The CDP questionnaire is CDP’s annual corporate environmental disclosure system, which from 2024 became a single integrated instrument covering climate change, water security and forests, plus biodiversity and plastics; any organisation that receives a disclosure request from an investor or a customer, typically a listed company or a supplier within a large buyer’s programme, is expected to respond.
What the CDP questionnaire covers
The CDP questionnaire is the annual environmental disclosure system run by CDP. From 2024 CDP moved to a single integrated corporate questionnaire that combined the previously separate climate change, water security and forests questionnaires and added biodiversity and plastics into one instrument. Climate change, water security and forests have long been the core environmental themes, and the 2024 shift folded them into a single filing. Corporate environmental disclosure on this scale sits at the centre of how large buyers and investors judge a supplier, which is why structured ESG advisory treats the questionnaire as one evidence exercise rather than three. Biodiversity and plastics questions were included but were not scored in 2024.
Who should respond
The trigger to respond is external demand, not self selection. A company discloses in response to a request from an investor, a customer, or both. The audience for the responses is a capital market and buyer base of financial institutions and large corporate buyers, and more than 22,700 companies were scored in 2024. For Indian exporters this demand often arrives through overseas customers whose own sustainability reporting depends on the numbers their suppliers return. The short answer to who should respond is any organisation that receives a CDP request, most often a listed company or a supplier inside a large buyer’s programme.
| Request source | Who typically responds | Why the data is requested |
|---|---|---|
| Investor request | Listed companies | Environmental risk feeds financing and portfolio decisions |
| Customer request | Suppliers inside a large buyer’s programme | The buyer needs supplier data for its own disclosure |
| Both | Companies facing capital markets and supply chains | One disclosure serves investors and buyers together |
How a supplier prepares
An efficient response assembles the underlying evidence once and maps it to the format the questionnaire requests, so answers come from data already collected rather than assembled under deadline. That evidence base typically covers:
- emissions, energy and water metrics
- workforce and safety records
- governance controls and transparency
CDP scores the submitted questionnaire, while a consultant prepares and structures the evidence and readies the data file for independent verification, and independent accredited third parties assure it. The ESG guide sets out how one evidence base answers many buyer formats without rebuilding each response.
Sources: CDP full corporate questionnaire · CDP A List 2024