Sponsoring Partner: Cushman & Wakefield
Greetings to our GRESB Americas region!
Despite the 24 inches of snow outside my window, I’m assured that Spring 2026 is just around the corner, and with it, the start of another GRESB Assessment season.
Behind the scenes, our team has been hard at work preparing for a successful year and continuing our industry’s steady progress in asset efficiency, decarbonization, and value creation.
We are fully prepared to support you throughout the 2026 reporting cycle with:
- The Road to Performance Public Consultation
- New GRESB Guides
- Dedicated Member Success experts available via [email protected]
- New assessment services to prepare you for 2026 GRESB Assessments
- Reid Morgan and Cassie Ford who are ready to guide you to the right resources within GRESB for any question
Our network of experienced GRESB Partners also stands ready to provide tailored support. If you would like assistance identifying the right partner for your organization, please reach out to us.
This spring, GRESB is also conducting important, independent industry consultations:
These consultations will shape GRESB for the coming years and their success depends on strong member engagement. Please review the materials carefully and share your perspectives.
As usual, GRESB stands ready to support the industry’s ongoing pursuit of efficiency, resilience, and long-term value creation in real asset portfolios. Thank you for your continued leadership and commitment.
Let’s go!
Sincerely,
Tom Idzal
Head of Americas
GRESB
How to Retrofit Americas – A Practical Path to Sustainable Buildings
Cushman & Wakefield’s How to Retrofit Americas guide breaks down the most effective ways to enhance existing buildings through smart, cost‑efficient upgrades. With 80% of today’s buildings expected to still be standing in 2050, retrofitting offers one of the fastest, least capital‑intensive paths to reducing carbon emissions and improving performance.
The guide introduces a clear four‑step framework by understanding a building’s environmental impact, assessing improvement opportunities, benchmarking Energy Use Intensity, and future‑proofing for evolving standards. It also explains how jurisdictions across North America are increasingly requiring benchmarking and long‑term performance targets, making proactive retrofits even more valuable.
You can explore the guides from Cushman & Wakefield here.
Road to Performance: Public Consultation Now Open
The GRESB Foundation has launched a public consultation on proposed updates to the Real Estate Standard under its Road to Performance initiative—the GRESB Foundation’s long-term program to progressively strengthen the role of performance-based scoring within the GRESB Standards.
This consultation seeks member feedback on:
- The long-term direction of performance-based scoring
- The proposed pace and timeline for implementation
- The practical design of key structural changes within the Standard
How to Participate
To accommodate different levels of involvement and technical expertise, the consultation can be completed in one of two ways:
Option 1: Executive Review
- Read an executive summary of
the public consultation - Respond to core, directional questions
Option 2: Advanced Review
- Review the full consultation paper
- Respond to core and optional questions providing more detailed technical feedback
Both options are accessible through a single survey, where you can save your progress and return at any time.
The consultation will run from February 26 to April 23, 2026.
Your insight will directly inform the refinement of the proposed updates ahead of final publication of the 2028 Real Estate Standard. Learn more here.
GRESB Advanced Ratings: Share Your Feedback
As part of GRESB’s continued evolution, 2026 marks an important period of engagement around both Ratings and the Real Estate Standard.
Advanced Ratings
GRESB is exploring potential enhancements to its five-star rating system to reflect growing diversity across portfolios, regions, and strategies. Proposed approaches—including thematic, “sliced,” and threshold-based models—are outlined in a new article and technical report.
Review the proposals and share your feedback through a short survey.
Get Ready for the GRESB Assessments
GRESB Guides
With GRESB Guides now live, participants have access to a redesigned resource platform built to be more intuitive, practical, and aligned with how GRESB Assessments are completed.
Developed in response to Member feedback, GRESB Guides consolidates all core assessment guidance—Reference Guide content, scoring details, technical FAQs, and asset-level instructions—into a single, streamlined experience with clearer, indicator-level navigation.
2026 Real Estate & Infrastructure Assessments Q&A Webinars
The 2026 Assessment Q&A webinars follow the opening of the GRESB Portal and provide a forum for the real asset industry to come together to discuss the assessments and ask questions.
During these online sessions, our Member Success Team will answer questions submitted during the registration process and asked during the event.
- Real estate | April 1, 2026 | 8:00 am PDT | 11:00 am EDT | See sessions and register
- Infrastructure | April 2, 2026 | 8:00 am PDT | 11:00 am EDT | See sessions and register
2026 Standard Methodology Insights Report for Real Estate
The 2026 GRESB Standard Methodology Insights Report is available to Real Estate Participants in the GRESB Portal, supporting early preparation for the 2026 Assessment cycle.
Released alongside the 2026 Real Estate Standard updates, the report enhances transparency around methodological changes and provides illustrative insight into how these updates may influence scoring—helping participants better understand potential impacts as they plan for the year ahead.
Learn more about the 2026 Standard Methodology Insights report.
New GRESB Services: Success Suite & Technical Expert Touchpoint
GRESB has introduced new services to support participants throughout the 2026 Assessment cycle.
GRESB Technical Expert Touchpoint
New in 2026, the Technical Expert Touchpoint provides focused, one-on-one engagement with a GRESB Member Success expert. Available year-round for both real estate and infrastructure participants, the session offers targeted, on-demand guidance at any stage of reporting—from navigating the GRESB Portal and reviewing Asset Spreadsheet inputs to clarifying indicator requirements and validation-related questions.
GRESB Success Suite
The Success Suite brings together core elements of the GRESB reporting journey into one bundled offering, including:
- One seat for GRESB AP
- One Technical Expert Touchpoint
- One Pre-Submission Check
- Eligibility to opt in to Assessment Correction
- One Results Performance Review
By combining these components, the Success Suite is designed to promote consistent submissions, stronger alignment with the GRESB Standards, and clearer year-over-year performance insight.
Together, these offerings are designed to help participants move through the Assessment cycle with greater confidence and a clear focus on continuous improvement.
GRESB Webinars
Behind-The-Meter Power Generation for Data Centers:
Tackling a Constrained Grid | March 19
Across the Americas, data center growth is colliding with grid congestion, interconnection delays, and rising scrutiny of how reliability strategies affect emissions. At the same time, community sentiment is becoming a material project risk. Join us online to discuss how to pursue resilient operations while maintaining procurement integrity and transparent sustainability performance.
Now on Demand | Assessing Sustainability in Real Estate Lending: A Lender-Focused Framework
Now available on demand, this webinar provides an overview of the GRESB Real Estate Lender Assessment, covering why it was developed, how it works in practice, and how it supports benchmarking, oversight, and credible engagement for lending and credit teams.
2026 GRESB AP Exams Now Available
The 2026 GRESB Accredited Professional (AP) exams for real estate and infrastructure are now available—launching ahead of the assessment cycle to give professionals more time to prepare before reporting begins.
New for 2026: A Streamlined Recertification Exam
The updated recertification format focuses only on new and updated 2026 material, making it quicker and more efficient for existing APs to stay up to date. (Available to 2025 GRESB APs only.)
Upcoming Americas Industry Events
SuperReturn North America 2026 | March 16-18, 2026 | Miami, USA
SuperReturn North America returns to Miami, bringing together 800+ senior decision-makers, including 250+ LPs and 350+ GPs from more than 30 countries. Covering private equity, private credit, venture capital, secondaries, private wealth, and more, the agenda offers specialist summits and two days of in-depth discussions on the trends shaping capital allocation across North America and beyond.
GRESB members can receive a 10% discount using code FKR3585GRESB.
Thanks to our Global Partner Cushman &Wakefield for sponsoring and contributing to this newsletter.