Asset portal guide

1. Visit the GRESB Asset Portal and log in with your user credentials, or create an account by clicking “Sign up for GRESB“.
2. Visit your Assessment Portal and select the entity for which you would like to manage assets.
3. Select “Asset Portal” in the navigation menu.

Uploading asset-level data using the Asset Spreadsheet is the most efficient way to submit or update asset information in bulk in the Asset Portal.

Alternatively, the Asset Portal Data Editor allows to create, delete or update individual assets directly from the portal.

Note: If you have opted to connect your data management system to the GRESB Asset Portal via the API, or you are working with a GRESB Data Partner, the steps below will be taken care of automatically.

Step 1.

Download the Asset Spreadsheet and enter your data.

Reporting asset-level data for the first time?

You can download the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet template and start filling it with your data.

Reported asset-level data previously?

You can use the GRESB Asset Portal to pre-fill parts of the Asset Spreadsheet.

To do so, export the Asset Spreadsheet from the Asset Portal by clicking on ‘Export Asset Spreadsheet.’

This will provide you with a pre-populated Asset Spreadsheet including all existing assets, their GRESB Asset IDs, and associated previous year data. You can use the Spreadsheet to update with current year information. This will also avoid creating duplicates of assets.

Upon uploading the Asset Spreadsheet with the amended data, the Asset Portal will match the GRESB Asset IDs on the Spreadsheet to existing assets in the Portal and overwrite their information.

For further detailed guidance on using the Asset Spreadsheet, see the ‘Instructions’ tab included in the file.

Important: To create a new asset using the Asset Spreadsheet, leave the field ‘GRESB Asset ID’ empty. GRESB will automatically assign the Asset ID after the upload. To update an existing asset, enter the Asset ID into the column ‘GRESB Asset ID.’ Assets with a duplicate or non-existent ID will be rejected.

Step 2.

Click ‘Import Asset Spreadsheet’ to upload your Asset Spreadsheet.

Step 3.

You will receive an email once the import has been processed.

You may leave or refresh the page at any time. Please note that if you upload a new spreadsheet while we are processing an import, your import will be overwritten with the latest upload.

Learn more about API connections in our API documentation.

The Asset Characteristics section covers information intrinsic to the assets in the portfolio that are usually not subject to change from one year to another (e.g. ‘Construction Year’).

For additional guidance, please refer to the tab ‘Instructions’ of the Asset Spreadsheet.

This section assesses the entity’s use of Green Building Certificates and populates indicators:

• BC1.1: Standing investments that received a Green Building Certificate at the time of design/construction, interior and/or renovation
• BC1.2: Standing investments that received a valid operational Green Building Certificate

Note that indicators DBC1.1/1.2 from the Development Component cover assets classified under major renovation and/or new construction and are not populated by tab ‘Building Certifications’ of GRESB Asset Spreadsheet. These indicators must be directly completed at the portfolio level in the GRESB Assessment Portal.

Participants can report up to five building certifications per asset in the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet. If an asset has more than five building certifications, additional building certifications can be reported directly in the GRESB Asset Portal.

For additional guidance, please refer to the tab ‘Instructions’ of the Asset Spreadsheet.

Energy, water, and waste efficiency measures as well as technical building assessments are tracked at the asset level.

The tick boxes (if using the Asset Portal) or drop-downs (if using the Asset Spreadsheet) ask whether such measures have been implemented in the last three years.

For instance, in the case of an entity reporting as per calendar year January-December 2023 “in the last three years” means back until and including January 2021.

For additional guidance, please refer to the tab ‘Instructions’ of the Asset Spreadsheet.

This section defines the reporting characteristics of the asset. The main difference with the ‘Asset Characateristics’ section is that the information provided relates to asset attributes that may change over time (e.g., ‘Vacancy Rate’)

When entities are reporting phased developments where an asset is being expanded while currently operational, assets should always be reported separately. The operational portion of the asset should be classified as standing investment while the other portion as new construction.

Once the additional phases are completed, the entity should combine the different phases into one standing investment in the next reporting period. Please note that when the phases are combined, the asset will not be eligible for Like-for-Like comparisons in the first year of reporting.

For additional guidance, please refer to the tab ‘Instructions’ of the Asset Spreadsheet.

Participants are required to report their operational and non-operational energy consumption and renewable energy usage at the asset level.

Refer to the Aggregation Rules Handbook for more explanation on how GRESB aggregates asset-level data.

For additional guidance, please refer to the tab ‘Instructions’ of the Asset Spreadsheet.

