Understanding CDP Reporting

Curious about how to navigate the evolving landscape of climate disclosure? In this episode, we dive into the essentials of reporting for CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project)—a critical framework for companies demonstrating environmental accountability. 

Join Catherine Beare, Regional Director, at Business Assurance and Myvi Somasundaram, Sustainability expert at Intertek Assuris, as they break down what CDP expects, why it matters, and how your organization can approach disclosure with clarity and confidence.

Whether you're new to CDP or refining your next submission, this conversation is packed with practical insights.

Presenters:

• Catherine Beare, Regional Director - Business Assurance (UK & Iberia)
• Myvizhi Somasundaram, Technical Manager Climate Change & Sustainability, Intertek Assuris

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Transcript

00:16 --> 00:48
 Speaker 1 – Catherine Beare, Regional Director - Business Assurance (UK & Iberia)

Hello and welcome to this podcast to discuss about reporting for CDP, formerly known as Carbon Disclosure Project. I'm Catherine Beare, the Regional Director for Business Assurance here in the UK and Iberia. And, I'm delighted to be joined by Myvi, you're going to have to tell me if I get this right, by Myvizhi Somasundaram. 

Did I get that right, Myvi?

00:48 --> 00:52
 Speaker 2 – Myvizhi Somasundaram, Technical Manager Climate Change & Sustainability, Intertek Assuris

Almost, yeah. Myvizhi Somasundaram

00:52 --> 02:25
 Speaker 1 – Catherine Beare, Regional Director - Business Assurance (UK & Iberia)

Myvizhi, Sorry I have practiced that about 20 times, so Myvi is our technical manager and she is part of our Assuris sustainability business.

Myvi is an expert in emissions management assurance and ESG reporting, working closely with businesses to navigate the evolving sustainability disclosure landscape today.

Today, we're going to be diving into the CDP as I mentioned, formerly known as Carbon Disclosure Project, which is a globally recognized platform that helps companies, cities, and regions track and report environmental impacts. CDP assigns scores to companies and cities to illustrate their progress, and of course, motivate them to take the lead in environmental action. And the 2025 reporting cycle is actually already in motion.

So Myvi, let's break it down.

Question number one please.
 CDP has been around for a while and there is so much renewed interest in CDP reporting now, let's start with the basics, can you give a background information on CDP Reporting and scoring, please?

02:25 --> 04:54
 Speaker 2 – Myvizhi Somasundaram, Technical Manager Climate Change & Sustainability, Intertek Assuris

Sure, Catherine. And thanks for having me.

CDP, as you introduce formerly known as Carbon Disclosure Project is the nonprofit organization that drives companies to report on environmental disclosures.

Specifically, CDP focuses on three key themes: climate change, water security, and forest. Companies usually receive a request from their clients or investors asking them to report on their CDP disclosures. So, companies can choose to report on one or more of the environmental topics, such as climate change, water security, and forest based on their relevance to business.

And of course, companies can also voluntarily report on CDP on their own initiative.

And to give an idea of what CDP reporting looks like for our audience, CDP offers a structured platform. It is like a dashboard where companies answer a set of questionnaires.

The questions are categorized by different modules such as companies have to report on government aspects--like how they are managing their environmental issues; they have to report on their impacts, risks and opportunities.

They also have to report on quantitative metrics--like what their emissions or what their water consumption is and how they are engaging with their value chain, and so on. So, the questionnaire contains narrative sections, as well as quantitative metrics that have to be reported.

That's about the basics on CDP reporting, but just to say the scoring systems, because CDP of course is known for its scoring system. The companies who responded to the questionnaire will be scored on levels from A to D.  A is the highest score representing leadership in the disclosures, and B is for management level engagement. C is for awareness, and D is considered as a starting point for organizations’ environmental journey.

04:54 --> 05:26
 Speaker 1 – Catherine Beare, Regional Director - Business Assurance (UK & Iberia)

Excellent. Thanks, Myvi. That's very, very clear.

Now, you mentioned about reporting for climate change water and forest questionnaires. What are the modules that companies have to report on? and specifically, how the scoring system evaluates companies across these different disclosure areas? Sorry, two questions there, but can you answer those for me please?

05:26 --> 08:59
 Speaker 2 – Myvizhi Somasundaram, Technical Manager Climate Change & Sustainability, Intertek Assuris

Yes, sure.

So, when companies report to CDP, as I mentioned, they can choose one or all three of the environmental disclosures, such as climate change, water security and forest.

Just a note here, last year in 2024, CDP introduced a combined questionnaire for corporate disclosures, meaning that instead of filing separate questionnaires for climate, water and forest companies can now respond to an integrated set of questions.

So, regarding the modules that you asked about, there are some common modules across disclosures. 

For example, a general module: this asks for companies to provide general information about their business activities and what they are reporting about, like reporting boundaries and so on. 

And then, there are modules for risk management and disclosures: where companies how to report about their risk management practices, as well as their disclosures about identified material impacts, risks and opportunities. 

There is also a governance and strategy module: where companies have to report on their governance aspects, like what are the management responsibilities in managing environmental issues? What are the policies they have in place and related to environmental issues? And how are they communicating, currently, about the areas being disclosure? On here the companies also have to report about their business strategies on their investment plans. They also have to disclose about the about the engagement, how they are engaging with their value chain for addressing those environmental risks and opportunities.

