— DATA VALIDATION —
The purpose of data validation is to encourage best practices in data collection and reporting. It is a vital element in GRESB’s work to provide high quality data to Investor Members and the fund managers and companies completing the Assessments. This page provides an overview of the validation process. The Reference Guides contain more information on the process for each Assessment.
The validation process is structured into three-tiers: All Participant Check, Validation Plus and Validation Interview. The approach was developed by PwC and the validation is carried out by GBCI.
All Participant Check
- Checks on all benchmark submissions, for selected data points;
- Validation per indicator with a secondary review system for quality control;
- Focus on open text boxes and open fields;
- Supplemental checks to confirm the existence of supporting evidence for questions requiring documentary evidence;
- Supplemental checks of performance indicator data.
Validation Plus
- Desktop review on a selection of indicators for all participants for which supporting evidence was provided in the form of a document upload or hyperlink;
- Review of tables and examples provided for a selection of indicators for all participants;
- Validation with a secondary review system for quality control.
The indicator selection is performed by GRESB and is subject to change on an annual basis. This allows GRESB to apply a consistent level of scrutiny on all participating entities.
Validation Interview
- Random selection of participants using a system that analyzes criteria based on Assessment submission data. The system automatically picks participants based on a profile that takes into account Assessment validation decisions, outliers, and performance;
- Focus on Entity & Characteristics and supporting evidence.
- While there may be instances where GBCI needs to contact the participant in order to complete the validation, the standard process does not include a participant call.
- Participants selected for a “Validation Interview” are not able to change their responses.
We have started the process of developing a new GRESB ESG Data Quality Standard to define the rules for high-quality data reporting. The Standard will draw on best practices and principles in data quality used by experts across different industries, applying them to ESG data to complement our existing validation processes. Read more on the GRESB ESG Data Quality Standard.