Real Estate Labels Explained: From ESG to IT-Label

When an entrepreneur starts looking for office space for rent in Amsterdam or anywhere else in the Netherlands, the information that arrives is fairly predictable: square metres, asking rent, energy label, a list of technical installations and perhaps a few photographs. At modern buildings, a second layer of information appears: BREEAM certificates, WELL ratings, LEED plaques, WiredScore stars. Investors add their own vocabulary: ESG, GRESB, CSRD, the European Taxonomy. And somewhere behind the technical systems sit entire catalogues of ISO and NEN standards. Each of these instruments exists for a reason. But together they can feel overwhelming, and individually they each tell only part of the story. A sustainable building is not automatically a healthy one. A building with modern installations does not automatically have suitable digital infrastructure. An ISO-certified property manager does not guarantee that every building in the portfolio meets the same technical standard. The central question is straightforward: what do all these labels actually tell us about a building, and what information is still missing when a business makes a location decision?

Energy Label: How Efficient Is the Building?

The energy label is the most familiar instrument in Dutch commercial real estate. It expresses the energy performance of a building on a scale from A to G, with A (and in newer ratings A++ or higher) representing the most efficient performance. The label takes into account insulation, heating and cooling systems, ventilation, lighting and other energy-consuming installations.

For Dutch office buildings, the energy label carries a legal obligation: since 1 January 2023, offices with a usable floor area above 100 m² that are used for at least one working day per week must hold at least energy label C. Buildings that fall short risk being ordered to stop using the space as an office. Several exceptions apply, including listed buildings, buildings scheduled for demolition within a short period and buildings in specific ownership or use situations. Property owners are advised to verify the current requirements through the Dutch government's official channels.

The energy label is a meaningful instrument, but it has a defined scope. It tells you how much energy a building is expected to consume in operation. It says nothing about the quality of the internet connection, the presence of fibre optic infrastructure or the state of the data cabling. Those considerations require separate investigation.

BREEAM and LEED: Sustainability Seen More Broadly

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) both assess sustainability across multiple dimensions. Where the energy label focuses specifically on energy performance, these certifications look at a building from several angles simultaneously.

BREEAM awards credits across categories including energy, water, materials, transport connections, health and wellbeing, waste management, ecology and management quality. Scores determine whether a building receives a Pass, Good, Very Good, Excellent or Outstanding rating. BREEAM operates several assessment schemes: BREEAM New Construction is applied during design and construction, while BREEAM In-Use assesses the performance of existing buildings in operation. BREEAM-NL is the Dutch adaptation, managed by the Dutch Green Building Council.

LEED, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, follows a broadly similar logic and is widely applied internationally, including in the Netherlands and across Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. Credits are awarded across categories such as sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and indoor environmental quality.

Both systems are voluntary. Buildings that carry a BREEAM or LEED certificate have been independently assessed against defined criteria, which is useful for developers, investors and larger tenants making location decisions based partly on sustainability commitments. The specific criteria and their weighting depend on the scheme version applied, so it is always worth understanding what exactly was assessed and when.

WELL: Health and Wellbeing of Building Users

The WELL Building Standard, developed by the International WELL Building Institute, shifts the focus from the building itself to the people inside it. Where BREEAM and LEED primarily assess environmental performance, WELL asks how well a building supports the physical and mental health of its occupants.

WELL certification covers categories including air quality, lighting (both natural and artificial), thermal comfort, acoustics, water quality, opportunities for physical movement, and broader aspects of mental health and community wellbeing. Each category involves specific performance thresholds and design requirements.

For office tenants, this matters in concrete terms. Employees spend a significant proportion of their working lives inside buildings, and the quality of that indoor environment directly affects concentration, comfort and long-term health. A modern workplace is not only about square metres and rent per square metre. It is about the conditions in which people actually work. A WELL-certified office provides documented evidence that those conditions have been assessed against an independent standard.

ESG: How Sustainably and Responsibly Is Real Estate Managed?

ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance. Unlike BREEAM or WELL, ESG is not a building-level label. It is a framework for assessing how organisations and investments perform across three broad dimensions.

