CDP Disclosure: How to Respond to a Request, Step by Step

Received a request to disclose through CDP from an investor or a major customer? You’re not alone. In the 2025 cycle, more than 23,100 organizations submitted a CDP disclosure, many of them because a customer or investor asked. And from 2027, the process runs on a much earlier timeline.

This guide walks through the process from first request to final score.

What Triggers a CDP Disclosure

Companies usually disclose for one of three reasons:

• An investor request: capital markets signatories ask companies in their portfolios to disclose
• A customer request: large buyers in CDP’s supply chain program ask their suppliers to disclose
• Voluntary self-selection: companies choose to disclose to build credibility, meet stakeholder expectations or prepare for mandatory reporting

Requests arrive through the CDP Portal. For 2027, requesters submit their lists between the week of February 22 and the week of April 19, so expect requests to land in early spring. If a request lands with the wrong person, route it quickly. Deadlines don’t move.

Before You Start: Set Up for Success

A strong CDP disclosure starts before the response window opens.

• Review last year’s score feedback to find the gaps that cost you points
• Name an internal owner for the overall response and a contributor for each data area
• Finalize prior-year data early, especially Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and verification
• Check which themes apply: climate change, plus water, forests, plastics or ocean if requested or relevant
• Line up approvals from legal, finance and executive leadership

Tip: For 2027, the response window opens the week of April 26, about seven weeks earlier than in 2026. Close prior-year data in Q1, book your verifier in Q4 or January, and draft narratives before the Portal opens, so the window is spent refining answers, not chasing numbers.

The CDP Disclosure Process in 8 Steps

Step 1: Register and Access the CDP Portal

If this is your organization’s first time, complete CDP’s registration form to access the Portal. If you received a direct request link from a customer or investor, you can use that instead. Once signed in, review your pending requests and accept or decline them. For 2027, the Portal opens for responses the week of April 26.

Step 2: Confirm Your Submission Lead

Designate a Submission Lead, the key contact for CDP and the only person who can submit your final response. This person accepts CDP’s Terms of Disclosure on behalf of your organization.

Step 3: Complete Questionnaire Setup

Answer setup questions about your organization’s size, industry, revenue and environmental issues. You’ll also complete CDP’s Activity Classification System (CDP-ACS) to determine sector-specific questions. These answers define which questionnaire, modules and questions you receive, so get them right.

Organizations with more than 1,000 employees or more than US$250 million in annual revenue complete the full corporate questionnaire. Smaller organizations may be eligible for the shorter SME version.

Step 4: Pay the Administration Fee

The Submission Lead completes the admin fee step, which must be paid before you can submit. Budget for it early.

Step 5: Assign Questions and Collect Data

Break the questionnaire into sections and assign each to an owner. Track progress centrally so nothing slips. CDP’s improved copy-forward functionality and new AI-enabled response suggestions can help you reuse last year’s answers, but only if last year’s data still holds up.

Step 6: Draft, Review and Validate

Write clear, specific answers. Quantify wherever possible, reference supporting documents and explain any year-over-year changes. Cross-check figures against your annual report, sustainability report and regulatory filings so every number matches.

Step 7: Sign Off and Submit

Secure final approvals, then have the Submission Lead submit. Sign-off from legal, finance and leadership now has to land by late July, not mid-September. For the 2027 cycle:

• Scoring deadline: the week of July 26, 2027, to be eligible for a score
• Final deadline: the week of September 6, 2027, for responses that will not be scored

Always confirm current dates in the CDP Portal.

Step 8: Receive Your Score and Feedback

For 2027, CDP aims to deliver scores privately to disclosers in September, then publish public scores in November and share them with requesters. Use your feedback to plan next year’s improvements.

Public vs. Non-Public Disclosure

Depending on who requested your data and the options available to you, your response may be public or non-public. Public responses and scores appear on CDP’s website and are visible to anyone. Review CDP’s current privacy rules during setup, as your choice affects who can see your response and score.

6 Common CDP Disclosure Mistakes

1. Starting too late and rushing data collection into the earlier spring response window
2. Getting questionnaire setup wrong, which leads to missing or irrelevant sector questions
3. Leaving questions blank instead of explaining gaps and plans
4. Inconsistent numbers across CDP, annual reports and regulatory disclosures
5. Unexplained changes in emissions or methodology from one year to the next
6. Missing the scoring deadline, which means a response without a score

Make Every CDP Disclosure Repeatable

The biggest drain on a CDP disclosure isn’t writing answers. It’s finding the data.

Novisto changes that. As an enterprise system of record for non-financial data, Novisto centralizes your sustainability data, automates capture with connectors and validation rules, and maintains audit-grade lineage behind every figure. Map your data once and reuse it across CDP and the other frameworks you report to, so this year’s disclosure becomes the starting point for next year’s.

Ready to take the scramble out of CDP disclosure?

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