The Next Phase of GRESB
GRESB is entering the next phase of its strategy: building on our trusted standards, established benchmarks, and historical dataset to transform sustainability data into decision-grade intelligence for real assets.
Investors, managers, and other market participants need sustainability data that is trusted and comparable, while also being easier to connect to, integrate, and use when decisions are made. Our direction is focused on making GRESB’s data and insights more useful at that point of decision, strengthening the connection between sustainability performance and capital allocation, risk management, asset economics, and financial outcomes.
What this means in practice
Our strategy is organized around three core areas of customer and market value:
- Capital: Connecting credible, comparable sustainability performance with capital allocation, investment, risk, and portfolio decisions, informing how capital is directed and accessed.
- Cost: Helping improve the economics of owning, operating, and financing real assets through greater efficiency, resilience, stronger performance, and lower cost of capital.
- Comparability: Providing a credible common lens for assessing sustainability performance across assets, portfolios, sectors, and markets.
To deliver this value, we will increase our focus on measured performance and the metrics that matter, work to reduce reporting effort and unnecessary complexity, and develop more flexible ways for customers to connect to and use GRESB data throughout the year.
This evolution is already taking shape through Road to Performance, the GRESB Foundation’s multi-year initiative to evolve the GRESB Standards. Shaped through Foundation governance, engagement with the market, and an extensive public consultation, the initiative will define sustainability leadership more clearly and make the Standards more useful in capital allocation and asset management, helping the industry deliver meaningful performance improvement across the sustainability topics that matter most, at scale.
2026 GRESB Insights Events: Locations, Dates & Registration
The 2026 GRESB Insights Events will provide an opportunity to discuss what this direction means in practice. Spanning two formats, GRESB Regional Insights and GRESB Partner Insights, the series will bring investors, managers, and industry leaders together across Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America to examine the 2026 GRESB Benchmark results and explore how a stronger focus on measured performance connects with capital allocation, asset economics, and comparability across real asset markets.
GRESB Regional Insights
One city per region. GRESB’s senior leadership will be on the ground, presenting the 2026 GRESB Results alongside the trends, opportunities, and priorities shaping each regional market. The events will provide a closer look at how the next phase of GRESB’s strategy will show up in the standards, data, and insights customers use, while expert panels will place local developments in a global context.
GRESB Partner Insights
A local lens. Hosted by GRESB Partners in seven cities worldwide, each event brings forward the priorities, challenges, and opportunities shaping its market, and connects them to three shared areas of value: Capital, Cost, and Comparability.
Registration is now open for the first events in the series. Register your interest to secure your place and be the first to hear as further cities, dates, and program details are confirmed.
Foundation Update
Road to Performance Update
The GRESB Foundation Standard Committees and Board are entering the final stages of reviewing and approving the highly anticipated updates to the Real Estate and Infrastructure Standards. The primary focus is on the 2028 Standards, which will mark the first implementation of Road to Performance, GRESB’s forward-looking roadmap for transitioning the Standards toward more performance-based scoring.
In parallel, the Foundation is developing the communication plan that will support the GRESB membership in understanding the evolution of the Standards and the changes ahead.
External communication is expected to begin in November once the review and approval process is complete.
GRESB Industry Insights
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:
Aligning GRESB Data: North American Building Standards & Benchmarking Laws
In this episode, GRESB’s Reid Morgan, Account Director, Americas, speaks with Rimas Gulbinas, Founder and CEO of Abisko, about the convergence of building performance standards, benchmarking requirements, and GRESB.
Treating ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager as reliable building performance data can help managers streamline compliance, strengthen data quality, assess regulatory and financial risk, and inform capital decisions.
Contribute to GRESB Industry Insights
Industry insights from our partners and members into “Sustainability Performance Impact on Valuations” and other rolling topics:
- From data collection to value creation: Why GRESB data now matters in valuation | Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB)
- A portfolio owner’s guide to corporate reporting in the era of LEED v5 | Brightworks Sustainability
- From energy savings to investment performance: Breaking the commercial property standoff | Symphony Energy
- Sustainability performance and valuation: The evidence is everywhere except the appraisal | Longevity Partners
- From sustainability performance to asset value: Why lifecycle intelligence should matter for data center investors | MoruBld AI Pte. Ltd
Interested in contributing? Check out the 2026 GRESB Editorial Calendar for fixed monthly topics and submission guidelines. The topic for September is “Climate Risk & Resilience.”
Upcoming Industry Events
Data Centers Private Equity Europe
Where Capital Meets Connectivity | October 1, 2026 | London
This event is the leading forum for data center investment and private equity. Discover how operators, investors, and developers are driving digital infrastructure growth in Europe’s emerging data center hubs. Each spotlight reveals why these secondary markets are attracting capital and development.
GRESB Members receive a 15% discount with code: GRESB15
SuperReturn Global Infrastructure
October 13 – 15, 2026 | London
SuperReturn Global Infrastructure connects senior leaders from across the private infrastructure and real assets industry, including institutional investors and GPs from more than 30 countries. With a strong focus on energy and investment opportunities across the UK, the event offers a platform to explore emerging trends across energy, digital infrastructure, AI, transport, logistics, utilities, healthcare, and more.
GRESB Members receive a 10% discount with code: FKR3634GRESB
APREA Leaders’ Congress
October 14–16, 2026 | Tokyo
This event is focused on the real assets industry, welcoming investors, fund managers, developers, and other senior leaders from across Asia Pacific. Through thought leadership, interactive discussions, and networking, the event explores the investment trends, market dynamics, and opportunities shaping the future of real assets.
GRESB Members receive a 12% discount with code: SPECIALGRESB
Data Centers Private Equity West
Surging Demand. Strategic Capital. Scalable Infrastructure | October 15, 2026 | San Francisco
Navigate the investment landscape where hyperscale data centers meet next-generation power solutions. Learn how AI demand is outpacing supply. Transformer lead times stretch beyond two years. Infrastructure availability now drives investment strategy, and valuations are recalibrating across the sector.
GRESB Members receive a 15% discount with code: GRESB15
Sustainable Finance & Investing Forum at Greenbuild
October 20, 2026 | New York
SF&I Forum brings together owners, investors, and lenders from across real estate, infrastructure, and finance for two days on how investment strategy, asset and operational performance, and long-term value are converging.
The GRESB Regional Insights event in New York runs as part of the program. If you’re attending the Forum, register for Regional Insights too and join us there. GRESB provides a discounted registration code to attend the Forum, prior to the GRESB Regional Insights program.
Enter code: GRESB when you register at SF&I FORUM Registration.
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