R1.1: The Entity’s Standing Investments Portfolio During the Reporting Year – Above Green

Intent

Portfolio composition determines the scope of the Performance Component, and forms the basis for entity classification and GRESB peer group allocation. In this context, GRESB aims to benchmark participants within similar property types. If that is not possible, property types are aggregated into groups of property types with similar characteristics (property sectors). It is therefore essential that the portfolio boundaries reported by the entity are accurate and complete to ensure relevant outcomes and comparisons.

Refer to Appendix 3b Peer Group Allocation Methodology for more information on the GRESB Peer Group Allocation.

Requirements

The indicator below is automatically populated by GRESB based on information provided through the reporting entity’s GRESB Asset Portal. Participants can access the Asset Portal via the Assessment Portal menu, section ASSETS.

Note: This table is generated by GRESB and represents an aggregation of the data provided at the asset level. It is provided for review purposes and defines the scope of your 2020 GRESB Performance Component submission. It should reflect the total standing investments portfolio and exclude any development and/or major renovation projects, exclude vacant land, cash or other non real estate assets owned by the entity.
You are not able to amend information in this table, with the exception of “% GAV” (this is because GAV is an optional field at asset level and cannot be used for aggregation). Please note that % GAV is used for entity and peer group classification and should accurately reflect the composition of the portfolio.

Upload file or URL where in the evidence the relevant information can be found____

In 2020, participants are required to define their portfolio composition at the asset level using the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet. See tab “Instructions” for detailed guidance on how to interpret and complete each field and tab “Data dictionary” for specific terminology. Extended guidance on how to upload the Asset Spreadsheet into the Asset Portal is available here.

The table in R1.1 is automatically populated once the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet is completed and uploaded to the Asset Portal, with the exception of the “% GAV” column, which will need to be manually completed for each property sub-type.

It is recommended to:

Prepare and upload your Asset-level Spreadsheet into your Assessment;
Solve all warnings and errors;
Complete the potential missing fields in R1.1 (i.e. “% GAV”);
Review all fields in R1.1 to ensure the table is accurate and complete;
Provide evidence to confirm the portfolio composition, including any acquisitions and dispositions during the reporting year.

Entities reporting to GRESB are expected to represent the full investable vehicle and thereby must include all direct real estate assets held by the vehicle (i.e., the whole portfolio) at any time during the reporting year. Note that this also includes assets that are not under the direct control of the entity, assets that are owned under a joint venture, and/or assets that may not be recorded as physical assets on the entity’s balance-sheet (e.g., structured as financial lease).

Refer to section Reporting Scope and Boundaries of this document for guidance on joint ventures.

Participants are required to corroborate information in the table through the upload of supporting evidence in an explicit way, to avoid confusion and room for interpretation. It should be clear from the uploaded document how the table is reconciled with the supporting evidence. Use the open text box to describe the nature and/or purpose of the document uploaded and communicate all relevant information necessary to understand the reconciliation. To support their reconciliation, participants are encouraged to upload an additional excel file to clearly demonstrate how the uploaded evidence corroborates the values in table R1.1.

Situations where the supporting evidence could be inconsistent with the aggregation table include, but are not limited to:

The supporting evidence provides the size of the portfolio in LFA (lettable floor area), while the R1.1 table displays the aggregate GFA (gross floor area) - e.g. the reported floor area (GFA) of asset A in GRESB is 10,000 m2, and the supporting evidence only displays its LFA of 8,000 m2. Participants should use the open text box to justify the difference between the floor area sizes.
The portfolio includes mixed use assets broken down by property type in the asset reporting - e.g. an asset has ten office floors on top of a retail floor and the spaces are submetered. The participant can list the same asset (address) twice in the GRESB Asset Spreadsheet; once for retail and once for office. Once aggregated, the R1.1 table will display one retail asset and one office asset, but the supporting evidence only confirms the existence of a mixed asset. Participants should use the open text box to justify the difference in the number of assets and property types.
The entity uses a different property type classification than GRESB. The 2020 GRESB property type structure follows a three-level hierarchy where a Property Sector contains multiple Property Types, further refined into multiple Property Sub-Types (see Appendix 3a). If this classification differs from the supporting evidence used to corroborate table R1.1, this may lead to inconsistencies in terms of classification granularity and/or terminology. For example, an entity owning 5 Industrial; Distribution Warehouses and 8 Industrial; Manufacturing assets could have all its 13 assets classified as Industrial. Participants should use the open text box to justify the difference in the number of assets and property types.

Validation

Evidence: Document upload is mandatory for this indicator. The evidence must sufficiently support each of the values except “% GAV” reported in R1.1, namely:

Property Sub-Types represented in the portfolio;
Numbers of assets per Property Sub-Type;
Floor Area per Property Sub-Type

The supporting evidence must be a document that was not prepared solely for the purpose of reporting to GRESB (except the signed statement - see below). Evidence examples can include, but are not limited to:

Full audited financial statements with reference to balance-sheet and relevant notes breaking down the entity’s portfolio characteristics;
Section in entity reporting to investors. Extracts that do not demonstrate the overall size of the portfolio will not be accepted;
Audit statements confirming the composition of the portfolio during the reporting year, including acquisitions and dispositions;
Signed statement from CEO or Senior Management confirming that the portfolio composition reported above is truthful, accurate and complete and it represents the entire portfolio during the reporting year. The statement should specifically list all property sub-types, total number of assets and floor area size by property sub-type. To support participants with the validation process, GRESB provides a template statement that can be completed and uploaded. See Appendix 2c;
10K filings.

Multiple documents can be uploaded. For each evidence uploaded, make sure to clearly indicate where (page number, paragraph) the relevant information can be found.

GRESB reserves the right to use alternative sources of information to corroborate the composition of the portfolio, such as publicly available reports and uploaded documentation in other sections of the GRESB Assessment. Non-compliance with the GRESB reporting requirements may lead to a formal request from the Validation Team to adjust the entity’s portfolio boundaries, or the rejection of the Performance Component submission if necessary (see below).

GRESB is amending the scope of the Validation Interview process to be limited to a manual check of the reporting boundaries. This is performed by GBCI for a subset of participants that submit a Real Estate Performance Component response.

Timeline:

July 15: The selected participants are notified by GRESB that they have been selected for a reporting boundaries review which will occur beginning of August (or earlier if the participant submits prior to August 1). There is no action needed from the participant at that time. The selection is based on parameters set by GRESB such as listed vs. non-listed entity, increase/decrease in GAV, asset count and/or floor area year over year. A subset of participants who did not supply sufficient documentation in the previous year may be selected for another review.

August 1: The Reporting Boundaries review commences.

August 10: All selected participants are emailed by GBCI.

Participants showing discrepancy will be asked for additional clarifications and / or to make corrections to their reporting scope. They have 5 working days to respond and resolve the request. Non-compliance will lead to the rejection of the Performance Component submission and will result in not being provided with a GRESB Score and GRESB Rating.
Participants with sufficient documentation will be contacted with a confirmation email.

August 31: The Reporting Boundaries review is concluded.

Terminology

Percentage (%) GAV: Report the portfolio’s property sub-type diversification by fraction of total GAV or net operating income (NOI). The GAV value for this indicator should be calculated as the GAV of standing investments at the end of the reporting year. If an asset was sold during the reporting year, its GAV should represent the value on the disposition date.

References

EPRA Best Practices Recommendations on Sustainability Reporting, 3rd version, September 2017: 5.1, Organisational Boundaries; 5.2, Coverage; 5.7,Analysis-Segmental Analysis

INREV Reporting Guidelines

INREV Standard Data Delivery Sheet (SDDS)