CDP onboarding steps for Disclosers

This article is for all Disclosers. Use this article to complete the setup steps needed before you can start your CDP questionnaire and disclosure journey. It covers Portal access, request review, Submission Lead confirmation, questionnaire setup, CDP-ACS classification (for companies) and Pathway selection (for Cities).

This article applies to Disclosers completing the Full, Small and Medium Enterprises, States and Regions questionnaires, and Cities completing the CDP-ICLEI Track questionnaire through the CDP Portal.

If you need more detail for a specific step, please use the articles linked throughout this guide. You can also browse the ‘Articles for Disclosers’ section in the Help Center Knowledge Base especially the ‘Getting started with your account and response’ subheading.

Contents

• Step 1: Access the CDP Portal

  • Before you start

• Step 2: Confirm the Submission Lead

• Step 3: Set up your questionnaire

  • Editing and re-submitting your questionnaire setup

• Step 4: Begin disclosing

• Additional guidance for specific Discloser types

  • Pathway selection (only for Cities)

  • CDP-ACS classification (only for disclosing companies)

Step 1: Access the CDP Portal

To start your disclosure, you will first need to sign in to your CDP account. If you do not yet have an account, or if your account is not associated with an organization, you will first need to be linked to your organization in the CDP Portal:

• If you are already part of an existing disclosing organization, the fastest way to gain access to your organization’s Portal is by asking your colleagues toinvite you as a new team member.

• If you are the first user for your organization, you will need to complete theRegister to disclose form when available, to create and gain access to your CDP Portal account. Additional guidance can be found in ourRegister to disclose article.

Once you receive an invitation to access the CDP Portal, please refer to the step-by step guidance provided in our Access and navigate the CDP Portal as a Discloser article. This includes guidance on first-time login, accessing and viewing the correct side of the Portal (relevant if you are also a Requester) and troubleshooting information on access.

Once you gain access to your Portal, you will most likely be assigned the Discloser Contributor role, apart from if you were the first user in your organization’s Portal where you may have been asked to review permissions and what role you would like to be assigned to your account. Please refer to our Discloser roles and managing team members article for further information on these roles, their key permissions and restrictions.

Before you start

When you sign in to your Portal, you should land on your homepage. If not, select ‘Home’ from the left sidebar. At the top of the homepage, use the blue ‘Access your questionnaire’ tile to work through the onboarding steps.

These steps include:

1. Confrim Submission Lead

2. Set up questionnaire

After each step has been completed, the numbered circle on the tile will be replaced by a green check mark, indicating that the step has been completed.

Important: Your organization must have at least one active request in the CDP Portal before you can disclose through CDP. See our article on understanding and managing requests for more infromation. If you do not have any requests, you may need to register as a ‘Self-Select Company’ (SSC). For more information, please see our Register to disclose article.

Step 2: Confirm the Submission Lead

Confirming the Discloser Submission Lead is the first required onboarding step. This role is responsible for accepting CDP's Terms of Disclosure on behalf of the organization, completing the CDP admin fee step and submitting your final questionnaire response.

Important: We recommend confirming this Lead role early in the disclosure cycle. Discloser Contributors can complete and save the questionnaire setup, but only the Submission Lead can submit the final questionnaire response. Please refer to our Discloser roles article for more information.

The Submission Lead role cannot be assigned. The relevant user must take on this role themselves. To do this:

1. Navigate to the 'Team members' page in your Portal by either:

   • Selecting the ‘Confirm Submission Lead >’ link within the ‘Access your questionnaire’ tile,

   • Selecting ‘Settings’ from the left navigation sidebar and then switching tabs,

   • Selecting the ‘X team members >’ button from the top drop-down that appears after selecting your organization’s name/logo in the same sidebar.

2. Once in the ‘Team members’ page, open your ‘User details’ window by selecting anywhere on the row of your contact.

3. In your ‘User details’ window, change your role from ‘Discloser Contributor’ to ‘Discloser Submission Lead’ using the ‘Disclosure role’ drop-down under the ‘Role’ section.

4. After selecting the ‘Discloser Submission Lead’ role, use the check box that appears to acceptCDP's Terms of Disclosure on behalf of your organization.

5. Select the red ‘Save updates’ button at the bottom to confirm the role change.

Important: Any Discloser Contributor for your organization can choose to become the Submission Lead at any time, but only one user can have the Lead role. If another user is currently the Submission Lead, their role will need to be changed back to Contributor for the Submission Lead option to appear in the ‘Disclosure role’ drop-down.