Apart from the common modules, there are also some specific modules such as climate change, where companies have to report on emissions accounting. This includes reporting about Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions. Scope 3 emissions data is challenging for many companies, but still reporting on Scope 3 will increase their score in this module. They also have to provide information about if they have undergone verification of their data or not. They will have to provide bifurcation about their energy consumption, what kind of energy fuels have been used, and what are the energy consumption, and also, about the energy efficiency activities and initiatives they have taken in the reporting year.

And, there are some specific modules for water security. Here they have to provide information about water. Water withdrawal, water discharge and consumption from water scarce region, and so on, and under the forest module companies have to report about their commodity usage, such as palm oil, timber, etc.

Apart from this, there are specific modules for biodiversity and plastic disclosures. Here, the climate change, water security and forest are scored. Meaning that companies reporting for climate change will receive a separate scoring for climate change, and separate scoring is available for water security and forest, whereas the biodiversity and plastic disclosures are not scored.

08:59 --> 09:19
 Speaker 1 – Catherine Beare, Regional Director - Business Assurance (UK & Iberia)

Great. That is a lot of information there, but very clear.

So, what are the steps the company should follow to ensure successful disclosure of their environmental aspects and achieve the desirable score?

09:19 --> 14:00
 Speaker 2 – Myvizhi Somasundaram, Technical Manager Climate Change & Sustainability, Intertek Assuris

So, from my experience, we have a supported companies who are reporting for the first time, as well as companies who wanted to improve their score. And there are few basic steps that companies can take--one of them is developing a full scope greenhouse gas inventory, so this includes scope 1,2 and 3 data.

We have seen, many companies having challenges in calculating scope through scope 3.
 In this case, companies should assess, which scope 3 categories are relevant for them and they should focus or try to calculate the most relevant category for them.

This will help them to have a disclosure for scope 3 and it will also help to improve their scoring. And, companies also should develop a system or process for regular collection of data.

So, this is not just about GHG inventory, such as energy or fuels but also for other environmental disclosures, such as for collecting data relevant for water disclosures, forest,  supply chain, and/or other related activities. Regular monitoring should be in place, so that the companies have the data ready in hand to provide or report for CBP on time.

When they have developed or collected relevant data, they should identify the hotspots and they have to identify suitable targets for them.

This could be for example, reduction in emissions or targets to achieve water savings or to increase an engagement with the supply chain.

They can also go beyond that. They can develop science-based targets, SBTi approved if possible for greenhouse gas reduction.

When they have all of them in the place, they can have the information verified by a third-party that is conducting an assurance on the data that will be reported—so, it increases credibility among the stakeholders, and it also increases their company scores.

So apart from these points, I just want to add that I have seen companies facing challenges when it comes to reporting their environmental risks. To disclose environmental risks in an effective manner, companies should follow a systematic approach that includes clearly defining, which types of risks are assessed, are they physical? or transitional? They also have to include climate change related risks, supply chain risks, and consider what document, in which time horizons, are considered in assessing those risks. Short? Medium? or long term?

They also have to have procedures to categorize financial impact, for example, if the financial impact is considered as a high-level risk score, low or medium level risk--they have to have a procedure and they have to document their procedure.

And for example, good practice could be like ESG risk assessment can be integrated into company’s enterprise risk management system, so that the risks are assessed on a regular basis, and this aligned with broader corporate risk strategies. Having such a systematic approach helps companies better prepare & respond to CDP's disclosure . This way, companies also gain a clear understanding of their exposure and resilience in facing environmental challenges.

All the steps that I have mentioned should be integrated in the business strategy itself.

This requires a cross-functional effort by our relevant stakeholders that are actively involved. And responsibility should be clearly assigned across relevant departments. It is also essential that Senior Management and the Board have oversight of climate and even the broader ESG related activities, so that companies can ensure that ESG related activities are aligned with company goals.

So, these are the steps that companies can follow to increase their score across different modules.

14:00 --> 15:44
 Speaker 1 – Catherine Beare, Regional Director - Business Assurance (UK & Iberia)

Brilliant. Thank you, Myvi for that information and for your time today.

You certainly give a lot of food for thought for our listeners and very clear suggested next steps. So thank you.

Now as a reminder, here's how Intertek can help you with reporting for CDP or Sustainability reporting journey.

Firstly, development of GHG inventory. We can conduct your greenhouse gas inventory and perform the calculations. So, that you know what your GHG starting point is, and you'll have a good understanding of what the process entails as well as a spreadsheet template to use going forward.

Secondly, GHG and ESG assurance, we can perform greenhouse gas and ESG assurance on your sustainability disclosures providing you with the third-party assurance statement that you can share documenting your transparency and accuracy.

And finally, CDP questionnaire assistance, we can help with your CDP reporting by giving you detailed assistance on the CDP questionnaire.

And of course as I said at the start of the webinar, Myvi-get me right on this point, the CDP reporting does take longer than you think, so very important to get focused now, correct?

15:44 --> 16:10
 Speaker 2 – Myvizhi Somasundaram, Technical Manager Climate Change & Sustainability, Intertek Assuris

Yes of course! Actually the CDP disclosure opens in June, and it takes more time than expected to gather and complete all the required information. So, I would suggest start early, stay consistent, and your commitment could be reflected your CDP scores

16:10 --> 01:19
 Speaker 1 – Catherine Beare, Regional Director - Business Assurance (UK & Iberia)

Excellent! Good last bit of advice from you.

Now, For more information, please do go and visit our website: www.intertek.com/assuris/sustainability 

So,  that concludes today's podcast. Myvi, thank you so much. 

Really excellent set of information and very clearly delivered. S

Thank you for listening and please do watch out for our episodes. From the assurance team to help with your sustainability journey, until next time goodbye.