What’s New in May
With the 2026 GRESB Assessment cycle now underway, this month’s update highlights resources, guidance, and upcoming opportunities to help participants move through the assessment period with clarity and confidence.
In this edition, you’ll also find:
- The upcoming launch of Fundamentals and related webinars
- Assessment services to support participants during their submission
- New guidance for the upcoming GRESB Data Center Assessment
- A new infrastructure case study featuring Metro Ligero Oeste
Read on for details.
Introducing Fundamentals: A Focused Starting Point for Real Estate Managers
Coming July 2026
GRESB is pleased to introduce Fundamentals, a focused, GRESB-aligned approach for real estate managers new to GRESB to validate and communicate the governance and risk management practices that underpin credible sustainability performance.
Built on 17 foundational indicators drawn from the GRESB Real Estate Standard, Fundamentals offers a practical way for organizations to demonstrate how sustainability oversight and risk processes are structured across their business. Participation results in a clear, shareable outcome, supported by a formal report and actionable feedback.
With no scores or ratings, Fundamentals is designed to help funds new to GRESB strengthen sustainability management, align with investor expectations, and build confidence before progressing to the full GRESB Real Estate Assessment.
Launching in July 2026, Fundamentals will be available year-round through the GRESB platform.
Learn more:
Join one of our upcoming regional webinars to dive deeper:
- APAC Webinar | Fundamentals: A New Way to Engage with GRESB | June 11, 2:00 PM SGT
- EMEA Webinar | Introducing Fundamentals: A New Entry Point to GRESB | June 24 | 11:00 a.m. CEST
- Americas Webinar | Details and registration coming soon
Set Up for Success with GRESB Assessment Services & Tools
With the 2026 GRESB Assessment cycle now in full bloom GRESB assessment services are available to help participants navigate this year’s changes and completing their submissions with clarity.
Pre-Submission Check
As of April 1, participants can request a Pre-Submission Check to support submission completeness and alignment with GRESB validation requirements before final submission.
Whether you are new to GRESB or a long-term participant, the Pre-Submission Check service provides tailored support through:
- An evidence validation review against GRESB validation requirements
- A one-hour review call to walk through findings and the opportunity for additional guidance and clarification on the GRESB Assessments
- A written Pre-Submission Check report outlining what is required to meet the validation requirements
With a limited number of Pre-Submission Checks available and capacity filling up fast, participants are encouraged to request and schedule a Pre-Submission Check as early as possible. The deadline to request a Pre-Submission Check is June 20, with calls scheduled between May 1 and June 26, subject to availability.
Learn more about the Pre-Submission Check here or purchase one via the shop icon in the GRESB Portal.
New in 2026: Technical Expert Touchpoint & Success Suite
To further support participants throughout the 2026 Assessment cycle, GRESB introduced two additional services:
- Technical Expert Touchpoint: Available year-round, this service provides focused, one-on-one facetime engagement with a GRESB Member Success expert, offering tailored guidance at any stage of your GRESB journey.
- Success Suite: A new bundled offering that brings together core premium support elements in the GRESB journey, including: one GRESB AP seat, one Technical Expert Touchpoint, one Pre-Submission Check, eligibility to opt in to Assessment Correction, and one Results Performance Review.
Together, these offerings are designed to guide participants through the Assessment cycle with greater clarity and confidence.
Coming Soon: Simulated Asset Scoring
We will soon introduce Simulated Asset Scoring, a new Asset Portal feature designed to help real estate participants understand how asset performance and portfolio changes may translate into simulated GRESB scoring outcomes before submission.
Using validated asset data already maintained for GRESB reporting, Simulated Asset Scoring provides methodology-aligned insights to support year-round planning and decision-making. Participants can use it to anticipate outcome trends, prioritize improvements, and test scenarios such as acquisitions, disposals, and upgrades.
Participants interested in purchasing Simulated Asset Scoring can register their interest here.
Get Ready for the GRESB Data Center Assessment
New Data Center Guidance Now Available
As development and investment in digital infrastructure accelerate, transparency around operational performance, risk, and resilience has become critical.
The upcoming GRESB Data Center Assessment is designed to help data center developers, operators, and investors better understand sustainability performance across key material topics, including electricity supply, community engagement, greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency, water use effectiveness, and worker health and safety.
Read the latest GRESB guidance for data centers here. Get in touch with our team to review a sample report and dive deeper.
Foundation Update
Road to Performance: Public Consultation
The GRESB Foundation recently conducted a public consultation from February to April 2026. We are grateful to the more than 260 organizations for their valuable input. Respondents support GRESB’s efforts to strengthen the Real Estate Standard in line with market expectations and to deliver outcome-oriented and decision-useful insights. They also welcome earlier visibility of methodology and score impacts, better reflection of sector and regional differences, and a continued focus on reducing reporting burden.
Responses are currently being reviewed and will inform refinements to the proposed updates to the Real Estate Standard. GRESB expects to publish a summary of consultation feedback in Q3 2026, followed by the final updates to the 2028 Real Estate Standard in Q4 2026.
Standards Committees Call for Applicants
The Foundation Board will begin to review applications for the Standards Committee members in the coming months and is looking forward to welcoming several new members! We encourage new applicants to review the Standards Committee Terms of Reference and then complete the nomination form for either (or both) the Real Estate and Infrastructure Standards Committees as we will be looking for new members later this year.
The Foundation also welcomes GRESB Members to apply to join one of the Expert Resource Groups for which we accept new members twice per year.
GRESB Insights
GRESB Case Study Spotlight: Metro Ligero Oeste
In our latest case study, Metro Ligero Oeste, the concession holder of Madrid’s ML2 and ML3 light-rail lines, shares how continued participation in the GRESB Infrastructure Asset Assessment has helped integrate sustainability insights into governance, procurement, maintenance planning, and long-term investment decisions.
“Continued participation in GRESB plays an important role in how we monitor performance and drive continuous improvement, providing an objective framework to measure progress, validate results, and guide investment decisions that deliver measurable environmental, social, and operational improvements,” said José Luis López Jiménez, IT Manager at Metro Ligero Oeste.
The Pulse by GRESB
The Pulse by GRESB is an informative content series featuring the GRESB team, partners, GRESB Foundation members, and other industry experts, published on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. Listen to the latest episodes below:
GEAR-UP Explained: Financing Energy Efficiency at Scale
Charles van Thiel, Director of the Real Estate Standard at GRESB, speaks with Lina Konstantinopoulou, Executive Director at the Sustainable Energy Finance Association (SEFA), and Andrew McCracken, Senior Director at JLL, about innovative approaches to financing energy efficiency in real assets.
Contribute to GRESB Insights
Industry insights from our partners and members into “Asset-Level Data” and other rolling topics:
- Asset-level data: better data empowers better decisions | Utopi
- Data-driven CapEx: turning reporting into actionable investment strategy | Brightworks Sustainability
Interested in contributing? Check out the 2026 GRESB Editorial Calendar for fixed monthly topics and submission guidelines. The topic for May is “Sector Intelligence”.
Upcoming Industry Events
SuperReturn Energy Transition
June 8-9, 2026 | Berlin, Germany
SuperReturn Energy Transition brings together 300+ private market leaders—including 100+ institutional investors and 180+ GPs—to explore the future of energy investment. With 6,000+ meetings, investor-led content, and insights from senior executives, the event offers a platform to navigate key themes such as energy security, industrial decarbonization, and evolving market dynamics.
GRESB Members receive a 10% discount with code: FKR3665GRESB
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