CDP Questionnaire: Structure, Modules and What to Expect in 2027

The CDP questionnaire is the standardized set of questions companies answer to disclose environmental data through CDP. If you last looked at it before 2024, it’s a different instrument now: one integrated questionnaire, organized into 13 modules, tailored to your sector and aligned with the ISSB’s IFRS S2 climate standard.

This guide breaks down how the questionnaire is structured, what each module covers, how questions are tailored to your organization and what to expect for 2027.

From Three Questionnaires to One

Until 2023, CDP ran separate questionnaires for climate change, water security and forests.

In 2024, CDP replaced them with a single integrated corporate questionnaire. Cross-cutting topics such as governance, risk and strategy are asked once and apply across environmental issues, while issue-specific performance data lives in dedicated modules. At the same time, CDP aligned its climate questions with IFRS S2, making the questionnaire a natural bridge to mandatory ISSB-based reporting.

The 13 Modules of the CDP Questionnaire

Integrated Modules (1–6 and 13)

These apply across all environmental issues you report on:

1. Introduction: organizational details, reporting boundaries and reporting year
2. Identification, assessment and management of dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities: your processes for identifying and managing environmental issues
3. Disclosure of risks and opportunities: specific risks and opportunities, with estimated financial impact
4. Governance: board oversight, management responsibility and incentives
5. Business strategy: transition plans, scenario analysis and how environmental issues shape strategy and financial planning
6. Environmental performance – consolidation approach: how you set boundaries for environmental data

Issue-Specific Modules (7–11)

7. Climate change: Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, energy, targets, verification and carbon pricing
8. Forests: commodity exposure, traceability, deforestation-free commitments and certification
9. Water security: withdrawals, discharges, consumption, water stress and wastewater quality
10. Plastics: production, use, waste and targets. Currently unscored, though that’s likely to change in the next few years
11. Biodiversity: impacts and dependencies on nature and related commitments

Sector and Closing Modules (12–13)

12. Financial services: portfolio-level environmental performance for banks, insurers and asset managers
13. Further information and sign-off: additional context and formal approval of the response

How the Questionnaire Is Tailored to You

No two companies see exactly the same questionnaire. What you receive depends on:

Your Sector

During setup, you complete CDP’s Activity Classification System (CDP-ACS). Your organization can be allocated up to four questionnaire sectors, each adding sector-specific data points.

The Environmental Issues You Report On

Climate change applies to all corporate disclosers. Forests and water security questions appear only if you’ve been requested or opt in, while plastics and ocean questions appear only if you opt in.

Your Size

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 simplified SME questionnaire, with fewer and simpler data points. RE100 members must use the full version regardless of size.

What’s New in the 2026 CDP Questionnaire

CDP published its 2026 questionnaires and guidance on April 20, 2026. Key updates include:

• Ocean disclosure for the first time, integrated across existing modules rather than added as a new one, and unscored in 2026
• Cocoa, coffee and rubber added to forests disclosure alongside cattle, palm oil, soy and timber
• Expanded plastics questions, including new targets and design-for-recycling content
• Deeper water security questions on wastewater treatment levels, discharge volumes and pollutants
• Adaptation and resilience woven into climate governance and strategy questions
• Stronger TNFD alignment on nature-related risks, oversight and targets
• A new aviation sector questionnaire
• New SME modules for forests and water security (unscored)
• Plain-language “concept overview” guidance to help first-time disclosers

CDP does not expect major questionnaire changes for 2027, so the 2026 questionnaire is your best guide for preparing next year’s response. The 2027 response window opens the week of April 26.

How the CDP Questionnaire Maps to Other Frameworks

Because the questionnaire is aligned with IFRS S2 and maps to ESRS, TNFD and GRI, much of what you prepare for CDP serves other reporting too:

Tips for Tackling the CDP Questionnaire

• Start before the Portal opens. In 2027, the response window opens the week of April 26 and scored responses are due the week of July 26
• Get setup right. Your answers to setup questions and CDP-ACS decide which questions you see
• Read the guidance and scoring methodology together so you know what each question rewards
• Answer integrated modules with every issue in mind, since governance and strategy answers apply across themes
• Reuse, don’t rewrite. Pull from your annual report, sustainability report and regulatory disclosures so figures stay consistent

Answer the CDP Questionnaire Once, Use It Everywhere

An integrated questionnaire rewards integrated data. Novisto’s reporting interoperability lets you map your data once and report across 34 global standards, regulations and frameworks, so your governance, emissions and risk data flows into CDP, ISSB, CSRD and more without being rebuilt each time. Structured workflows assign questions to contributors, and audit-grade lineage keeps every answer traceable.

See how Novisto streamlines the CDP questionnaire for enterprise teams.

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