2026 Development Asset Standard Updates

Introduction

Updates to the GRESB Infrastructure Standards maintain the direction of travel established by the GRESB Foundation. The 2026 updates include further development aligned to our members’ needs and to reflect ongoing change and progress in the industry. Updates include measures to further streamline the reporting process and raise the bar for sustainability reporting.

Summary of Updates

Click on each indicator code for detailed information about the summarized updates below.

Topic	Indicator	Description	Reporting Impact	Validation Impact	Scoring Impact
Sustainability Reporting	RP1	Indicator simplified so that only one disclosure type is required. List of third-party standards expanded to include SFDR.	Reduced reporting burden. Participants are only required to identify elements of a single sustainability report.
Risk Management	RM1	Removal of the option to report management systems that lack alignment to a standard. Addition of ISO 50001 to the list of standards.	Participants may report on management systems aligned with or accredited by ISO 50001.
Climate Resilience	RM4	Updated climate scenarios to reflect most recent NGFS data and discontinuation of the 2°C scenario from CRREM.	Participants may select the most recent climate scenarios.

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Simplification of Sustainability Reporting Indicator

RP1

Background & Purpose

The intent of the Sustainability Reporting (RP1) indicator is to assess the level of sustainability disclosure undertaken by the entity, including disclosure of sustainability actions and performance. Given the complex and comprehensive nature of the content within the indicator, and recognizing that its scoring system does not always award best practice, the indicator will be streamlined and updated to reduce reporting burden and reward only best practice.

The changes will shift the focus from awarding entities based on the number of channels through which they report sustainability data to recognizing the quality and reach of their disclosures.

Description

GRESB will ask participating funds to report only on one sustainability report that will be assessed on aspects that are deemed to be best practice, including the level of reporting (group or entity), whether reporting to the public or only to investors, alignment to recognized third-party guidelines, and third-party review.

In addition, the list of accepted third-party standards/frameworks will be updated to include the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

Reporting Impact

In 2026, the prefill feature will not be available for this indicator due to the change of the indicator structure. From 2027 onwards, this indicator will be subject to prefill and pre-validation. As a result, reporting burden decreases for funds with over 60 data fields removed from the survey. Participants will report on only one sustainability disclosure applicable specifically for the reporting entity and only in the first year, unless their reporting practices change over the years.

Scoring Impact

Only one report will be scored as follows, instead of rewarding a number of different disclosures:

• The level of reporting: Entity-level reporting will be scored higher than group level. Group-level reports shall be accepted and can be reported as entity level if containing specific and detailed actions/performance of the entity.

• Stakeholder outreach: Public reporting will be scored higher than reporting only to investors. GRESB considers the report to be public if the information is publicly accessible on the internet.

• Alignment to a recognized third-party guideline: A full score will be rewarded where the entity aligns to a guideline from the drop-down list in the portal.

• Third-party review: A full score will be awarded for third-party verification and assurance; fractional scores will be awarded if the disclosure is checked by a third party.

• Evidence: The evidence will be subject to manual validation. The validation status of the evidence will affect the final score for the indicator through a multiplier.

The maximum possible score change in the Development Asset Assessment will be -7.09 points for an asset in the pre-construction phase that does not report on sustainability actions and/or performance on an entity level:

Scenario	Max Score Change (p)	Average Score Change (p)
The report is group level and does not reference the entity directly by name	-05.86	-7.09
The report is only for investors	-0.60	-0.70
The report is not aligned to a recognized guideline	-2.34	-2.83
The report is not reviewed by a third party	-1.17	-1.41

Please note that all indicator scores in the Development Asset Assessment are materiality driven. The estimate above is based on the maximum scores an asset can receive for the RP1 indicator and is not applicable for every entity. Members can determine the exact scoring impact on their entity by checking maximum scores for the RP1 indicator using the Development Asset Materiality and Scoring Tool.

Future Development

The addition of the “Other guideline” option to the third-party standard/framework section will help inform future development of the Standard. GRESB will track commonly used frameworks reported in this field to inform the list of scored frameworks.

Tactical Updates to Management Systems Indicator

RM1

Background & Purpose

During the review of the risk management aspect of the Infrastructure Asset Assessment, minor improvements were identified for the RM1 Management Systems indicator.

Description

1. The unscored checkbox to report on management systems that are not aligned to any sustainability-related standard/certification will be removed.

2. ISO 50001 will be added to the list of accreditations maintained or achieved.

3. A typo in the ISO 55001 accreditation name will be corrected.

Reporting Impact

None.

Scoring Impact

None.

Update to Climate Scenarios

RM4

Background & Purpose

Indicator RM2 (Resilience of strategy to climate-related risks and opportunities) lists climate scenarios available for participants to use in their assessment of transition and physical climate risks and opportunities

Description

The list of climate scenarios available in RM2 has been updated in the 2026 Standard, including:

• NGFS: The latest release now incorporates the most recent climate and economic data for both short-term and long-term climate scenarios.

• CRREM: The CRREM Foundation has discontinued the provision of the 2°C scenario, citing an inability to guarantee full scientific quality. CRREM may reinstate or add new scenarios over time.

Reporting Impact

Participants are now able to select the latest climate scenarios available as part of their reporting.

Scoring Impact

None.