Stakeholders are increasingly requesting environmental data through CDP. These requesters include capital markets, large purchasing organizations who are Supply Chain members, Banks program member, and membership/initiatives such as RE100 and The Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM). Requesters use this data to inform decisions and drive environmental action.

Requested organizations can see which entities have asked them to disclose their environmental data in the CDP Portal once they have been requested to disclose.

You can also see which companies have been requested by CDP’s Capital Markets Signatories.

For further information, please check the CDP Help Center.

Yes, an organization can volunteer to disclose as a self-selected company (SSC) if they haven’t been requested to do so by an organization. They will need to apply to CDP to become an SSC.

The same rules for companies requested by capital markets apply to SSCs:

• SSCs must pay the admin fee to disclose.
• Capital Markets Signatories have access to SSCs’ response, which can be shared more widely if they make this public; and
• SSCs receive a score if they submit their response by the scoring deadline.

If a SSC doesn't end up disclosing, they won’t receive an ‘F’ score and they won't be mentioned on CDP’s website or in CDP’s datasets.

To sign up as a SCC, please complete the Register to Disclose form.

Companies disclose data on the impact their business activities have on environmental issues or themes such as climate change, deforestation and water security.

They can do this through CDP's streamlined corporate questionnaire or SME questionnaire, depending on which is most relevant to them. Disclosing companies will only see questions relevant to the issues they have been requested to disclose on. CDP has combined the three previous questionnaires into one single questionnaire, so that companies asked to respond across multiple issues can do so in a single place.

Questionnaires are made up of modules such as:

• Governance;
• Business Strategy; and
• Environmental Performance.

Some modules are sector-specific, some are issue-specific, and some are integrated, or multi-issue.

Please note, in 2024, companies will still have three separate scores for climate change, forests and water security.

If a Self Selected Company (SSC) meets the eligibility for the SME questionnaire based on the revenue and headcount they enter in the questionnaire setup, they can choose between the SME and full corporate questionnaire. SSCs can also select whether they intend to disclose on forests and/or water in the questionnaire setup.

Browse the latest questionnaire and reporting guidance.

All organizations are asked to respond to climate change questions.

All organizations responding to the full corporate questionnaire are asked supplementary questions on plastics and biodiversity.

Organizations are only asked to respond to forests and water datapoints if at least one of the following conditions is met for forests and/or water security respectively:

• Request: you have been asked to disclose by a requester (eg a Capital Markets Signatory, Supply Chain member, Banks program member etc.).
• Industry impact classification: the environmental impact of your CDP Activity Classification System (CDP-ACS) activities on forests and/or water, as established by the CDP industry impact classification. Note, this is not applicable to organizations responding to the SME questionnaire.
• Self-assessment: based on whether you have indicated that you have identified substantive forests- and/or water-related issues in your questionnaire setup. Note, this is not applicable to organizations responding to the SME questionnaire.
• Opt-in: if none of the above conditions are met but your organization chooses to disclose on forests and/or water security.

Please note that organizations that have received the CDP Letter to the Board can review their initial assessment of environmental issues they are requested to disclose on – please note, this initial environmental issue assignment is subject to change. Further details on thresholds determining whether an organization is requested to respond to forests and/or water security questions can be found in the Industry Impact Classification methodology.

Additionally, if you have been requested to disclose by a Supply Chain member, Banks program member or Private Markets program member, your requester may request you to respond to a specific environmental issue. Organizations are welcome to volunteer to disclose on environmental issues, whether they have been requested to do so or not.

The streamlined corporate questionnaire doesn’t mean that all companies have to answer datapoints on all environmental issues.

Questions on water and forests will continue to be presented to companies based on how relevant these issues are to their business and activities. The relevance of these questions is assessed using the CDP-ACS methodology, following the same process CDP has used to determine requests to large public companies for the last decade. 

CDP’s Activity Classification System (CDP-ACS) was developed to allocate sector-specific questions to companies from 2018. The CDP-ACS framework categorizes companies by focusing on the activities from which they derive revenue, and associating these with the impacts across a company’s value chain from climate change, water security and deforestation.

