This article is for Disclosers and provides guidance on how to access and use CDP’s reporting and scoring guidance within the questionnaire and through CDP’s website. It explains where to find the embedded guidance within the Portal, how to access tailored questionnaire guidance, and where to locate additional reporting and scoring material online.
Contents
Embedded guidance within the questionnaire
Reporting guidance and scoring criteria are tailored to your questionnaire and embedded directly within each module and question. At the begging of each module, Disclosers will be able to find an initial overview of the requested information within that module, notes with relevant links attached and any specific sector or environmental issue related.
Throughout the questionnaire, you will also find ‘information blocks’ providing additional information for specific sections of a module. If you are a Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Discloser, please look out for the newly added information blocks within your questionnaire. To learn more about SMEs please refer to the relevant SME section of our How to disclose page and download for example, the ‘SME Questionnaire Overview 2026’.
You can also access guidance for individual questions within each module of the questionnaire. To view this information, select the ‘book’ icon in the top-right corner of the desired question. This will open a side panel containing all relevant guidance information for that question.
The guidance panel includes the question number and title, a linked numbered section menu for quick navigation, and a link to the full questionnaire reporting guidance, followed by the relevant guidance sections and their content.
If the question contains multiple columns, each guidance section will also display a drop-down menu. By default, the guidance applies to the whole question. However, selecting a specific column from the dropdown will display guidance relevant to that individual column.
These sections will include question-specific information, such as, for Corporates:
Changes from Last Year: Highlights updates or differences compared to the previous disclosure cycle (if applicable).
(For SMEs only) SME Alignment with full questionnaire: Indicates the corresponding question in the Full Corporate questionnaire the question relates to.
Ambition: Explains the intent or level of ambition expected in the question.
Requested Content: Outlines the information you are expected to provide, including any conditional logic.
Explanation of Terms: Provides definitions and links to relevant internal and external resources to support understanding CDP terminology and reporting expectations.
Additional Information: Any relevant associated information.
Scoring Question-Level: Explains how the overall question is assessed for scoring purposes. This may include scoring criteria for:
All sectors excluding Financial service companies.
Environmental Issues criteria (Climate Change, Forest and/or Water Security).
Financial service companies-specific criteria.
Scoring Point-Allocation: Shows how points are distributed across different parts of the question.
For Cities, States and Regions, this will still include the Changes from Last Year, Requested Content, Explanation of Terms, and Additional Information sections, but in addition:
Questionnaire: Provides the type of questionnaire and/or Pathways this question is relevant to.
Related Frameworks, Projects, and Initiatives: Lists the external frameworks, projects and initiatives the question relates to.
GCoM Compliance Guidance: Provides the link to the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) Common Reporting Framework and any additional related guidance.
Scoring Question-Level: Explains how the overall question is assessed for scoring purposes. This will include separate sections for Cities and for States and Regions.
Scoring Point-Allocation: Provides the point allocation breakdown for each scoring criteria (Disclosure, Awareness, Management, Leadership) both for the numerator and denominator for Cities and for States and Regions.
Additional Information: Any relevant associated information.
You can use the numbered links within the panel to navigate directly to a specific section or scroll though the guidance manually. Some guidance, such as the Financial service-specific ones, may require you to scroll down within the guidance panel to view all available content.
Key things to look out for in the ‘Requested content’ section include conditional logic instructions, such as when a column or field will only appear or unlock if a specific option is selected in another column or question. These instructions will mostly appear as the first bullet point and can help explain why certain fields may or may not be unlocked within the questionnaire.
Note: For information on the overall changes to the 2026 questionnaire, please scroll down in our CDP Disclosure Cycle 2026 page and download the ‘What changes are we making?’ or ‘Why are we making these changes?’ files. Additionally, please make use of the short video explainers on SMEs and the expanded nature disclosure provided at the end of the section on the ‘CDP Disclosure Cycle 2026’ page. If you would like to view the guidance provided from the previous disclosure cycle, please visit our CDP Disclosure Cycle 2025 page.
Question tags and framework alignment
Each question includes tags that provide additional context and help you understand how the question relates to reporting requirements. These tags indicate:
Relevant environmental issue(s).
Applicable questionnaire sector(s).
Alignment to external frameworks and/or standards.
(For Cities, States and Regions) Alignment to Projects and/or Initiatives.
Relevant scoring essential criteria.
These tags can be found grouped at the bottom of each question and displayed as drop-downs with downward facing arrow.
Note: Please see CDP's Alignment with Disclosure Frameworks and Standards page for more detailed information about how we have partnered with the world’s leading standards, frameworks and initiatives.
