Completing a GRESB submission using Scaler

Based on Scaler's interpretation of the GRESB Reference Guide, pre-acquisition data may be included in like-for-like calculations when all of the following criteria are met:

If these criteria are satisfied, the asset may be included in like-for-like analysis using the full-year data.

Scaler enforces GRESB's official estimation constraints automatically in the compliant modes:

These rules apply to Energy, GHG, Water, and Waste in the Performance Component.

For the full GRESB specification, see: GRESB 2026 Estimation Rules

GRESB treats assets differently depending on their reporting status. Operational performance data (energy, GHG, water, and waste) is only exported for assets marked as Standing Investment. Assets marked as New Construction Project or Major Renovation Project are excluded from the operational performance sections of the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet by design, even when consumption data exists in Scaler.

Set the GRESB status on each asset under Data Collection Portal → Asset list → [Asset] → Reporting data → Status. The field accepts Standing Investment, New Construction Project, or Major Renovation Project. Scaler tracks status history with start and end dates, so an asset can shift between statuses across reporting years without losing the trail.

For every asset, GRESB requires at least one active meter in Scaler for each material category — energy, water, and waste. Without an active meter, the asset's data coverage for that category cannot be computed, and GRESB returns a validation error on upload to the GRESB Portal. GRESB also requires an active meter in the previous reporting year, not just the current one, for each material category. This is the two-year lookback and it applies to energy, water, and waste alike.

This applies even when an asset has no consumption to record and even when the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet appears to generate successfully in Scaler — the empty cells will fail validation at the upload step.

Why GRESB requires this — every building is assumed to have some energy use, water use, and waste output somewhere across its floor area. Scaler cannot infer the source type or the floor area covered without an explicit meter, so the meter has to be created even when no consumption is actively collected against it. GRESB also needs the data coverage value for each category, which cannot be computed without a meter.

What to do when an asset has no meter for a required category:

If unsure which approach fits the asset, contact your Account Operations representative.

GRESB requires the Maximum Floor Area to reach the floor area of each area type, the Gross Floor Area (GFA) for a whole-building meter. This applies across resources and is enforced in the GRESB portal itself.

A resource that doesn't reach the full area still needs its Maximum Floor Area to get there. How you fill the gap depends on what the area is. Start with one question: is energy actually supplied to that area?

The consumption value is the difference: 0 means "known, none here" and holds coverage; null means "not collected" and lowers it. Never resolve the block by deleting meters.

To configure the toggle across a portfolio or per asset, see Configuring maximum floor area coverage settings.

When an asset is reported as Whole Building and every active energy meter uses the Area type value Whole Building - Tenant Controlled, GRESB requires water to be reported at whole-building level too. Scaler enforces this at input and blocks the submission if water sits on a different level.

Fix: move the water meter(s) to a whole-building Area type, or correct the energy meters' Area type if the asset is not actually whole-building tenant-controlled.

For 2026, on-site energy counts toward Floor Area Covered in the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet, so an asset whose only energy is on-site is no longer left with blank coverage. This applies to the spreadsheet's covered-area columns; Scaler's in-platform GRESB coverage % still uses the prior logic this reporting season, so the two figures can differ. See the FAQ below for detail.

Scaler surfaces the rules below as inline, non-blocking warnings directly on the asset's Certifications page whenever a GRESB report is enabled for the asset. Selecting a NABERS rating, a BREEAM In-Use certification, or a certification GRESB does not recognize (for example 2000-Watt Site or the ILFI Core Green Building Certification, which are excluded from the export) shows the applicable guidance at the point of entry. The warnings are advisory: you can always save the certification.

Certification reporting in the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet follows three rules that apply across all certification types (e.g. EPCs, NABERS, BREEAM In-Use, and other operational/design/construction and energy ratings):

Valid date obtained / expiration

Scaler captures any certification whose Date obtained falls within the reporting year + 6 months. The 6-month buffer picks up certificates obtained shortly after year-end that still apply to the reporting year, which is common given administrative lag at certifiers. Certificates with a Date obtained outside this window are reported in the next GRESB cycle.

Please note that GRESB considers the certification year to be the year which reflects the actual performance period covered by the certification. It's not the year in which the submission process was completed, or in which the certificate was issued.

Record certifications at their native, granular level in Scaler. Scaler handles the aggregation, capping, and exclusion logic for GRESB export automatically.

Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs)

Where an asset has multiple certifications at the same rating level — for example, separate certificates for individual units within a building — Scaler sums their covered floor areas and caps the total at the asset's GFA, reporting a single entry per rating level. GRESB does not distinguish between EPC versions (e.g. A2015, A2020) — all are reported by rating level (A–G) with floor area aggregated per level.

NABERS

In the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet, NABERS Energy is reported directly. GRESB also includes a NABERS / Multi-rating category, which requires at least three of the four NABERS ratings (Energy, Water, Waste, Indoor Environment) to be held.

In Scaler, NABERS Energy is recorded under Group = Energy rating. Water, Waste, Indoor Environment, and Multi-rating are recorded under Group = Operational certifications. The Multi-rating must be selected separately in Scaler as its own certification entry — it is not generated automatically when multiple individual NABERS ratings are recorded. Only select it when the GRESB criteria are met.

BREEAM In-Use

In the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet, BREEAM In-Use is reported as a single category — BREEAM/In Use — without distinguishing between parts. Scaler automatically maps part-level entries to this category on export.

In Scaler, BREEAM In-Use can be recorded at part level: Part 1 (Asset Performance), Part 2 (Building Management), and Part 3 (Occupier Management). Where multiple parts have different levels (e.g. Excellent and Outstanding), each is reported as a separate entry. Where multiple parts share the same level, Scaler aggregates the covered area and caps the total at the asset's GFA.

For assets co-owned across multiple funds or portfolios, see the Joint ventures: asset setup and data collection guide for guidance on how to structure consumption, floor area, and ownership data in Scaler, and how this maps to GRESB reporting requirements.

Heat pumps and CHP systems are different and are reported differently.

A CHP burns a fuel to generate electricity and heat on site. GRESB's published FAQ instructs participants to report the fuel input only and exclude the generated electricity and heat, to avoid double-counting. Set the output meters to Include in calculations = OFF.

A heat pump uses electricity as its input to produce heat. Reporting both the electricity input and the heat output records more energy than the asset actually purchased, because a heat pump delivers more heat than the electricity it consumes, which inflates reported energy and EUI. GRESB has not published guidance on how heat pumps should be reported, so confirm the approach for your asset with the GRESB Helpdesk before submitting.

For meter setup detail, see Reporting district heating & cooling (DHC) and heat pump systems and Meter setup scenarios & examples.

As of the 2026 GRESB Real Estate Assessment, fugitive emissions are not captured in the GRESB assessment. Participants are only required to report GHG emissions related to the energy consumption of each asset. You do not need to include F-gas data in your GRESB Asset Spreadsheet. For details, see the GRESB 2026 GH1 Scope 1–3 emissions guidance.

Symptom: An asset has full meter setup and consumption data in Scaler, and shows 100% data coverage on the asset page. After generating the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet, the asset's operational performance rows (energy, GHG, water, waste) come out empty.

Why this happens: Under GRESB rules, operational performance data in the Asset Spreadsheet applies to Standing Investments only. Assets with Status set to New Construction Project or Major Renovation Project are excluded from the operational performance sections by design, regardless of how complete the data is in Scaler.

What to do: Check the asset's GRESB status under Data Collection Portal → Asset list → [Asset] → Reporting data → Status.

Symptom: A meter on an asset switched from tenant-controlled to landlord-controlled (or the reverse) during the reporting year — typically by closing the old meter and opening a new one. After generating the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet, the asset's Whole building tenant controlled value does not match what the latest meter setup would suggest, and may stay consistent across years where you'd expect it to change.

Why this happens: Whole building tenant controlled is not an input field in the Data Collection Portal. It is calculated on export from the meters' Covered area and Max covered area values, summed across each asset's tenant-controlled meters. When meters covering different parts of the year carry different control types, the calculation reflects the area each meter covers — not the most recent control state on its own. There is no override on the asset to force a particular value.

What to do: This cannot be auto-resolved in Scaler. Both setups below are valid representations of the asset, so the client picks one before submitting:

What changed for 2026: GRESB now expects on-site energy to be reflected in data coverage, and Scaler includes on-site energy in the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet's Floor Area Covered columns. Previously on-site generation was excluded from Floor Area Covered, which left the column blank for assets whose only energy was on-site and could trigger GRESB Portal validation errors. On-site energy now contributes to Floor Area Covered in the spreadsheet you submit. On-site consumption was always reported, and it is still credited toward GRESB Renewable Energy points.