Translated into commercial real estate, the three components cover distinct ground. Environmental factors include energy consumption, CO2 emissions, material choices, circularity and water use across a portfolio. Social factors address health, safety, accessibility and the wellbeing of building users and surrounding communities. Governance factors cover transparency, risk management, responsible asset management and data security practices.

For real estate investors, asset managers and larger corporate tenants, ESG has moved from a reporting preference to a practical requirement. Several related frameworks give structure to this reporting.

GRESB is a benchmark that scores the ESG performance of real estate and infrastructure funds and portfolios. It allows investors to compare the sustainability credentials of different property vehicles using standardised metrics.

CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) and the accompanying ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards) require certain European companies to report on sustainability in a standardised and auditable way. The scope of companies covered by CSRD is expanding in phases, and organisations should verify whether they fall within the current or upcoming application thresholds.

The European Taxonomy is a classification system that defines which economic activities can be considered environmentally sustainable under European law. For real estate developers, investors and financiers, taxonomy alignment is increasingly relevant when accessing green financing or reporting to institutional investors.

These frameworks serve different functions and apply at different levels. An investor can publish detailed ESG reports on a portfolio while a prospective tenant still has no clear picture of what digital provisions will be delivered at a specific desk on the third floor. ESG and building-level information complement rather than replace each other, and it is worth understanding which level each instrument operates at. For a detailed introduction to ESG within commercial real estate, see our article on what Environmental, Social and Governance means for tenants, landlords and investors.

ISO: International Standards for Quality, Safety and Management

ISO standards are developed by the International Organization for Standardization and cover a wide range of processes and management systems. In the context of commercial real estate, ISO certifications are typically held by organisations rather than by individual buildings.

ISO 9001 sets requirements for quality management systems, relevant for property managers and facility service providers. ISO 14001 covers environmental management, helping organisations structure and reduce their environmental impact. ISO 50001 focuses on energy management systems, supporting systematic improvement of energy performance over time. ISO/IEC 27001 defines requirements for information security management, highly relevant for technology companies and for organisations handling sensitive data in office environments. ISO 41001 covers facility management and is relevant for organisations delivering integrated workplace services. The newer ISO/IEC 42001 addresses the responsible management of artificial intelligence systems, a standard that will become increasingly relevant as AI tools are deployed within real estate operations.

An important distinction applies here. An ISO certification confirms that an organisation operates a management system meeting defined requirements. It does not certify that any specific building in that organisation's portfolio delivers a particular technical standard. A property manager may hold ISO/IEC 27001 certification, but that does not guarantee that the data cabling in a particular office it manages is suitable for high-bandwidth operations. Tenants evaluating a future workspace need to understand this distinction clearly.

NEN: The Technical Standards Behind Dutch Real Estate

NEN (Nederlands Normalisatie-instituut) develops and maintains technical standards that underpin Dutch construction, installation and measurement practices. These norms provide the shared language that professionals use when describing and assessing buildings.

NEN 2580 defines how the usable floor areas of buildings are measured, enabling consistent comparison between properties. NEN 2767 provides a methodology for assessing the technical condition of building components and installations, producing a condition score that property owners and asset managers use to plan maintenance. NEN 1010 sets safety requirements for low-voltage electrical installations, and NEN 3140 covers the safe operation of those installations. NEN-EN 50173 specifies requirements for generic cabling systems for information technology, while NEN-EN 50174 covers the installation of those cabling systems.

Consider a practical example. A broker can confirm that an office measures 250 m² of lettable floor area, determined according to NEN 2580. The landlord may also hold a condition assessment under NEN 2767. But neither of these documents tells a prospective tenant whether fibre optic connectivity reaches the building, what category of data cabling has been installed, or whether the existing infrastructure can support the company's operational requirements. Technical standards provide valuable and necessary information, but they require specialist knowledge to interpret, and they do not automatically translate into a clear picture of what a tenant will actually receive.