For guidance and additional information on changing roles such as the Submission Lead, please refer to ‘Edit team members’ and the relevant ‘Changing Lead’ subsection in our Discloser roles article.

Step 3: Set up your questionnaire

The next step is to set up your questionnaire. Any Discloser user can complete this step, regardless of role. To do this:

1. Select the ‘Set up questionnaire >’ link within the ‘Access your questionnaire’ tile or select ‘Questionnaire’ from the left sidebar and then the ‘Set up questionnaire’ button that appears.

2. On the ‘Set up your CDP questionnaire’ overview page, review the summary of setup steps and key information.

3. When you are ready, select the red ‘Start questionnaire setup’ button at the bottom of the page.

Tip: The data entered at each step will be automatically saved, and you can navigate back to the homepage at any point while you complete the questionnaire setup process.

4. You will be then presented with a series of questions pertaining to your organization:

   • For disclosing companies, this includes questions about your size and industry, annual revenue, employee head count, activity classification (CDP-ACS), DIRO and assessment of environmental issues. Please refer to the information within theCDP-ACS subsection below for guidance on activity classification.

   • For Cities, States and Regions, this includes questions about your jurisdiction, and for Cities only the questionnaire pathway selection as well. Please refer to the information within thePathway selection subsection directly below for further guidance.

Important: If you responded to CDP in 2025, your 2026 questionnaire may be pre-filled with select responses. This process only occurs the first time you submit your questionnaire setup. To maximize pre-filled content, ensure all relevant questions, projects, and environmental issues are selected before your first submission. For disclosing companies, this includes:

• Opting into climate change disclosure and any additional environmental issues beyond.

• Selecting ‘Yes’ to both questions relating to forests and water security disclosure.

You can still update these selections later by editing and re-submitting your questionnaire setup, although any previous un-selected content may not be pre-filled in.

5. At the end of the questionnaire setup process, you will need to select ‘Submit’ to finalize the process.

Once you have completed the setup, the ‘Access your questionnaire’ tile in your Portal homepage will change to the ‘Questionnaire KPI’ tile, where you will find the ‘Start questionnaire >’ button, allowing you to start your disclosure.

Note: For disclosing companies and Public Authorities, please refer to our Corporate Questionnaire setup 2026 Preview, for an overview and more detailed guidance on each question within the questionnaire setup. Please also see our video on how to set up your questionniare for further instructions. For Cities, please refer to the Pathway selection section below for further guidance.

Editing and re-submitting your questionnaire setup

You can edit and resubmit your questionnaire at any time before the submission deadline. You may need to do this if:

• You have receivedadditional requests after completing your questionnaire setup and wish to update the list of Requesters in your questionnaire.

• You wish to change the information provided, including your activity classification.

To edit your questionnaire setup:

1. Navigate to your Portal homepage.

2. Select the ‘Edit questionnaire setup’ link in the bottom-right of the ‘Questionnaire KPI’ tile.

3. Review your setup selections and then re-submit your questionnaire setup.

Note: Re-submitting questionnaire setup will not delete your existing questionnaire responses, although it may change which questions are shown. Answers to questions you have already answered in the setup will be pre-populated.

Tip: For further guidance on managing requests, please see the relevant subsections in our article on understanding and managing your requests.

Step 4: Begin responding

Once you have completed the questionnaire setup, you can now begin completing your questionnaire. All Discloser types can respond to questions, but only the Submission Lead will be able to submit your response. 

You can then begin disclosing by clicking the ‘Start questionnaire >’ button with the ‘Questionnaire KPI’ tile. If you have already started disclosing this button will appear as ‘Continue questionnaire >’ instead.

Additional guidance for specific Discloser types

Use this section only if one of the scenarios below applies to your organization.

Pathway selection (only for Cities)

If you are completing the questionnaire setup as a City, you will be asked to choose a pathway as part of the setup from three distinct Pathways. This choice determines which route your City will follow in the questionnaire and is designed to streamline reporting and help jurisdictions access the questionnaire most appropriate for their local context.

Note: Pathway selection is not relevant for States and Regions.

Prior to the pathway selection step, you will be asked to fill in three jurisdictional attributes that will then recommend the appropriate pathway for your City:

• Jurisdiction Population,

• Per Capita Emissions,

• Human Development Index (HDI).