Spreadsheet vs platform: This change applies to the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet covered-area columns only. Scaler's in-platform GRESB coverage % still uses the prior logic for this reporting season, so the figure shown in the platform can differ from the spreadsheet. Aligning the two is under review for after reporting season.

What to do: Make sure each on-site meter has its Covered area entered so it is reflected correctly in the spreadsheet.

No. This is the expected result once the asset is set up correctly. GRESB counts only the fuel input for on-site combustion generation, so the on-site electricity meter is excluded by setting its Include in calculations toggle to OFF (the same applies to the heat-output meter). With those meters excluded, the spreadsheet's Consumption and Floor Area Covered columns are blank for electricity, while Maximum Floor Area still shows the asset's area. There is no coverage gap to fix.

If you instead see the generated electricity counted as consumption, the Include in calculations toggle has not been set. See the CHP setup in Meter setup scenarios & examples and switch it OFF on the electricity-output and heat-output meters.

Symptom: A GRESB Asset Spreadsheet generated with automated aggregation comes out with empty energy columns for one specific asset group, even though the underlying member properties have full consumption data in Scaler. The error_log.txt file inside the export zip contains an entry like Error 31, Sheet: Energy, Column: whole_building, Message: not all assets have same value for whole_building, all other energy columns are skipped.

Why this happens: Automated aggregation requires every member property of an asset group to share the same value for fields that must be uniform across the group, including Whole building tenant controlled. When some properties in the group are reported as whole-building and others as base building + common areas, Scaler cannot aggregate the energy data cleanly and skips the energy columns for that group.

What to do: Align the allocation setup across all member properties in the group before re-generating the report. See the Asset groups section above for the full list of fields that must be uniform and the resolution steps.

Short answer: Yes, as long as Date obtained is on or before 30 June 2026.

Why: Scaler captures certifications using a reporting year + 6 months window, so any certificate obtained by the end of June following the reporting year falls inside the window for that cycle. Certificates obtained later are reported in the next GRESB cycle. See the Certifications section above for the full rule.

Symptom: An asset comes out as fully tenant-controlled, or its landlord-controlled portion (for example vacant areas where the landlord pays the bills) is not represented. The client expects the Maximum Floor Area Coverage toggle to correct this.

Why this happens: Landlord vs tenant control is set by the Area Type field on each meter. If only tenant-controlled meters exist and the landlord-controlled area is never defined with its own meter, there is no signal that any part of the asset is landlord-controlled. The Maximum Floor Area Coverage toggle does not encode this split. It is a narrow control for whether consumption covers the full floor area for a resource, not a substitute for defining control type at the meter level.

What to do: Add a placeholder meter for the landlord-controlled area with Area Type set accordingly so the split is explicit. Update the Covered Area where needed by adding the updated GLA in a new meter version. Keep the Maximum Floor Area Coverage toggle OFF for these assets.

Symptom: A resource only physically supplies part of the asset, but the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet throws a blocking covered-area mismatch, or the GRESB portal flags must be equal to size or Sum of maximum floor areas must be greater than or equal to size. It looks like full-area coverage is being forced incorrectly.

Why this happens: This is a GRESB rule, not a Scaler restriction. GRESB requires the Maximum Floor Area for the resource to be at least GFA (equal to GFA for a Whole Building meter). Covered Area can stay below GFA, but Maximum Floor Area cannot. The block is behaving correctly. See Maximum Floor Area must cover GFA above for the full rule.

What to do: Bring Maximum Floor Area up to GFA. If the area genuinely has no consumption (e.g. a vacancy), add a placeholder sized to it with consumption recorded as 0. A 0 reading counts as Covered and keeps your coverage. If consumption exists but wasn't collected, add a placeholder with consumption left blank (null), or use the Maximum Coverage toggle. This increases the Maximum Floor Area but coverage correctly drops. Never remove meters to clear the block.

Symptom: A category (for example Waste) comes back empty in the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet even though data completion shows 100% in both Scaler and GRESB. It looks like a bug.

Why this happens: The data for that category is estimate-based, and the Include estimated data toggle was off when the report was generated. Completion counts the entered estimates, but the export excludes them, so the category exports empty. This is working as designed, not a bug.

What to do: Re-generate with Include estimated data on, choosing the estimation mode that fits (see Estimated meter data above). If you keep estimates off, expect estimate-based categories to export empty regardless of completion.