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Guidance for companies

Companies can disclose in response to a request from an investor, a customer, or both. This page covers the basics of the information request and shows some of the guidance that is available. CDP's full suite of guidance materials and recorded webinars can be accessed from the guidance tool after you sign in. View instructions on how to use CDP’s disclosure platform, including the guidance tool.


The Online Response System (ORS) is now open for 2022 corporate disclosure. You can now sign in and activate your questionnaire(s).


For more information about CDP’s evolution in disclosure, click below.

Disclosure in 2022


Investors and customers can request information from companies through CDP's climate change, forests, and water security questionnaires. Take a look at the latest questionnaires to see what questions you will be asked to respond to.

CDP questionnaires 2022
Climate change
Climate change questionnaire for companies disclosing to the 2022 request.
Forests
Forests questionnaire for companies disclosing to the 2022 request.
Water security
Water security questionnaire for companies disclosing to the 2022 request.

CDP provides guidance that explains each question in detail and describes what information to provide, the required format, and where to find tools or further information to construct your answer.

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CDP reporting guidance 2022
Climate change
Reporting guidance for companies disclosing to the 2022 climate change request.
Forests
Reporting guidance for companies disclosing to the 2022 forests request.
Water security
Reporting guidance for companies disclosing to the 2022 water security request.
CDP questionnaire changes 2021-2022
Climate change
A map of the relationship between questions in the 2021 climate change questionnaire and the 2022 climate change questionnaire.
Forests
A map of the relationship between questions in the 2021 forests questionnaire and the 2022 forests questionnaire.
Water security
A map of the relationship between questions in the 2021 water security questionnaire and the 2022 water security questionnaire.
Key CDP technical materials
CDP technical note – Biofuels
Provides an overview of biofuels and their impacts to support disclosure.
CDP technical note – Relevance of Scope 3 Categories by Sector
Signposts the categories of Scope 3 emissions that companies should be measuring and taking action to mitigate.
CDP technical note – Financial Services Sector
Guidance on the methodologies used to calculate portfolio impact metrics – for banks, asset owners, asset managers and insurers.
CDP technical note – TCFD
An introduction to the TCFD, why CDP has committed to aligning its platform, and how to disclose the TCFD’s recommendations.
Linking GRI and CDP – water security 2018
Provides detailed alignment of the GRI 303: Water and Effluents 2018 and CDP water security 2018. Remains relevant for CDP water security 2022.
CDP technical note – Reporting on Transition Plans
Guidance on how organizations disclosing through CDP can demonstrate that they have a credible climate transition plan.

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CDP scoring methodologies

CDP uses the scoring methodologies to incentivize companies to measure and manage environmental impacts through participation in CDP's climate change, forests, and water security questionnaires. Each of CDP’s questionnaires has an individual scoring methodology.

Maintaining CDP’s reputation as an independent and unbiased provider of high quality information is of paramount importance. Read our policy on conflicts of interest for more information.

The scoring of CDPs questionnaires is conducted by accredited scoring partners trained by CDP. CDP’s internal scoring team coordinate and collate all scores and run data quality checks and quality assurance processes to ensure that scoring standards are aligned between samples and scoring partners.

Climate change

Full version scoring methodology for companies disclosing to the 2022 climate change request

Forests

Full version scoring methodology for companies disclosing to the 2022 forests request

Water security

Full version scoring methodology for companies disclosing to the 2022 water security request

Scoring Introduction

An introduction to how scoring is applied to all of CDP questionnaires.

CDP minimum version scoring methodologies 2022
Climate change
Minimum version methodologies are ONLY applicable to companies responding to a customer request who have less than EUR/USD 250 million annual revenue.
Forests
Minimum version methodologies are ONLY applicable to companies responding to a customer request who have less than EUR/USD 250 million annual revenue.
Water security
Minimum version methodologies are ONLY applicable to companies responding to a customer request who have less than EUR/USD 250 million annual revenue.
CDP scoring methodology changes documents: 2021 to 2022
Climate change
This document indicates where the 2022 climate change scoring methodology differs from the 2021 methodology
Forests
This document indicates where the 2022 forests methodology differs from the 2021 methodology
Water security
This document indicates where the 2022 water security methodology differs from the 2021 methodology
CDP scoring categories and weighting documents 2022
Climate change
A guide to the climate change scoring categories and the weightings that will be applied to these categories per sector.
Forests
A guide to the forests scoring categories and the weightings that will be applied to these categories per sector.
Water security
A guide to the water security scoring categories and the weightings that will be applied to these categories per sector.
Information in Japanese

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CDP supplier engagement rating methodology 2022
Supplier engagement rating introduction
An introduction to CDP’s evaluation of supplier engagement practices disclosed in CDP’s climate change questionnaire
Supplier engagement rating methodology
A system to evaluate supplier engagement practices disclosed in CDP’s climate change questionnaire
Other key resources
Organizational guide for environmental action
A snapshot of actions companies are taking at each stage of this journey towards environmental excellence.
SME Climate Disclosure Framework
This open framework for SMEs provides climate-related reporting indicators and metrics and encourages setting targets grounded in science.
Verification
Information on third party verification, including accepted verification standards.
Benchmarking report
Want to compare your performance with peers? Find the insights you need quickly and easily with CDP's custom benchmarking report.

Can't find what you're looking for? Sign in to access additional guidance materials from the guidance tool. View instructions on how to access the guidance tool.

Provide feedback to CDP on the content of our questionnaires, guidance, and scoring methodology via the online Technical Feedback Form.


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