Overview
CDP was founded in 2000 with a simple premise: if investors ask companies to disclose their environmental data, companies will disclose. That premise turned out to be largely correct. What started as a request from a group of institutional investors has grown into the most widely used environmental disclosure platform in the world, covering climate, forests, and water security.
Today CDP operates as an NGO based in London, and it runs annual questionnaire cycles that companies, cities, states, and regions can respond to. The questionnaires are detailed and demanding, asking not just for emissions numbers but for governance structures, risk assessments, reduction targets, and supply chain data. Companies that respond are scored on a scale from A to D, with an F for non-disclosure. That A-list designation has become a meaningful credential in the corporate sustainability space.
For a communications professional, CDP is often the primary public record of a company’s environmental disclosures. When journalists, NGOs, or investors want to benchmark a company’s climate performance against peers, CDP data is frequently the starting point. Understanding how the grading works, and where its gaps are, is essential context for navigating corporate climate claims.
How CDP Works
CDP sends questionnaires to companies on behalf of the financial institutions and corporate purchasers that use its platform. In 2022, over 680 financial institutions with combined assets of over $130 trillion signed letters requesting disclosure through CDP. This investor-backed request mechanism is why companies respond: the disclosure is technically voluntary, but declining to answer a question backed by your major shareholders carries real reputational and relational cost.
The scoring methodology rewards ambition and transparency. Companies at the A-level must demonstrate not just measurement but leadership: setting targets consistent with science, having board-level accountability, and engaging their supply chains. An A score is harder to get than it looks, and a D score (awarded for basic disclosure) is where many companies land. Non-disclosure earns an F, a designation that shows up on investor screens.
CDP covers three environmental themes: climate change, forests (deforestation risk in supply chains), and water security. The climate questionnaire is most closely aligned with TCFD requirements and, increasingly, with IFRS S1 and S2 standards. CDP explicitly maps its questions to these frameworks, making it a practical compliance tool as well as a disclosure platform.
CDP’s Role in the Disclosure Ecosystem
CDP does not operate in isolation. It is a founding partner of the Science Based Targets Initiative, alongside the UN Global Compact, the World Resources Institute, and WWF. SBTi-validated targets feature in CDP’s scoring, and companies with approved science-based targets score higher. This creates a virtuous loop: the same companies that engage seriously with one framework tend to engage with others.
The GHG Protocol provides the accounting standards that underpin CDP disclosures. When a company reports Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions through CDP, it is using GHG Scopes categories defined by the GHG Protocol. CDP’s questionnaire also pushes companies on Scope 3, the indirect, supply-chain emissions that are most difficult to measure and most often omitted from corporate climate claims, making it a useful tool for identifying incomplete or potentially misleading disclosures.
CDP data feeds into investor tools used by Climate Action 100+, the Transition Pathway Initiative, and asset managers building climate-integrated portfolios. It is not the only disclosure channel, but it is the most standardised and the most widely used.