In December 2024, GRESB announced it had come up with a fresh set of requirements for building certification. The ESG real estate assessor and benchmark provider said the new conditions would improve the standard of the certifications it uses to examine the sustainability credentials of real estate portfolios.

The move came after a lengthy consultation period launched in early 2024, which signalled that long-standing complaints about certifications were being taken seriously. Chief among these grievances was a lack of harmony between certifiers and the proliferation of new schemes during the past few years.

“This makes it hard for investors to know what to use and how to compare certifications,” said Alodie McLaren, senior associate, real estate, at GRESB, during an episode of The Pulse, one of the organisation’s in-house podcasts, recorded in May 2024.

The disjointed certification market also makes it harder for GRESB when appraising real estate investmen