Inside GRESB for infrastructure: Understanding scoring in 2025 | The Pulse by GRESB

In this episode of The Pulse by GRESB, Giulio Comellini, Director of Product for Infrastructure, and Joss Blamire, Director of Infrastructure Standards, walk listeners through key updates to the 2025 GRESB Infrastructure Assessments. Participants navigating the 2025 reporting season will benefit from insights into important changes, including the introduction of data coverage metrics, enhanced net zero target requirements, a streamlined assessment with reduced reporting burden, and updates to how these changes will impact scoring. Listen to the episode below featuring:

Can’t listen? Read the full transcript below. Please note that edits have been made for readability.

Giulio: Hello everyone and welcome to The Pulse, a podcast by GRESB. I am Giulio Comellini, Director of Product for Infrastructure, and I’m here today with Joss Blamire, Director of Infrastructure Standards. Hi, Joss.

Joss: Hi, Giulio. Good to be here back on The Pulse.

Giulio: So we know everyone is very busy in this time of the year during reporting season. What we would like to do today is to give some extra guidance to our participants and share some of the changes that GRESB has made this year to improve the assessments and, overall, the experience of participating entities. So , Joss, guide us through the changes that participants will see in 2025 and will be dealing with for the GRESB Infrastructure Assessments.

Joss: Thank you, Giulio. We know people are really in the thick of reporting at the moment, so it’s worth a quick reminder of those new things you’ll see in the GRESB Infrastructure Assessments, as I’m sure the majority are now into the portal and doing their work. So a quick recap on some of the headlines. For GRESB infrastructure at the asset level this year, we’ve introduced data coverage for the first time. Previously we were looking for any performance data that you had across key topics such as energy, water, waste, and GHG. But now alongside the level of performance data, we are also asking for a data coverage number. So, how complete, essentially, is that data that you’ve provided to us? Is that all the data you have as a business? Is it only half the data you have? Is it only 10%? This is a really essential change that our managers and investors have asked for. If they know the level of data coverage, then they’re better able to use that data. The data quality increases and they can make better management decisions. So that’s a key change to the Infrastructure Asset Assessment. Staying at the asset level, we’ve also made some changes to our net zero section. So anyone who claims to have a net zero target now will have to provide us with a little bit more information this year. That’s to really set a minimum standard for the claim of having a net zero target.

Really importantly, for the first time this year, we are going to be able to display, with this additional information we collect, an asset’s trajectory towards net zero and also to plot on a graph how well they’re doing against that trajectory. So are they on track, are they ahead of progress, or are they a little bit behind? And that will go into our benchmark reports this year.

And finally, to balance out the extra information on data coverage and on net zero, we’ve removed a lot of content actually across all assessments.We’ve removed over 150 different data fields, over 10 different indicators, and we are just really lightening the load with some of the indicators that were either no longer relevant to our members, they were maybe duplicative, or there was some unscored information that wasn’t really being used by managers and investors. So overall, there’s some new stuff there, which we hope will add a lot of value, but also some things which have been in the assessment for a number of years, you’ll see are no longer there this year as well.

Giulio: Thanks Joss. And it’s also great to hear that GRESB is really listening to its members and acting accordingly and moving towards a more, let’s say, seamless and more valuable experience for the participants. And when we talk more about the actual process, what changes in the reporting experience for GRESB participants?

Joss: Yeah. That’s what this episode is all about, really. In terms of what happens when you open the portal, what will you have to do differently? For the data coverage change that I mentioned, as well as reporting against the metrics: let’s take greenhouse gas emissions as an example. For Scope 1 emissions, you’ll report the tons of GHG as you normally do, but alongside that figure, you’ll report a percentage between zero and 100%. And that represents the level of data coverage. So how complete is that data that you’re providing GRESB? So we expect our users to consider how complete is the data in terms of all the activities they do, in terms of all the facilities they have as a business, and in terms of the year as a whole. And you’ll see that against, all key performance data metrics at the asset level. On net zero, this is really a little bit more information so we can provide that visual insight into progress that I mentioned previously. And this is only a change, it’s worth pointing out, for those who have a net zero target. And of course on the reduction and removals, you won’t have to do anything. You’ll have to do less this year. So hopefully that balances out quite nicely.

Giulio: I guess the follow up question related to this is about how scoring will also be impacted by these new changes.

Joss: Yeah. All of these changes will have an impact on score, so it’s really important that we communicate that very clearly to our users. I think the most important one here, again, is data coverage. With data coverage, there will be a scoring impact depending on the level of data coverage you have. So we’ve set aside half the points that we previously awarded for just providing any data to us, half of those points will now go towards data coverage. Within those points, depending on where you are from zero to 100%, there’ll be a sliding scale. If you have 50% data coverage, we’ll give you half the points on offer there. If you have 100% data coverage, you’ll receive all the points and you won’t notice any impact on your score. The impact will come in your score: There will be a reduction if you have less than 100% coverage. And we think that’s a good representation of, really, the ability to allow those who do collect all data and do report all data to their managers and their investors to have a slightly higher score than those who are not yet able to collect that data.

Our members agreed with this change and were really keen that that was represented in the GRESB score, as well as providing additional data quality and data insights. In terms of net zero, there is one point available at the asset level for having net zero targets, and that remains in place. The only difference in score will be if you cannot provide this information to us, then you won’t be able to receive that score for net zero, we think that’s also very fair because the information we’re asking for here should be quite basic information for anyone who does have a net zero target. So if you’re struggling to give us your baseline year or information about the targets that you have on the road to net zero, then we wouldn’t award you the point for having a net zero target. So we’re raising the bar here and making sure those who are rewarded for having a net zero target do have some of that critical information. On the reducing reporting burden side, this also has a scoring impact. Some of those indicators that we removed were scored. And the approach we have taken is that with the score that was previously allocated to those indicators, we will just proportionally share that out across the whole assessment. So there will be small fluctuations in score.

Giulio: That’s very clear. Thank you Joss. If we just go back very quickly to the data coverage scoring, I assume that participants will be able to run their own scores and simulate them themselves.

Joss: Yeah. And that’s a feature we’ve really wanted to make sure is very clear to all our participants. So for all of these changes that we’ve had, if you want to dig into the detail and understand the impact on score ahead of time, we’ve given all the materials so that you’re able to do that. We have what’s called our materiality and scoring tool that helps you simulate what your indicator scores will be. And from there you can use the scoring methodology for something like data coverage to understand, what will I actually score for this indicator? You will be able to understand where the score may increase in certain indicators as well. And I think what’s most important in all of this, we provided the, materials to help you do that, but of course, if you want extra information or if you want more detail about this or just want to confirm something, our fantastic member success team is on hand and you can email [email protected] with any questions or queries you have about this or any other topics.

Giulio: Absolutely. Thanks so much for providing more context I’m sure our, members will find this very helpful as Joss said, please reach out if you’d like to hear more. Very exciting news for GRESB members and participants overall. Hope you enjoyed this episode of the Pulse.