Letter to the Board 2024

CDP is a global non-profit that runs the world’s largest environmental disclosure system for companies, cities, states and regions. In 2023, nearly 23,000 companies disclosed important environmental data through CDP.

By creating the world’s largest, most comprehensive environmental dataset, CDP is enabling Capital Market Signatories and purchasing organizations to make informed decisions, reward high-performing companies, and drive action.

In 2024, CDP's Capital Market Signatories consist of 700+ financial institutions worth over US$142 trillion in assets. They endorse CDP’s 2024 disclosure request which has been sent to more than 33,000 companies worldwide.

In addition to being requested to disclose by Capital Market Signatories, organizations may also be requested by their customers – this is known as a 'customer request' or 'supply chain request'. These organizations will be notified from April.

If your organization has previously received a customer or supply chain request, and this is your first year receiving CDP's Letter to the Board, read more about the changes that will apply to you in 2024 below.

Your organization has been requested to disclose its environmental information through CDP’s full corporate questionnaire in 2024. This questionnaire sits in the CDP Portal. The questionnaire provides a framework for organizations to uniformly disclose key environmental information to their stakeholders such as governance and policy, risks and opportunity management, environmental targets and strategy, and scenario analysis.

Eligible disclosers can receive a CDP score to benchmark their environmental activities (note, they must submit their questionnaire and pay their admin fee by the deadline to receive a score). The data disclosed will be made available to Capital Market Signatories and any other requesting organizations once you have completed and submitted your questionnaire.

Please share this request with any teams you believe are relevant in your organization. For example, the CDP full corporate questionnaire is typically completed by an organization’s sustainability, ESG, or investor relations team.

If there is a team more suitable in your organization who should receive the Letter to the Board email, please contact your CDP account manager. These contact details are included in the Letter to the Board email.

Learn more about how CDP is driving corporate disclosure framework alignment with leading reporting standards and frameworks.

All organizations requested by Capital Market Signatories via the Letter to the Board are required to pay a fee to disclose, unless they are exempt. Learn more about our admin fee.

CDP recognizes that all industrial activities have a significant role to play in reducing environmental impact as we transition to a sustainable economy. We therefore apply several criteria to identify companies who are most relevant to capital markets actors. To find out more, see our sample methodology.

Disclosing your environmental data through CDP helps your organization meet the demands of your customers and our Capital Market Signatories. Disclosure also provides tangible business benefits such as:

• Protecting and improving your company’s reputation;
• Boosting your competitive advantage;
• Getting ahead of regulation;
• Uncovering risks and opportunities; and
• Tracking and benchmarking progress.

Learn more about the benefits of disclosing through CDP for companies.

2024 will see the launch of CDP’s new Portal. This includes:

• A more efficient, user-friendly, streamlined questionnaire; and a
• Modern, fit-for-purpose, scalable technology platform with an intuitive interface to enhance both the discloser and data user’s experience.

Read more about CDP’s new Portal and watch our introductory videos.

You may notice some changes this year as you have been requested to disclose by CDP's Capital Market Signatories:

• Requested organizations will be required to pay an admin fee to submit the questionnaire and disclose.
• Requested organizations will be listed on the CDP website (even if they choose not to disclose).
• Company scores will be made publicly available, regardless of whether the response itself is public or non-public. Companies disclosing for the first time will have the option to keep this score private – this means it won't be shared on the CDP website or with Capital Market Signatories, although it will still be shared with requesting customers.
• The data you disclose will be made available to our Capital Market Signatories after you disclose.

No, it is not mandatory to disclose. However, organizations who fail to disclose will automatically receive an F score.

Companies requested to disclose their data will receive an F score if they either:

• choose not to disclose; or
• don't provide sufficient information to be evaluated.

Please note that an F does not indicate a failure in environmental stewardship.

In 2024, all environmental themes are incorporated into one streamlined questionnaire. Questions on forests and water will continue to be presented to companies based on how relevant these themes are to their business and activities.

For more information, please see our sample methodology and read more about our streamlined questionnaire.

You can contact My Support through the CDP Help Center. Please note, you will need to sign in to access this. If you are a new user, you will need to create an account first.