WiredScore and SmartScore: Assessing Technological Quality

WiredScore and SmartScore are two building-level certifications that address the technological dimension of commercial real estate more directly than most of the instruments described above.

WiredScore assesses a building's digital connectivity and technological infrastructure. The assessment covers the availability and diversity of telecommunications providers, the physical infrastructure that supports connectivity (including risers, cable routes and distribution points), reliability and redundancy provisions, and the capacity for future technological upgrades. WiredScore awards ratings from Certified through to Platinum. For tenants whose operations depend on reliable and high-capacity connectivity, WiredScore provides a useful point of comparison between buildings.

SmartScore focuses on smart building technology: the systems and functionalities that make a building more intelligent and responsive. This includes smart access control, building management systems, energy optimisation tools, visitor registration, space utilisation monitoring, digital user services, and automated lighting and climate control. A high SmartScore indicates that a building has invested in the technology needed to deliver a more connected and controllable environment.

The two certifications address related but distinct questions. A smart building deploys technology to improve the experience of its occupants and the efficiency of its operations. But the effectiveness of that technology depends on the reliability and capacity of the underlying infrastructure. WiredScore addresses the infrastructure; SmartScore addresses the functionality built on top of it. Both are voluntary, and both represent a more deliberate focus on digital and technological performance than most traditional sustainability certifications provide. You can read more about smart building systems in our article on future-proofing commercial real estate through smart building technology.

The Smart Readiness Indicator

The Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) is a European framework designed to assess how well a building is prepared for smart technologies. Introduced as part of the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the SRI evaluates a building across multiple domains: heating, cooling, domestic hot water, controlled ventilation, lighting, renewable energy generation, electric vehicle charging, monitoring and control, and flexibility in energy demand response.

The SRI produces a score that reflects how capable a building is of adapting its operation to the needs of its users, optimising energy consumption and interacting intelligently with the energy grid. In the Netherlands, the practical implementation and mandatory application of the SRI is still developing. Readers should verify the current status of SRI requirements through official Dutch and European sources.

The SRI approaches smart readiness primarily through the lens of energy and building management. It is a different instrument from certifications that focus specifically on digital connectivity or the IT delivery level of a building, though there is natural overlap in the underlying infrastructure requirements.

IT-Label: What Does a Tenant Actually Receive Digitally?

Against the background of all the certifications and standards described above, a practical question still often goes unanswered in commercial real estate transactions: what digital infrastructure does a tenant actually receive when moving into an office or business space?

IT-Label is an initiative developed to make the digital delivery level of commercial property transparent, measurable and understandable. RE-SEARCH works with IT-Label as an official knowledge partner, and the collaboration reflects a shared conviction: that digital infrastructure deserves the same clarity in property documentation as square metres, energy performance and technical condition.

The questions IT-Label addresses are concrete. Is fibre optic connectivity available at the building, and where does it terminate? Which internet providers and connection types are accessible? What data cabling has been installed, and in what condition is it? What wifi infrastructure is provided, and what does the tenant need to arrange independently? Are there suitable network rooms, patch cabinets or technical spaces? What redundancy options exist for mission-critical connectivity? What building-level digital security provisions are in place? Which smart building systems are available, and how can the tenant access them? And can the infrastructure be adapted or expanded as the business grows?

IT-Label does not assess the tenant's own IT environment. It describes the digital starting point that the building or the leased unit provides. That distinction matters. A landlord cannot be expected to deliver every tenant's individual network architecture, but a prospective tenant has a legitimate interest in knowing what foundation the building offers before signing a lease.

The financial implications are direct. An office that already has suitable digital infrastructure reduces the additional IT investment required at move-in. A building with outdated or absent infrastructure may require significant capital expenditure, additional works and delay before operations can begin. This makes digital infrastructure a relevant factor in the total cost of a tenancy, not merely a technical detail. It also makes Digital Due Diligence a logical addition to the technical, legal and financial investigations that form part of any serious property transaction. For a deeper look at why IT infrastructure is becoming a new scarcity factor, see our article on IT infrastructure in commercial real estate.

