CDP has released its 2022 questionnaire and reporting guidances for Forest, Water Security, and Climate Change. The updated scoring methodologies for all questionnaires, i.e. the exact information on how CDP scores each question, will likely be released in March. As in the previous years, CDP’s Online Response System will open in April and close by the end of July this year.
CDP 2022 Questionnaire Changes at a Glance
In general, the questionnaire changes follow CDP’s five-year strategy that aims at a more strategic inclusion of sustainability-related topics in corporate governance and decision-making. One of the largest differences to previous years, is the addition of a set of biodiversity questions to the climate change questionnaire. Accordingly, CDP will now ask for board-level oversight, public commitments, the impact of the value chain, actions to progress the topic, indicators, and related publications in the field of biodiversity.
The climate change questionnaire now includes additional questions specifically to members of the RE100 initiative on renewable energy and low carbon heat, steam and cooling sourcing. The RE100 initiative is an organization which connects the most influential businesses that are committed to 100% renewable energy.
Both climate and water questionnaires will ask participants for information on climate-neutral or low-water impact products as of this year. Besides board-level oversight, which has previously already been included, all three questionnaires, climate change, water security, and forests now also ask for information on the competency of the board in their respective areas, thus, proving a company’s commitment and awareness of impacts, risks, and opportunities.
More emphasis is also put on the value chain in the forests questionnaire, where it asks participants to disclose whether and how they map their supply chain for forest risks.
About CDP
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that runs the global disclosure system for companies, investors, states, regions, and cities to manage their environmental impact in terms of climate change, water security, and forests. assesses thousands of companies and organizations worldwide every year. At the request of investors, purchasers, and city stakeholders, CDP issues questionnaires to collect and evaluate data and information from participants on emissions, withdrawals, risks and opportunities, and reduction targets and strategies. As a recognized authority on sustainability assessments, CDP increasingly incorporated into financial assessments, (Deutsche Börse, Reuters, Google Finance, etc.). In 2021 more than 13,000 companies and 1,100 cities, states and regions reported through CDP. With companies representing more than 64% of market capitalization CDP is an important driver of corporate environmental transparency.
DFGE Support
Since 2014, DFGE – Institute for Energy, Ecology and Economy has been supporting companies as Accredited Solution Provider of CDP. As CDP’s longest partner in the Germanic region, DFGE has helped DAX, MDAX, and SME companies to improve their ratings for the Climate Change, Water Security, and Forests questionnaires or helped to set science-based targets (SBTs).
If you would like for DFGE to help set SBTs or improve your sustainability performance and successfully participate in the 2022 CDP questionnaire assessment or other sustainability ratings and rankings, please contact or call us: +49 8192 99733 20