Questionnaire sectors are allocated based on the same percentages used to allocated CDP activities. All CDP activities – including those responsible for less than 20% of a company’s total revenue – are matched to the corresponding questionnaire sectors and the revenue percentages are summed by the questionnaire sectors. Any questionnaire sectors responsible for at least 20% of a company’s total revenue are allocated to the company. The questionnaire sector with the highest revenue percentage is assigned as the primary questionnaire sector and any remaining questionnaire sectors are assigned as additional questionnaire sectors.

CDP-ACS is a three-tiered system comprised of (from bottom-up) Activity, Activity Group and Industry. See the full list of classifications for the CDP-ACS.

The sector-based approach allows CDP to make more meaningful assessments of companies' responses, incorporating each sector's characteristics and nuances, and resulting in a score that reflects the company's progress in environmental stewardship while enabling better benchmarking against other companies.

Please note, companies are only scored on their primary questionnaire sector. This means that if more than one set of sector questions applies to a company, not all questions will be scored. Sector specific questions are labelled to indicate which sector(s) they apply to. However, we encourage companies to respond to all questions that apply to them. If you believe your ACS allocation needs to be changed, please contact our Support Team (selecting "Questionnaire Response" from the category dropdown). Note, to access My Support, you will need to sign in then return to the Help Center (new users will need to register).

The Total revenue figure and revenue breakdown you enter in the questionnaire set-up will not be shared with external stakeholders. This information is used to inform your questionnaire setup to ensure your organization receives the relevant questions. This information will also be included in CDP data products in an aggregated format. Your stakeholders will receive information on Primary ACS including Industry, Activity Group and Activity.

There is an opportunity to disclose revenue in the questionnaire in questions 1.4.1 in the Full Corporate Questionnaire and 14.4.1 in the SME questionnaire. The data will be shared following the same policies that govern public and non-public responses and you can choose when submitting your response whether your response is public or non-public.

Companies must disclose their environmental information through the CDP Portal. Disclosers submit their questionnaire in the questionnaire area (formerly the "Online Response System", or ORS).

Each organization can have several user types, with the Disclosure Submission Lead being the key contact point for CDP (formerly known as “Main User”). The ‘Disclosure Submission Lead’ has control access rights and can add or remove users to an organization. They are responsible for submitting their organization’s response and paying the admin fee.

Learn more about how to disclose including the key dates in the disclosure cycle. You can also read more about specific steps in the disclosure process by visiting the Help Center.

CDP provides a variety of materials to help organizations throughout disclosure.

Meanwhile the CDP Portal contains the latest:

• Questionnaires
• Scoring methodologies, which outline the number of points available for each question; and
• Reporting guidance for each questionnaire to provide clarity around questions, terminology and requirements.

Additionally, you can:

• Browse upcoming events and past webinars to support you in reporting;
• Learn more about our Reporter Services program, to receive in-depth disclosure support on a one-to-one basis; and
• Find an Accredited Solutions Provider (ASP) for external support on your environmental initiatives.

CDP works on an annual disclosure cycle, with the response window to submit your questionnaire in 2024 running from June to September. Please note, if you wish to be scored, the scoring deadline to disclose is October 9, 2024.

See the latest disclosure timeline.

In addition to providing information on our website, CDP provides updates to company contacts via announcements on the Portal, email, newsletters and webinars.

Our newsletter highlights the latest guidance and webinars, and is sent to disclosing companies each month. We also produce a newsletter highlighting our latest blogs and research.

The CDP admin fee is the fee that companies and other entities pay in order to disclose through CDP.

Responding organizations are exempt from paying the admin fee if they have only been requested to disclose by:

• a Supply Chain member, and/or;
• a Banks program member, and/or;
• A Private Markets program member, and/or
• the RE100 initiative.

The fee varies depending on the location of your organization's headquarters.

Find out more about the admin fee.

For more information about how we use disclosers' personal data, please refer to the “Data Protection” section of our terms of disclosure.

