Get Disclosure-Ready: Preparing for CDP's 2025 Response

The 2024 CDP disclosure cycle brought significant changes and numerous challenges for many disclosers. As CDP continues to work towards decision-useful disclosure, the organization has announced an updated strategy and strategic restructure focusing on streamlining reporting and reducing reporting burden. As companies prepare for the upcoming disclosure cycle, many may still be scratching their heads around how to respond to the new integrated format and what further changes can be expected in 2025.

Why submit a CDP response?

Despite these challenges, CDP remains a clear and standardised method for companies to demonstrate sustainability leadership and for investors to assess a company’s performance against peers without guesswork. According to the 'Rate the Raters Survey' conducted by ERM, CDP is consistently ranked as the top Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rating provider in terms of quality and usefulness by both corporate and investor respondents.

The number of companies responding to CDP has continued to grow with a record 24,700+ companies responding in 2024 – up 6.3% from 2023. The number of A-list companies has also increased by 30%. With an increasing number of companies and stakeholders calling for climate action, a strong CDP track record can set companies apart from their peers and demonstrate that they are serious about integrating sustainability into their business.

The CDP 2025 timeline

With the 2025 disclosure cycle quickly approaching, we have compiled a summary of key milestones and their implications to guide companies through the process:

• 6 February 2025 – 2024 scores were released.
  Companies should take this time to evaluate their performance and areas for improvement in the 2025 disclosure cycle. For further guidance on this, refer to SLR’s recent article, ‘What Your CDP Result Means’
• 2 April 2025 – The 2025 questionnaire and guidance was released.
• 30 April 2025 – The 2025 scoring methodology was released.
• Week of 16 June 2025 – The response window opens for questionnaire submissions. Reporting organisations can sign in and activate their questionnaires at this time.
• Week of 15 September 2025 – The deadline for scored responses.
• Week of 17 November 2024 – The deadline for unscored responses and amendments. Companies that submit between the week of 15 September and 17 November will not be eligible to receive a score.

Key changes in 2025

Compared to last year, the 2025 questionnaire and scoring methodology have minimal changes aimed at improving clarity and usability, enabling disclosers to focus on improving their 2024 response. CDP will continue to score companies individually for climate change, forests, and water security with plastics and biodiversity remaining unscored. Forests and water scores for the financial services (FS) sector will be made public for the first time in 2025.

A full list of changes to the questionnaire and scoring methodology can be found on the CDP website however, we have provided a high level overview on key updates below:

Climate

• Additional guidance has been provided.
• Minor edits to questions.
• Minor changes to question dependencies.
• Definitions have been updated.
• New drop-down options have been added.

Forests

• Minor changes to question dependencies.
• Additional guidance has been provided.

Water security

• New drop-down options have been added.
• Additional guidance has been provided.

Essential criteria

• Additional guidance has been provided.

How can SLR support you?

As CDP continues to make improvements to increase reporting efficiency, it’s becoming increasingly important for companies to be aware of changes and begin preparing early.Whether you are a first-time or existing responder to CDP, SLR can help you through the process and improve your response. Our services include:

• Gap analysis of your response against the latest guidance and methodology with detailed feedback on priority areas of improvement to maximise your score.
• Information gathering including scheduling support and internal engagements to ensure effective data collection and sufficient time for internal reviews and sign-off ahead of the submission deadline.
• Drafting support to ensure your disclosure accurately reflects your sustainability actions and environmental performance. We can make edits offline or directly on the CDP online response system (ORS).
• Submission to the CDP platform ensuring all mandatory questions have been answered and your disclosure is complete.
• Mock scoring of your response using our in-house tool. We can highlight where points are lost and why. This can then be used to manage disclosure strategy and expectations of senior leadership.

As a CDP Accredited Solutions Provider for our CDP services in the UK, we have direct access to CDP technical teams and are able to provide our clients with up-to-date insights and the latest feedback on requirements or recommended approach.

Contact us to discuss further.