Participants are required to report their GHG emissions at the asset level by Scope 1, 2 and 3. This classification is proposed by the GHG Protocol and definitions can be found in the tab ‘Data Dictionary’ of the Asset Spreadsheet.

You should only report the GHG emissions relating to the Energy consumption reported in the tab ‘Energy’. Refer to the Aggregation Rules Handbook for more information on how GRESB aggregates asset-level data.

For additional guidance, please refer to the tab ‘Instructions’ of the Asset Spreadsheet.

Report the total water consumption as well as the absolute reused and/or recycled water, regardless of whether it comes from on-site or off-site facilities.

Refer to the Aggregation Rules Handbook for more information on how GRESB aggregates asset-level data.

For additional guidance, please refer to the tab ‘Instructions’ of the Asset Spreadsheet.

Participants are required to report their waste generation and proportion of waste by disposal route at the asset level.

Refer to the Aggregation Rules Handbook for more information on how GRESB aggregates asset-level data.

For additional guidance, please refer to the tab ‘Instructions’ of the Asset Spreadsheet.

There is a comprehensive set of validation rules implemented for asset-level reporting. These rules consist of logical checks on the relationships between different data fields in the Asset Portal. These errors appear in red around the relevant fields in the Asset Portal Data Editor, along with a message explaining the error. Participants cannot aggregate their asset data to the portfolio level, and therefore cannot submit their Performance Component, until all validation errors are resolved.

The Data Editor is designed to help participants report on their assets correctly. Certain fields are grayed out when they are not relevant for reporting. For instance, all landlord-controlled fields are grayed out if the option ‘Whole Building is Tenant Controlled’ is selected. Any data in grayed-out fields will be ignored by the Portal on aggregation to the portfolio level.

Types of validation checks

Checks for existence

• All fields marked as mandatory in the Asset Spreadsheet must be present
• If the building is owned and operational for any part of the reporting year, the ‘Floor Area Covered’ and the ‘Maximum Floor Area’ corresponding to this building’s performance data are expected to be reported for Energy, GHG, Water, and Waste. ‘Data Availability’ and ‘Vacancy Rate’ must also be present

Checks on dates against the reporting year

• Dates must be within the reporting year (either fiscal or calendar, set in EC4)

Logical checks on operational control

• If the option ‘Whole building is Tenant Controlled’ in Reporting Characteristics is selected, then ‘Whole Building’ in the energy tab cannot be unselected
• If ‘Whole building is Tenant Controlled’ is selected, then only the data in the corresponding ‘Whole Building’ fields for energy and water are relevant for reporting. Any data in the ‘Base Building + Tenant Space’ fields will be ignored

Logical checks between floor areas

• Any ‘Maximum Floor Area’ field must be less than or equal to the Asset Size
• Any given ‘Floor Area Covered’ field must be less than or equal to the corresponding ‘Maximum Floor Area’
• The sum of ‘Maximum Floor Area’ fields for Energy, GHG, and Water must be greater than or equal to the Asset Size

Comparisons between consumption/emission and ‘Floor Area Covered’

• If consumption values are reported, then the corresponding ‘Floor Area Covered’ field must be present and greater than zero
• If a ‘Floor Area Covered’ is reported, then the corresponding consumption/emission field must be present

Specific rules for energy

• If reporting on ‘Base Building + Tenant Space,’ the ‘Maximum Floor Areas’ reported must be less than or equal to the asset sizes per subspace
  • Example: the ‘Maximum Floor Areas’ for common areas must be less than or equal to the total common area floor area
• The renewable energy consumed or purchased by landlord must be less than or equal to the sum of all of the consumption values in landlord-controlled fields

Specific rules for GHG emissions

• There are checks between the ‘Maximum Floor Area’ and ‘Covered Floor Area’ fields in the Energy and GHG tabs
  • For instance, if the whole building is tenant-controlled, then only Scope 3 fields are allowed to be present in the GHG tab. In this example, the ‘Maximum Floor Area’ must be equal to the asset size, and the ‘Floor Area Covered’ must be less than or equal to the smaller of the sum of the ‘Floor Areas Covered’ reported in the Energy tab or the GHG Scope 3 ‘Maximum Floor Area.’

Specific rules for water

• Consumption and floor areas can be present for either ‘Whole Building’ or ‘Base Building + Tenant Space,’ but not both
• Reused and recycled water purchased off-site must be less than or equal to the sum of the reported consumption values

Specific rules for waste

• If the data coverage is larger than zero, then the ‘Hazardous and Non-hazardous Waste Consumption’ fields must be present
• The sum of the proportions of waste by disposal routes must equal 100%

Asset location validation serves to prevent errors and improve data quality. GRESB uses a third-party geocoding service to verify the accuracy of all mandatory asset location information.