The emissions per capita and HDI fields are pre-populated using national-level data based on the responding jurisdiction. These selections can be updated where local or regional data is available and differs from the pre-populated values, or when the jurisdiction’s total emissions per capita (at least Scope 1 and 2 or GPC-aligned BASIC) is different. 
When you reach the pathway selection step, review the pathway options on screen and select the recommended Pathway or another Pathway if that best matches your City’s reporting needs and intended disclosure route. ICLEI Network Cities are encouraged to report to Pathway 3.

Note: An increase in the Pathways is accompanied by an increase in the number of questions. A high-level breakdown is provided in the table below, and a complete breakdown can be viewed in Section 2 of Questionniare Pathways for Cities article.

Pathways	Number of questions
1	29
2	36
3	43

Before you submit, confirm that the pathway you selected is correct. If you later need to change it, you can return to your questionnaire set up and re-submit it before the submission deadline. For guidance, please refer back to the editing and re-submitting setup section above.

Important: The Pathway selected does not affect meeting the reporting requirements of the Projects and Initiatives your jurisdiction may be participating in, and it does not affect CDP scoring or Global Covenant of Mayors badging.

For more detailed guidance on Pathways please refer to our Questionnaire Pathways for Cities article.

CDP Activity Classification System (only for disclosing companies)

If you are completing the questionnaire setup as a company, you will be asked to confirm your business activities according to CDP’s Activity Classification System (CDP-ACS) during setup. CDP-ACS is used to determine the sector-specific questions your company receives based on its revenue-generating activities and their relationship to climate change, deforestation, and water security.

This approach aims to ensure a better understanding of company actions according to their environmental dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities and is essential for better comparability of data.

The system is comprised of three levels:

• CDP Industry

• CDP Activity Group

• CDP Activity

The full list of CDP’s Activity Classification System, the questionnaire allocation, examples and a detailed breakdown of the sectors and activities can be found in our guidance document.

When you reach this step, you will be asked to complete your organization’s:

• CDP Industry

• CDP Activity Group

• CDP Activity

• Associated activity revenue percentages (%)

Question preview:

Some information may already be pre-populated by CDP where available. Review the activity classifications presented and confirm that they reflect your organization accurately before you continue.

Tip: Review your organization’s size, industry, revenue, employee headcount, and related setup selections carefully, as these fields work closely together with activity classification during setup.

Important: Before completing this section, consult the CDP-ACS classifcations table and descriptions to ensure your selections accurately reflect your organization’s activities for the reporting year. CDP may request additional information following changes to your classification. If classifications do not align with your organization’s revenue-generating activities, CDP reserves the right not to score your questionnaire submission or share your data with Requesters.

If the classification or related setup needs to be updated later, you can edit and resubmit your questionnaire setup before the submission deadline. If you later need to change it, you can return to your questionnaire set up and re-submit it before the submission deadline. For guidance, please refer back to the editing and re-submitting setup section above.

For organizations responding to the Full Corporate questionnaire, CDP-ACS classifications are also used to determine questionnaire sector allocation. Activities with the highest associated revenue percentages are assigned as primary activities, with remaining relevant activities assigned as additional activities.

The ‘Questionnaire sector’ column is automatically assigned. Questionnaire sectors are allocated based on the combined revenue percentages of associated activities. Any questionnaire sector representing at least 20% of total revenue will be assigned to the organization. The sector with the highest associated revenue percentage becomes the primary questionnaire sector and will be used for scoring purposes. Only the primary questionnaire sector will be scored. If multiple sector questions apply, not all questions will contribute to scoring. Sector-specific questions are clearly labelled to indicate which sector(s) they apply to.

Your selected activities may also affect environmental issue assignment. In accordance with CDP's Industry Impact Classification, certain activities may result in Forests and/or Water Security issues being assigned to your organization based on the impact level and associated revenue percentages. For more information on environmental issue, please see our Understanding and managing requests article.

To view your current CDP-ACS classification:

1. Select ‘Settings’ from the expandable sidebar.

2. Navigate to ‘ORGANIZATION SETTINGS’ tab.

3. Scroll down to the ‘Primary CDP-ACS classifcation’ section of the page.

Note: You can complete or update your CDP-ACS classification during questionnaire setup or by editing and re-submitting your questionnaire setup during the disclosure cycle. Please see the editing and re-submitting setup section above.

You may also find the following articles helpful:

• Access and navigate the CDP Portal as a Discloser

• Discloser roles and managing team members

• Navigating and completing the CDP questionnaire in the Portal

• Understanding and managing your requests

• Understanding CDP's reporting and scoring guidance

• How to raise a case in the CDP Help Center