Additional help text within questions
Some questions include additional help text to support completion of specific fields or columns. This feature is only available for certain questions and columns and will not appear across all parts of the questionnaire. This help text provides further clarification on what data should be entered and how to complete specific parts of a question.
To view help text, hover over the ‘question mark’ icon found in the top-right corner of the relevant question alongside the ‘book’ icon.
Or hover over the relevant column header within the question, as shown below.
Access the entire tailored questionnaire and/or scoring guidance
You can access a complete tailored guide to your questionnaire and scoring guidance directly within the CDP Portal by using either of the following methods:
Select 'Questionnaire guidance' from the 'Help drop-down' menu in the expandable navigation sidebar.
Alternatively, select the 'book' icon within any question and then click the ‘See reporting guidance for the entire questionnaire’ link from the guidance side panel under the numbered section links at the top.
You can access this guidance from the CDP website:
Select the 'Disclosure Cycle 2026' option from the top navigation. On theCDP Disclosure 2026 page, select the 'Explore questionnaires, guidance and scoring methodologies' button. This button can also be found in ourQuestion Bank andHow to Disclose pages. See section that follows for navigation and further guidance on these pages.
In both methods above, except where guidance is accessed via the ‘book’ icon link (2), you will need to first set up your tailored questionnaire guidance by answering a series of preliminary question.
This may include:
Which type of organization would you like to view guidance for?
Here, select either Corporates, Cities, or States and Regions.
If you answer Corporates above, Which questionnaire would you like to view guidance for?
Here, select either Full version or SME questionnaire.
Which types of guidance would you like to view?
Here, select either Questionnaire only, questionnaire and reporting guidance, questionnaire and scoring methodology or all of the previous options.
Which sectors would you like to view guidance for?
Here, select all the sectors that apply to your organization. If none in the list of section apply to your organization, select ‘All other sectors’.
Which questions would you like to view guidance for?
Here, select either general and sector-specific questions', Supply Chain questions, RE 100 initiatives, or Public Authorities.
Which environmental issues would you like to view guidance for?
Here, select all the environmental issues that apply to your organization.
Addtional questions may appear based on your previous selections to the sectors or environmental issues questions.
Once you have completed all relevant questions, select the red ‘Generate guidance’ button at the bottom, to create your tailored guidance.
Note: Additional information about each preliminary question, available options and any necessary background information is provided to the right of these questions.
In the generated guidance, you can navigate through the modules and questions using the right-hand navigation panel or by scrolling though the page. Additionally, you will be able to convert the guidance into one single page using the ‘Show all modules’ toggle in the top-right corner. This can then allow you to easily find specific words across the entire questionnaire guidance using the Ctrl+ F function on your device.
You will also be able to toggle between CDP’s supported languages of English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese and Japanese using the language drop-down in the same corner of the page. In this same location, you’ll be able to find the ‘download’ button which allows you to export this guidance as a PDF, please note the downloaded files may be large so we recommend using the ‘Show all modules’ toggle instead, when wanting to view and navigate the entire guidance provided.
Key reporting and scoring guidance on our website
For the most up to date reporting and scoring guidance please visit our Question Bank and How to Disclose pages, see below for more details. You may also find our ‘FAQs’ page useful, please use the appropriate tabs on this page to display the guidance relevant to your organization type. Please also see the 2026 key dates section of our ‘CDP Disclosure 2026’ page to understand this year’s timeline.
Tip: For faster navigation, make use of the red ‘On this page’ navigation menu, usually found in the bottom-right corner of our website pages.
Question Bank
The Question Bank page contains links to our full questionnaire and guidance for both the full and SME questionnaires. Please use the guidance provided above to help answer the required preliminary questions. This page also includes supporting materials on the different environmental issues (Climate Change, Forests, Water Security, Biodiversity, Plastics and Ocean). You can also scroll to the bottom of this page to find links to other helpful CDP documents and pages.
How to Disclose
The How to Disclose page contains a short step-by-step guide on the different steps needed to access the questionnaire and begin responding. Switch between the tabs displayed to find tailored steps to disclose. You can also find this guidance in more detail via the Knowledge Base articles in our Help Center. Such as for example, our guide to onboarding and how to access and navigate the CDP Portal articles.
Scroll down this page to the ‘CDP Disclosure and scoring materials’ section to find a full list of all disclosure materials and switch tabs for the scoring materials that we provide. Please ensure you are viewing the section of this page relevant to your organization type. If you wish to refer to the 2025 version of our disclosure and scoring material, please see our Legacy Disclosure page.
Please scroll down to the bottom of the ‘How to Disclose’ page to find and download any of our technical notes.
Note: For further in depth help along your disclosure journey please consider becoming a member of our Reporter Services program and/or finding an Accredited Solutions Provider (ASPs) through our trusted global newtwork of providers.
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