[New] Standards Methodology Insights Report
Introduction
The 2026 Standard Methodology Insights report gives each GRESB Participant a tailored view of how the updates to the 2026 Real Estate Standard could affect their scoring, using their 2025 Assessment submission as the reference point. It covers both Standing Investments and Development.
Scope & Availability
The scope of this report covers two types of scoring changes as announced in the 2026 Standard Updates: (1) the General Standard Updates and (2) the Technical Refinements in methodology.
Availability
The report is available in the GRESB Assessment Portal for all participating entities that have submitted their Assessment and received a Benchmark Report. It is listed alongside other reports. The report is not available to participants who submitted a single component.
The report is not available to Investor Members and cannot be shared with investors in the GRESB Portal.
Understanding the Insights
Technical Refinements
The table outlines the technical refinements in methodology for 2026 applied to asset-level data. These refinements affect only the Performance Component. The analysis covers the topics of GHG scope reclassification and ownership period.
How the Analysis Works
GHG Scope Reclassification
In 2026, participants are required to reclassify Tenant Spaces–Landlord Controlled emissions, which were previously reported as Scope 3 emissions, as Scope 1 and 2. That this only affects assets reporting the Base Building + Tenant Spaces split.
GRESB is unable to recalculate the direct impact on the emissions reclassification because: Scope 3 emissions currently cover both Tenant Spaces–Landlord Controlled and Tenant Spaces–Tenant Controlled. GHG emissions are self-reported, and as such, GRESB can't differentiate the portion of an asset’s current Scope 3 emissions that should be reclassified as Scope 1 and 2.
As a result, the report indicates floor area that is subject to reclassification in 2026 and flags the following:
No impact identified: This flag is displayed when 0% of an entity’s current floor area is classified as Tenant Spaces–Landlord Controlled. In this scenario, the GHG scope reclassification change is not expected to affect the entity’s emissions scopes in 2026.
Impact identified: This flag is displayed when an entity has assets with floor areas defined as Tenant Spaces–Landlord Controlled. In this scenario, the GHG scope reclassification change is expected to affect the entity’s emissions scopes in 2026. An indicative percentage of floor area subject to this change is displayed to inform participants of the expected impact.
How is the percentage of floor area calculated?
The percentage of floor area uses the total owned floor area reported under “Tenant Spaces, Landlord-Controlled” as the numerator and the total owned floor area of the portfolio as the denominator. It is weighted by the percentage of ownership (area) and ownership period (time). These calculations already include the effect of other technical refinements to be introduced in 2026 (inclusion of ownership period in aggregation).
How to identify affected assets
The assets considered in the floor area subject to this update can be easily identified in your 2025 Asset Spreadsheet, in the Energy tab under columns AN-AV.
What is the impact?
The floor area reported in 2025 as Tenant Spaces–Landlord Controlled will be subject to the 2026 GHG scope reclassification. This will impact the emissions profile of your entity, shifting the corresponding portion of emissions previously classified as Scope 3 to Scope 1 and 2. This change was implemented to improve alignment with the GHG Protocol and remove the need for reconciliation across frameworks.
As with every year of newly submitted data in the Assessment, there will be shifts in the relative benchmarking used for scoring, and also year-on-year fluctuations in emissions factors. These two elements, together with the GHG scope reclassification, are key to defining the final score of GHG Data Coverage (area/time) and Like-for-Like metrics subject to a scoring impact. Therefore, it is not possible to anticipate the exact scoring change.
However, to provide participants with a high-level order of magnitude of possible impact, GRESB calculated an expected range of scoring impact based on assumptions extrapolated from energy consumption data reported in 2025. The expected impact on GRESB Participants’ scores ranges from -2 to +2 points, with an average increase of approximately 0.2 points.
Ownership Period
In 2026, asset-specific ownership periods will be incorporated as a weighting factor in the aggregation model.
This change has been calculated based on 2025 Assessment submissions and therefore reflects the ownership period for assets in 2024. Assets reported with ownership periods shorter than a full year in 2024 will likely have different ownership periods in 2025. This is because assets that have been sold in 2024 will no longer be part of the entity’s portfolio in 2025, and newly acquired assets in 2024 will likely be owned for the entirety of 2025. In addition, GRESB cannot anticipate new acquisitions and dispositions in 2025 and their respective ownership periods, so it is not possible to anticipate the exact scoring change in 2026.
The report indicates the number of assets exposed in the 2025 Assessment submission and the scoring impact of this exposure. Insights are flagged as follows:
No impact identified: This flag is displayed when none of the entity’s assets were partially owned in 2024. In this scenario, applying the 2026 Ownership Period aggregation changes would not result in a scoring impact.
Impact identified: This flag is displayed when at least one of the entity’s assets was owned for less than the full year in 2024. In this scenario, the approximate scoring impact will be shown in the report.
How is the impact calculated?
GRESB has replicated the aggregation of asset-level scores using the ownership period as a weight. Therefore, assets held for less than a full year will carry a lower scoring weight towards the entity’s final score. This covers indicators:
EN1 | Energy Consumption
GH1 | GHG Emissions
WT1 | Water Use
WS1: Waste Management
BC1.1–BC1.2 | Building Certifications*
BC2 | Energy Ratings
* Building Certifications are not scored at the asset level, but the certified floor area drawn from each asset will be weighted by the ownership period of the asset.
How to identify the affected assets
The assets included in the count can be easily identified in the entity’s 2025 Asset Spreadsheet in the Reporting Characteristics tab under columns H and I.
What is the impact?
This change has no direct impact on the participants’ input in 2026, as this refers to a methodological change. The scoring impact illustrates how the new aggregation change incorporates the ownership period of an asset into scoring. Assets with an ownership period for less than the full year will carry a lower scoring weight.
Insights in Context
The insights presented in this report are based on the application of the 2026 updates to the 2025 submitted data. Therefore, they should not be interpreted as a prediction of 2026 scores. This analysis does not model the impact of (i) reporting behavior and new input, (ii) new validation outcomes, (iii) shifts in relative benchmarks for asset-level metrics, and (iv) year-on-year changes in market conditions.
This report aims to contextualize the scoring impact averages and ranges outlined in the 2026 Standard Updates for each entity, providing participants with additional insights to anticipate the potential effect of upcoming Standard updates.
Frequently Asked Questions
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