The Review Period is designed to strengthen the reliability of the benchmark results. It is intended to be used in cases where you believe that there has been incorrect or incomplete data input, or an error in a validation decision. The Review Period can only be requested directly in the GRESB Portal, where pricing information is also available.
The Review Period is open during September 1-15. Review requests are made at the reporting entity level in the GRESB Portal. When submitting multiple review requests, it is mandatory to submit one Review Period form per entity to ensure proper processing and invoicing.
Requests are reviewed by GRESB and its third-party validation team at SRI. Submitting the Review Period form in the Portal means GRESB has permission to invoice the submitter should one of the following conditions be met:
- The participant has made an error and would like to amend submitted responses (i.e. indicator checkbox selection, values reported in a table, asset-level data (Real Estate), supporting evidence, documents/hyperlinks).
- The participant challenges a validation decision and upon additional review by SRI, the decision is deemed correct and remains unchanged.
Requests related to incorrect data input can include editing indicator responses (i.e. checkbox selection), providing additional documentation or amending hyperlinks to support the indicator response, or editing performance data that was inadvertently left out in the original submission. For Real Estate, note that participants may not use the Review Period to supplement their performance data input with data collected after the GRESB submission deadline (i.e. July 1, 2022).
Note that it is the responsibility of the participant to indicate the exact amendments (if any) that are being made to the response in the Review Period form. GRESB will not be held responsible for validating new information that has not been explicitly indicated to us in the submitted form. GRESB also reserves the right to check that additional edits have not been made beyond what was indicated in the form.
If the incorrect data input or validation challenge is applicable to other entities of the same fund manager, participants must still provide one form per entity as mentioned above. Each entity that enters the Review Period will be subject to the Review Period fee except in cases where the exact same amendment is made to multiple entities. If the same amendment is made consistently across funds and the same validation decision can be applied because of identical documentation, GRESB will charge the full fee for the initial entity and an additional discounted fee for the entity that makes the identical change.
For example, if the participant would like to add an additional piece of supporting evidence for PO1 and this same evidence is applicable to other entities, GRESB will issue only one invoice for the first entity and one discounted invoice for each additional entity where the assessment is re-opened for the identical change.
However, if one entity would like to add additional evidence for PO1 and the other entity would like to edit the indicator response to PO3, this will result in two forms and two invoices as the changes are unrelated. Note that performance data is always entity-specific and will require individual forms and invoices as validation is done separately for each entity.
Important Note: Should you have any questions about why you missed points on an indicator or the existing general reasoning behind specific validation decisions, please use our contact form. Our team can advise on your specific question, or in the case of multiple questions, they can direct you to request a Results Review.
If the request pertains to a data input change as indicated in the cases above, GRESB will review the requested change and if deemed appropriate, GRESB will reopen the Assessment. The participant can then correct their response and resubmit their Assessment. Note that newly-inputted data is subject to validation and in all cases where the Assessment is reopened, the full fee will be invoiced.
The submitter will not be invoiced when:
- The request to change a data input is rejected following review by GRESB and SRI.
- The challenge of the validation decision is successful (i.e. the SRI decision is overturned without the need for additional documentation).
In both of the above cases, the assessment would not have been reopened and therefore no invoice will be generated.
The GRESB team will evaluate the requests on a rolling basis and get back to the participant within five working days. The decisions are final and cannot be appealed. We will only take into consideration requests submitted within the official Review Period. Please fill out this form before 23:59 PDT on September 15, 2023.
How to request a Review Period
Participants that want to take part in the Review Period should:
- Log into the Portal
- Click on the name of the entity they would like to review, to “View Assessments”
- Click on “Assessment services”
- Click on “Request Review Period”