This article is for Disclosers and and provides guidance on how to navigate and complete your CDP questionnaire in the Portal. It explains how to access your questionnaire, navigate the overview page, move between modules and questions, and use key features such as editing responses, exporting your data, and importing information using Excel templates.
This aritcle is designed to support Disclosers throughout the disclosure process, once they’ve completed their onboarding and questionnaire setup in the CDP Portal. Please see our Onboarding steps for Disclosers article for any guidance on the preliminary steps before being able to disclose.
Please also refer to our Understanding CDP's reporting and scoring guidance article for additional support along your disclosure journey.
Contents
About the CDP questionnaires
CDP provides different questionnaires to support environmental disclosure across a range of organization types and reporting requirements. Each questionnaire is designed to ensure consistent and comparable environmental information is collected, while reflecting differences in organizational size, sector, and operating context.
The questionnaire you receive is tailored to your organization based on the onboarding disclosure information you provide. The questionnaire includes core questions that apply to all Disclosers as well as additional questions based on:
Your organization type (company, city, state, region or sub-national government, or other).
The environmental issues your organization is reporting on, which may include:
Climate Change,
Water Security,
Forests,
Biodiversity,
Plastics,
Oceans (new for 2026).
Your organization's sector of activity.
Your organization's size.
Your annual revenue.
These factors determine which questionnaire type you will complete, such as the Full Corporate, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME), or CDP-ICLEI Track (for Cities) or States & Regions questionnaires.
Each questionnaire is structured into numbered modules, each containing questions focused on a specific topic area. While the content and structure vary between questionnaire types, they follow a consistent reporting approach and are supported by the same guidance framework within the Portal. All questionnaires are completed within the CDP Portal, following a consistent modular structure, and include embedded guidance to support accurate and complete disclosure.
Supporting documentation and guidance materials are available in CDP’s Question Bank. Additional support is available through CDP’s FAQs page for general disclosure questions and the CDP Disclosure Cycle 2026 page, which outlines key updates, deadlines, and changes for the reporting cycle. Please refer to our Understanding CDP's reporting and scoring guidance article for further support with your disclosure.
Starting your disclosure in the CDP Portal
Once you have completed the onboarding steps and set up your questionnaire, the CDP Portal becomes your central workspace for completing your disclosure. From here, you can access your assigned questionnaire and begin responding.
Note: If your organization has previously disclosed to CDP, some information may be automatically pre-filled from earlier responses. This process, previously known as ‘copy forward’, only triggers the first time you submit the questionnaire setup. For further guidance, please see the Set up your questionnaire section of our ‘Onboarding steps for Disclosers’ article.
Embedded guidance and progress tracking tools are available within to support your disclosure journey. Please refer to the embedded guidance within the questionnaire section of our ‘Understanding CDP’s reporting and scoring guidance’ article for further instructions.
Accessing your questionnaire
Once your questionnaire is available, the ‘Onboarding’ tile on your Portal homepage will be replaced with the ‘Questionnaire KPI’ tile. This provides access to your disclosure and displays an overview of your questionnaire progress.
To begin or continue your disclosure:
Sign in to your CDP Portal. If your organization is also a Requester, make sure you are currently viewing the Discloser Portal. Further guidance can be found in ourAccess the Discloser Portal section of our 'Access and navigate the CDP Portal as a Discloser' article.
Navigate to your homepage using the ‘Home’ button on the navigation sidebar.
Locate the ‘Questionnaire KPI tile’ and click the ‘Start questionnaire >’ button to start your disclosure. If you have already started your disclosure, this button will display as ‘Continue questionnaire >’, clicking this will allow you to resume where you left off. For more information about the ‘Questionnaire KPI tile’ please see theDiscloser homepage section of our 'Access and navigate the CDP Portal' article.
Alternatively, you can also access your questionnaire at any time by selecting ‘Questionnaire’ from the navigation sidebar.
Once you’ve selected either of the options mentioned above, you will be taken to the ‘Questionnaire Overview’ page.
Questionnaire overview page and structure
The ‘Questionnaire overview’ page displays all questionnaire modules assigned to your organization as individual numbered tiles, arranged in a logical order. From this page you can view all available questionnaire modules, see the overall status of each module at the top and open any module to begin or continue responding.
The question statuses visible in the tile and throughout your questionnaire include:
Unanswered: Questions currently visible to you that have no response. This does not include questions currently hidden due to prior unaswered questions.
Skipped: Questions intentionally marked as skipped and left unanswered.
In progress: Questions with partially completed responses.
Answered: Questions with fully completed responses.
Reviewed: Answered questions that have been marked as reviewed.
Each module tile represents a specific part of the questionnaire and contains multiple related questions focused on a specific topic area. Selecting a module tile will take you into the corresponding module, where you can complete or review your response.
Move between questions and question modules
Modules can be completed in sequence or revisited at any time, allowing you to move through your disclosure according to your organization’s workflow. When opening a module for the first time, select ‘Start’ to begin responding. Once a module has been started, the tile will display a progress bar with a numerical value (%) indicating the percentage of questions that have been answered in that module.
While working within the questionnaire, you can navigate between questions within the module by scrolling through the page or selecting the question number in the questionnaire interface at the top. You can also use this interface to navigate between the different modules.
