To see the 2026 GRESB Infrastructure Standards Updates, please click here.
The 2026 updates continue the trajectory established by the GRESB Foundation toward a predictable, transparent, and multi-year development process. Building on the 2025 Standard and following the path outlined in last year’s Roadmap, the updates strengthen incentives for meaningful action while enhancing clarity, technical robustness, and sector relevance.
Key Real Estate Standard Updates
General Standard updates:
- Embodied carbon: Scored recognition for upfront carbon measurement and transparency
- Net zero: Improved format strengthening credibility and promoting interoperability with other industry frameworks
- Indicator retirement and weighting adjustments: Retirement of indicators and adjustment of weights to elevate performance expectations
- Building certifications: Revised implementation timeline of previously announced update, in alignment with targeted major changes in the GRESB Standard
Technical refinements:
- GHG Scope reclassification: Improved alignment with key industry frameworks, eliminating reconciliation issues and restoring appropriate incentives
- Ownership period: Improved accuracy in aggregation model results through better incorporation of ownership periods
Guidance clarification:
- Estimation methodology: Clarified guidelines for data estimation to ensure consistent application and higher result integrity
Other minor updates:
- Renewable energy: New options accommodating specific renewable procurement scenarios made available
- Human capital: New option for non-binary identity
Residential-specific updates:
- Local infrastructure: Improved design enabling more flexible reporting scenarios
- Lease contracts: Revised indicator statement to eliminate ambiguity in requirements
Simulated Scores
In November, GRESB will release the 2026 Simulated Scores report to help participants anticipate the potential impact of the 2026 Standards Updates. The report will provide purely illustrative performance trends based on responses from the 2025 GRESB Real Estate Assessment. Stay tuned for more details.
Looking ahead
These updates follow the multi-year roadmap developed through the GRESB Foundation, ensuring changes remain predictable, transparent, and led by the industry. They also represent an important step toward the Foundation’s longer-term vision for the GRESB Standards and their transition toward rewarding measured, real-world performance. More information on this evolution will be shared in the forthcoming 2026 GRESB Foundation Roadmap, followed by a public consultation in 2026.
2026 GRESB Standards Updates & the Road Ahead
Join us online on December 2 to hear directly from the GRESB team about the 2026 GRESB Standards Updates, the forthcoming 2026 GRESB Foundation Roadmap, and the broader engagements planned for the years ahead.
Following the release of the 2026 GRESB Standards updates, this webinar offers an exclusive opportunity to explore key changes and understand how they advance the Foundation’s long-term vision toward rewarding measured, real-world performance.
Participants are invited to submit questions during the registration process. The GRESB team will address the most relevant topics during the webinar and in a follow-up summary.