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GRESB has always been about evolution and standards continue to refine and reflect the industry’s growing priorities. From stricter data requirements to a sharper focus on renewable energy and embodied carbon, the 2025 standards will challenge companies to step up their game.
In this blog, we’ll break down the key updates, what they mean for participants, and how you can stay ahead.
Let’s dive in.
What to Expect in 2025
The upcoming 2025 GRESB standards is set to raise the bar on data verification, renewable energy procurement, and embodied carbon, especially for large entities and infrastructure assets. Companies will need to bring sharper, cleaner data on emissions and energy use. It’s all about upping your transparency, tightening documentation, and staying on top of new methodologies to stay in the game.
What’s new in Infrastructure: The 2025 GRESB Infrastructure Standards will expand data coverage reporting across key metrics, with 50% of the score now tied to data completeness. A stronger focus on Scope 2 GHG emissions reporting will also standardise location-based emissions, allowing for optional market-based reporting. GRESB will also introduce a new score for verifying GHG Scope 1 and 2 data, focusing on larger entities. By adding verification as a key scoring component, GRESB is driving more accountability and transparency in assessments.
What’s new in Real Estate: The 2025 GRESB Real Estate Standards will introduce significant updates, with a focus on renewable energy quality, embodied carbon, and residential real estate. Renewable energy procurement will be assessed more rigorously at the asset level, ensuring higher-quality criteria. Embodied carbon will see increased prominence in development-related activities, with new scoring logic and validation requirements. The changes for residential real estate will enhance sector specificity, updating indicators to better reflect material issues for residential portfolios. These shifts aim to create more accurate, sector-relevant GRESB assessments.
If you want to stay competitive, you’ve got to play by these new rules – and play smart.
Key Updates and Their Immediate Impacts
The 2025 updates to reporting and scoring criteria represent a strategic effort to refine how sustainability is measured within the real estate sector. Energy efficiency is a focal point, with new recognition awarded to operationally efficient assets. These changes will directly benefit entities with strong efficiency credentials, offering positive scoring impacts, while less efficient assets will continue to rely on Like-for-Like scoring.
Similarly, residential properties will now have bespoke indicators and metrics developed specifically for this property type. However, these adjustments will only impact reporting initially, with scoring changes not yet being implemented.
To support future criteria, the reporting process will require expanded data collection in several areas, including renewable energy and building certifications. Renewable energy will see alignment with RE100 definitions and guidance, creating a clearer framework for participants to follow. For building certifications, new data will differentiate based on quality, scope, and additional characteristics. These changes are designed to improve future evaluations, although they will have no immediate scoring impacts.
Other experimental areas, such as embodied carbon and biodiversity, are undergoing testing and development. Embodied carbon, in particular, will require additional inputs as part of its evaluation phase, ensuring it aligns with industry benchmarks before scoring is introduced. Efforts to streamline the reporting process are also evident, such as requiring more detailed data for employee safety to ensure full points under existing criteria. These adjustments, while relatively minor, enhance the robustness of the current framework and prioritise complete and accurate reporting.
The updates are designed to strengthen both the immediate and long-term sustainability standards for real estate. Positive scoring impacts for energy efficiency mark a significant step forward, while expanded data collection and new indicators prepare the industry for more precise and impactful evaluations in the future.
Anticipated Long-Term Impacts on Scoring
GRESB is evolving towards performance-based scoring, with an emphasis on operational performance. From next year, GRESB will include more operational elements to create a stronger focus on outcome-driven assessments.
The aggregated analysis of the upcoming changes offers insights into both the opportunities and challenges for participants adapting to the revised criteria. Energy efficiency emerges as the most immediate area of improvement, with scoring impacts for operationally efficient assets set to be positive by 2025. This change provides clear incentives for entities that have prioritised efficiency. On the other hand, new criteria such as embodied carbon and renewable energy introduce additional data requirements but will not yet contribute to scoring.
These updates aim to align the industry with more advanced sustainability benchmarks, but they also highlight potential risks. For instance, embodied carbon has a worst-case scoring scenario of up to -8 points, emphasising the importance of early compliance and accurate reporting.
Longer-term updates include refinements to building certifications and experimental biodiversity indicators. Building certifications will be assessed with greater nuance in 2027, focusing on scope and quality to ensure meaningful differentiation across assets. Biodiversity, an emerging area of focus, will require further inputs and testing before becoming a standardised metric. These gradual implementations reflect a balanced approach, allowing participants time to adjust their operations and reporting processes.
Streamlining existing indicators, such as those related to employee safety, also plays a role in these updates. Requiring additional detail to achieve full points underscores the importance of complete data submissions while maintaining consistency with the current framework. Similarly, the planned retirement and reweighting of certain indicators signal a shift towards tightening standards without imposing sweeping or immediate changes.
These updates mark a significant transition towards more data-driven and precise sustainability metrics. While participants who are proactive in their reporting and operational strategies stand to benefit, those lagging behind risk scoring penalties, particularly in areas such as embodied carbon.
How EVORA Can Help
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by these changes, you’re not alone. Many organisations struggle to keep up with the evolving standards and expectations. That’s where EVORA can step in. We’ve helped countless companies gather data and working out the strategies needed successful GRESB reporting.
Our services are designed to do more than just improve your GRESB score. We work with you to build a sustainability strategy that aligns with both your business goals and the future of the industry.
The future’s packed with opportunities – nail your strategy, and you’ll set your company up for sustainable success that goes beyond GRESB reporting.
Contact us if you want to know more.