To return to the ‘Questionnaire overview’ page, select ‘Back to overview’ in the top-left corner of the page.
Editing fields in the questionnaire
The questionnaire contains editable text, number, date, and drop-down fields.
Important: Auto-save will only work once you exit the field you are working on and click on another field. Pressing 'Enter' will not save your edit.
To enter information into a field:
Navigate to the relevant field.
Double-click on it.
Enter your response (text, date or number).
Click on another field to save.
Please refer to the accompanying guidance video for further support.
To edit an existing response:
Double-click the field.
Select the content:
Single-click to position the cursor.
Double-click to select a word or date.
Triple-click to select all of the text.
Make your changes.
Click on another field to save.
Please refer to the accompanying guidance video for further support.
Tip: For large amounts of text, you may find it easier to draft the content in a text editor before pasting it into the questionnaire.
To clear a field:
Double-click the field.
Select the existing content (Double or triple-click on the text).
Remove the text using Delete or Backspace.
Click on another field to save.
To deselect a drop-down option:
Click the drop-down field.
Select the currently chosen option again.
Save your change.
Please refer to the accompanying guidance video for further support.
Entering numeric data and decimal separators
CDP’s Portal uses the standard UK/US numerical format for all numeric fields. You must use a full stop (.) to indicate decimal values. Commas (,) cannot be used as decimal separators or to separate digit groupings. This applies to all numeric fields across the questionnaire.
Important: If data is copied and pasted into the questionnaire with commas included, the commas will be automatically removed. This may change the intended value and lead to errors in your reported data.
For example, copying/pasting 3,30 into the questionnaire will be converted to 330 or copying/pasting 9,20 into the questionnaire will be converted to 920.
Numeric values must use a full stop (.) as the decimal separator. If you wish to enter the value ‘three thousand one hundred and fifty point two five’, the correct format is 3150.25. Formats such as 3150,25 or 3150 25 (using a space to indicate the decimal point) should not be used, as the system will instead interpret them as 315025.
Numeric values must not include digit grouping separators (such as commas or spacing). If you wish to enter the value ‘one hundred thousand point ninety nine’, the correct format is 100000.99. Formats such as 100,000.99 or 100 000.99 or 100.000,99 should not be used, as they will be interpreted incorrectly by the system.
Important: Disclosers are responsible for reviewing all numeric responses before submission. If you are unsure about the correct format, please double check your data before entering it or contact us via My Support using the ‘Contact Support’ button at the bottom of the article.
Importing data using the Excel template
The ‘Excel import’ feature, previously available for select questions, is undergoing major developments and improvements. It won’t be available until later in the response window. Please see our CDP Portal and questionnaire troubleshooting guidance article for more information.
Saving your work and leaving the questionnaire
Auto-save is enabled by default in the CDP Portal. Your response is saved automatically as you work, allowing you to leave the questionnaire and return later without manually saving your progress.
To leave your current module and return to the ‘Questionnaire overview’ page select ‘Back to overview’ at the top of the page. You can also return to the overview page by selecting ‘Questionnaire’ from the expandable navigation sidebar.
Working offline
If your internet connection is interrupted, a notification will indicate that you have entered offline mode. While offline, you can continue working within your current questionnaire module, and your changes will be saved.
Important: Offline mode only applies to the module currently open. If you move to another module while offline, unsaved responses will be lost.
Exporting your questionnaire
Once you have started disclosure, you can export your questionnaire response to Microsoft Word for drafting, reviewing and collaboration. You can choose to export either the entire questionnaire or individual questionnaire modules. The Word exports are available in CDP’s supported languages including Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese.
Important:
Word exports are recommended for online use only, as documents can be very large (up to 2,000 pages).
Exported Word documents cannot be imported back into the Portal.
The export only includes your organization’s response data; unanswered questions, unselected options and unchecked responses will not appear.
To export your questionnaire:
Sign in to your CDP Portal and navigate to the 'Questionnaire' page. Please refer to the instructions provided in theaccessing your questionnaire section above.
Select the 'Download' icon, found at the top right corner of the page.
Select ‘Export to Word’ as the export format. Then click 'Continue'.
You will then be presented with two export options. To export the entire document, select ‘Export entire questionnaire’. To export one or more individual modules of the questionnaire, select ‘Export by section’ and tick the desired modules to download.
Select your preferred option, then select the red ‘Export’ button to finalize this process and generate your file.
Note: The exported Word document will only display answered questions.
Ensuring your table of contents displays correctly
When opening the exported Word document for the first time, Microsoft Word may display a prompt asking whether you would like to update the document. The table of contents may need to be refreshed to ensure that all page numbers and navigation links display correctly in the final layout of the export.
To update the table of contents:
Open the exported Word document
If prompted, select ‘Yes’ to update the document.
In the ‘Update Table of Contents’ pop-up that appears, select ‘Update page numbers only’ and then select ‘OK’.
As soon as the document opens with the appropriate updates, please save the file.
If the contents have not updated:
Right-click within the table of contents.
Select ‘Update Field’.
Choose ‘Update page numbers only’ in the ‘Update Table of Contents’ popup and then select ‘OK’.
The table of contents should now be updated. Please save the file.
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