IT-Label is not intended to replace BREEAM, WELL, ISO, NEN, WiredScore or SmartScore. Relevant technical standards and certifications already exist. The purpose of IT-Label is to add a layer of practical transparency, translating technical information about digital infrastructure into language that property professionals and building users can apply in their decision-making. It is a standard in development, not a statutory requirement or a government-endorsed keurmerk. The positioning is deliberate: IT-Label: the standard for digital real estate.

An Overview of the Main Labels, Standards and Frameworks

The table below brings together the instruments discussed in this article. Not all of them are certifications; some are standards, some are reporting frameworks and some are benchmarks. The level at which each applies varies significantly.

Why No Single Label Tells the Complete Story

Consider a straightforward example. A modern office building holds energy label A and a BREEAM Excellent certificate. Its technical installations are new and well maintained. On paper it looks impressive. But a prospective tenant running a data-intensive business also wants to know: is there fibre optic connectivity at the building? Which internet speeds and providers are available? What data cabling was installed during the fit-out, and is it still current? Can the company build a secure, segmented network? And what investment is required before the office is operationally ready?

None of those questions are answered by the energy label or the BREEAM certificate. That is not a failing of those instruments. They were designed to assess different things. The gap is simply that, until recently, no comparable standard existed to document and communicate the digital delivery level of a building in accessible terms.

The reverse scenario is equally instructive. A building can be digitally well-prepared, with fibre, modern cabling and strong connectivity, while performing less well on energy efficiency or indoor air quality. A future-proof office is not defined by any single high score. It is defined by the match between what the building delivers across all relevant dimensions and what the occupying business actually needs. For a broader look at how environment data is changing workplace decisions, see our piece on how environment data transforms workplace location decisions.

What This Means for Tenants, Landlords and Investors

For Tenants

Labels and certifications are tools for comparison, not guarantees of suitability. A BREEAM certificate tells you something meaningful about a building's sustainability. A WELL rating tells you something about the indoor environment. An IT-Label assessment tells you what digital infrastructure has been installed. Together, these sources give a more complete picture than any one of them alone. Before signing a lease, it is worth asking which instruments apply to the building you are considering, what exactly they cover, and where the gaps in available information lie. If you are evaluating a logistics location alongside office space, the considerations shift again; you can explore available warehouse and logistics space for rent in Rotterdam to compare how different building types approach technical specification.

For Landlords

Transparency about a building's performance and provisions is increasingly a competitive factor in letting. Not every landlord needs to pursue every available certification. But providing clear and accessible information about energy performance, technical condition, sustainability credentials and digital infrastructure helps prospective tenants make better-informed decisions faster. That benefits both sides of the transaction. Where digital infrastructure has been invested in, documenting it clearly through an instrument like IT-Label makes that investment visible and commercially relevant.

For Real Estate Investors

Sustainability, technical quality, digital infrastructure and future-proofing are not separate investment considerations. They are interconnected dimensions of long-term asset value. A building that performs well on ESG metrics but has obsolete digital infrastructure may face letting risk as occupier requirements evolve. Digital Due Diligence, alongside traditional technical, legal and financial investigation, provides a more complete basis for investment decisions. As the proportion of knowledge-intensive and technology-dependent tenants in the market grows, the digital quality of a building becomes increasingly material to its income profile and residual value.

The RE-SEARCH View: Look Beyond Square Metres

At RE-SEARCH, we start from a simple conviction. Finding the right commercial space is not only about location, asking rent and available square metres. A building needs to match the genuine operational needs of the business that will use it, including its sustainability requirements, its health and wellbeing ambitions, its technical expectations and its digital infrastructure needs.

Making building performance information more accessible is part of what we do. Our collaboration with IT-Label reflects that goal: creating greater transparency around the digital delivery level of commercial property, so that tenants, landlords and investors can make better decisions with more complete information.

We know how many square metres a building has. We know its energy performance, its sustainability credentials and its technical condition. The digital delivery level deserves the same clarity as standard information in every property file.

We have all the tools to measure what matters. Now we need to make sure that information is visible where decisions are made.

Stop searching. Start researching.