Participants cannot submit their asset data until errors in City, State/Province, and Country fields are rectified.

First you should review the location errors on the Asset Characteristics page. These errors appear in red around the relevant fields.

Here are general steps to follow during the review process, noting that location changes are automatically re-verified:

1. Verify the spelling and correctness of the field(s) with errors.
2. Verify spelling and correctness of all other location fields, regardless of error indication.
3. Confirm the accuracy of the country field, even if no error is flagged.
4. If a street address is provided, first consider using the suggested location from the autocomplete drop-down. If error(s) persist, try removing the street address.
5. If street address is not provided, add it.
6. If the error persists, try the following:
   1. For State/Province: use the city name.
   2. For State/Province: use the country name.
   3. For City: utilize a nearby city name.

If issues persist, please contact us and include the hyperlink(s) or Asset ID(s) for our review.

For large numbers of location errors, we recommend initially reviewing errors in the Asset Portal Data Editor. If found repetitive, then update the asset locations in bulk, using the Asset Spreadsheet import feature.

Based on statistical modelling, GRESB identifies outliers in reported performance data for selected indicators in the Real Estate Assessment Performance Component. This analysis is performed to ensure that all participating entities included in the benchmarking and scoring process are compared based on a fair, quality-controlled dataset.

The model is built to detect outliers at the asset level. Outliers are flagged in the GRESB Asset Portal so that Participants can check their input data, and make corrections if necessary.

Outliers are only calculated for data points without validation errors, so outliers will not be present in the Portal until after participants resolve any errors from automatic validation.

Model

There are two kinds of outliers flagged by the Portal: Intensities and Like-for-Like (LFL) change in consumption/emission. Outliers are flagged per asset, for the following data types:

Outliers are only calculated for data that is eligible for inclusion in scoring. For example, LFL outliers are only calculated for assets and data types that are eligible for LFL inclusion in scoring. Intensity outliers are only calculated if the reported ‘Floor Areas Covered’ are greater than zero.

The two most common explanations for outliers in the past related to vacancy and data availability period. The GRESB Outlier Model takes both vacancy rates and data availabilities into account when calculating outlier values.

• Intensity values are normalized by both vacancy and data availability.
• The consumption values that go into the LFL change calculations are normalized by vacancy. LFL outliers are not normalized by data availability because an asset is only eligible for LFL inclusion if the data availability is two continuous years.

Thresholds

For LFL outliers, the thresholds for detecting outliers vary between 20–30% based on the previous year’s consumption value. These thresholds are based on analysis of asset-level data from previous years.

For intensity outliers, the thresholds for detecting an outlier vary by data type and property type. They are based on a combination of analysis of data from previous years and market research on typical energy, GHG, water, and waste use per property type.

The lower and upper thresholds for intensities are listed for all property types and data types on the Asset Portal guidance.

Validation

Outliers are validated automatically based on the thresholds. Detected outliers do not require explanations from the Participant. However, Participants will have the opportunity to optionally select reasons for each outlier. This information is for reporting purposes only.

There are two levels of automatic outlier validation.

1. If an outlier is detected above the fixed threshold, then the data points associated with that outlier will be included in scoring. However, they will not be included in the creation of the scoring benchmark quantiles for scoring data coverage and LFL changes.
2. If the outlier is substantially higher than the upper threshold (more than 1000 times greater), the data points associated with that outlier will be rejected. That is, they will not be included in scoring.

Common mistakes that can lead to outliers

An outlier may result from a reporting mistake. When outliers are flagged, make sure to check the ‘Consumption/Emission,’ ‘Floor Area Covered,’ ‘Vacancy Rate,’ and ‘Data Availabilities’ fields for your asset.

Common reporting mistakes that result in Intensity outliers:

• Using the wrong unit (e.g.. MWh instead of kWh) or wrong conversion factor
• Reporting full ‘Floor Area Covered’ when the consumption data is incomplete (e.g., missing tenant consumption data or missing fuel consumption)
• Reporting on occupancy instead of vacancy
• Reporting a full year of data availability when the consumption data is not captured for the full reporting year

Common reporting mistakes that result in LFL outliers:

• Reporting consumption data for the current reporting year and no consumption data for the previous year, with the same data coverage
• Reporting a full year of data availability for both this year and the previous year when the consumption data is not actually captured for a full two reporting years
• Reporting on occupancy instead of vacancy or reporting the same vacancy year over year when it actually changed