the Solution Provider.
GRESB will continue to update this section as the GRESB Solution Provider network grows. Please check back regularly to find GRESB Solution Providers who can support your sustainability performance.
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