Science Based Targets (SBTs) are reduction targets calculated on a scientific basis to ensure global warming from the pre-industrial era is limited to well below 2°C, ideally 1.5°C. Developing SBTs and committing to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) will allow companies to gain competitive advantages by reducing costs related to CO2 emissions and help score SBT points in the CDP Climate Change questionnaire. As the CDP is one of SBTi’s founding organizations, SBTs are an important part of the questionnaire, too. This should help foster the dissemination of and the share of companies committed to climate targets. Therefore, the CDP will reward all participating companies if they submit SBTs.
Score SBT points in the CDP questionnaire
Companies interested in scoring points related to SBTs should take a closer look at subject area Targets (C4) of the CDP Climate Change questionnaire. Science-based targets will be scored in the questions C4.1a, C4.1b and C4.2c. Additional points can be scored at the respective Disclosure as well as Awareness levels and the Leadership level. Whilst the Disclosure and Awareness level points are more straightforward and deal primarily with the company’s position towards the SBTs, scoring Leadership points is more demanding.
Obtaining leadership level points
Up to 3 Leadership level points – accounting for 12% of a company’s final score in the subject area – can be scored through SBTs. There are two paths to score these points: CDP route (reduction targets not in line with the SBTi) and SBTi route. However, CDP strongly recommends to use the SBTi route since the SBTs are scientifically substantiated and backed by respected NGOs (World Resources Institute (WRI), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and the CDP). Furthermore, “the SBTi communications team ensures that the company gets the recognition it deserves for demonstrating proactive planning and leadership.” Going down the SBTi path requires companies to submit their targets to the SBTi for an official validation by 23:59 UTC-12 May 15, 2021. Subsequently, the documents then undergo the SBTi’s target validation process. The SBTi ensures that all companies will receive a decision letter in time before CDP’s own deadline (July 28, 2021) allowing them to score SBT points in the CDP questionnaire.
Learning more about setting SBTs through the new DFGE whitepaper
If you are interested in setting SBTs, we invite you to please take a look at our new whitepaper dealing with setting Science-Based Targets. Our whitepaper will guide you through the complex processes and help you to implement SBTs in your business.
Do you need further support regarding CDP and SBT?
DFGE offers support and advice on CDP participation – in the form of workshops, data collection and suggested responses (“Professional”), but also as a complete service (“Enterprise”) including the preparation of the company-wide Carbon Footprint, detailed gap-analysis and suggestions for CDP responses. DFGE also offers solutions that have a positive impact on the evaluation of the CDP program, such as the development of a climate strategy or the calculation of a science-based target.
If you have further questions please do not hesitate to contact us at or under +49 8192 99 7 33-20.