We are conscious of the key role that consultants play in supporting multiple disclosures at once including their different needs. Currently consultants can act as users, which means they can see all answers, support in inputting etc. 

For more information about adding users, visit our Help Center.

The preferred approach is for parent companies to submit a consolidated response to CDP that includes all subsidiary data.

We recommend that subsidiaries contact their parent organization to confirm whether its CDP response(s) will include data from the subsidiary organization. If a subsidiary organization falls outside this parent reporting boundary, it may disclose through CDP separately.

Parents are provided the option to select which subsidiaries they are disclosing for.

For more information, please refer to our questionnaire and reporting guidance.

All organizations have the option to respond either publicly or non-publicly. The Disclosure Submission Lead for an organization (formerly the “Main User”) must select “public” or “non public” when submitting their response in the Portal.

Public responses may be used by CDP in a number of ways including sharing these with requesting stakeholders and posting these on the CDP website.

Non-public responses are shared with requesting stakeholders, but are not listed on CDP’s website or sent to data users.

Learn more about how CDP uses public and non-public responses.

Yes, disclosing companies receive a CDP score based on the information they disclose in their response, although they will need to meet certain criteria to be scored such as submitting their response to CDP before the scoring deadline.

Scores range from A to D- with non-disclosers receiving an F.

In 2024, companies will still have three separate scores for climate change, forests and water security despite these previous questionnaires being integrated into one. Also, while the 2024 questionnaire contains questions on plastics and biodiversity, these are grouped together as unscored questions.

Company scores are made publicly available on the scores page of the CDP website, regardless of whether the response itself is public or non-public. Please refer to our timeline to learn more about when scores will be released and other key dates as we confirm these.

Please note:

• For companies responding to a questionnaire for the first time, CDP offers the option to keep this score private – this means it won’t be shared on the CDP website or with Capital Market Signatories. However it will be shared with requesters.
• Supply Chain scores are private by default, unless they’re an A.
• Financial Service’s scores for forests and water are also kept private – they are shared with responding organizations only.

Companies can get more insight to improve their scoring in the future, through score reports. These are provided to all disclosing companies following score release.

There are also a number of score feedback call options available. Learn more about these by contacting your local CDP office or My Support via the Help Center. Note, to access My Support, you will need to sign in then return to the Help Center (new users will need to register).

You can find the latest scoring methodology in the CDP Portal, or learn more about CDP scoring by referring to our terms and conditions.

Any company that is requested to disclose by Capital Markets Signatories but fails to respond will receive an F score (Failure to disclose) on each environmental issue they did not disclose on. An ‘F’ indicates a failure to provide us with sufficient information to be evaluated. It is not a reflection of your environmental stewardship.

This may also be communicated to investors, customers and other stakeholders through our reports, digital platforms and data products.

It is possible to amend a previously submitted questionnaire(s) before the close of the cycle. You can do this via the self service amendments feature on your response dashboard.

You must re-submit any questionnaires you have amended before the scoring deadline for your amended response to be scored.

CDP operates in a number of locations globally.

You can find the Disclosure contact details of your local office in the Portal. If you require further support, you can contact us via My Support on the CDP Help Center. You will need to sign in then return to the Help Center to access My Support. New users will need to register.

CDP welcomes feedback from companies disclosing via our Portal.

To provide feedback on the content of our questionnaires and supporting materials, please complete our general feedback form. You can also submit feedback directly through the Portal.

Please note, you will not receive a reply to your feedback although all submissions are reviewed. If you represent a responding organization and would like to request a response, please get in touch with your local CDP contact.

In 2024, Financial Services (FS) datapoints are integrated into the CDP questionnaire via a financial services sector tag.

Therefore, FS companies will see a tailored questionnaire with three types of questions:

• Questions shown to all sectors;
• Questions shown to all sectors with additional details and datapoints tailored to FS only; and
• FS-specific questions.

Forests and water security for FS companies will be scored privately in 2024 – for water, this will be the first time it’s scored for FS companies.

The climate change score for FS companies will not be impacted by these scores.