Posted on March 26, 2026 by Natalia Menezes
#Corporate CSR Reporting #Corporate Sustainability #Corporate Sustainability Reporting #G&A Institute #Sustainability Professionals #Sustainability Reporting
CDP is a global non-profit that runs the world’s most comprehensive environmental disclosure system for entities of all kinds – companies, capital markets, cities, states, and regions – to manage their environmental impacts.
Originally known as the Carbon Disclosure Project, CDP is now in its 25th disclosure cycle and has grown to be not only a questionnaire provider, but also a massive dataset built on companies’ responses, which offers insights to investors and other stakeholders in making sustainability decisions.
The benefits extend to the reporting entities themselves, as well. According to CDP, companies that choose to disclose observe a 7-10% reduction in direct emissions within two years reporting to the questionnaire. Furthermore, companies reporting to CDP represent over half of global market capitalization.
In the first blog of our “2026 CDP Response Cycle” series, this article explains how CDP works, its scoring framework, and the impact on participating organizations, showing why it has become a credible source of environmental action worldwide.
CDP is designed to reflect an organization’s maturity in understanding, managing, and adopting leading environmental practices. In 2024, CDP integrated a series of separate questionnaires on the reporter’s actions related to climate change, water security, and forests into a single questionnaire. It also includes plastics, and for the 2026 reporting cycle, will request data about ocean impacts.
Regarding the broader landscape of corporate disclosures, CDP follows a “write once, read many” philosophy, aiming to enable companies to meet multiple framework and regulatory expectations through a single, comprehensive disclosure. Instead of preparing separate reports for each standard, organizations can streamline their efforts by reporting once through CDP, which then aligns their responses with multiple leading global frameworks and emerging regulatory requirements, such as:
CDP’s scoring framework evaluates how thoroughly a company discloses its environmental data, how well it understands the risks and opportunities tied to nature-related issues, and the extent to which it is taking meaningful action.
The progression from Disclosure to Leadership, ranging from D‑ to A, signals the depth of integration of environmental considerations into the company’s governance, strategy, and operations. Only those demonstrating the highest level of environmental stewardship are awarded a place in CDP’s A List.
CDP defines the score levels as follows:
In 2025, CDP requested disclosures on behalf of more than 640 investors holding $127 trillion in assets through its Capital Markets Signatories program. These institutions rely on CDP data to integrate environmental considerations into portfolios and investment decisions.
As of 2025/2026, some of the CDP highlights included:
As organizations prepare for another year in evolving disclosure expectations, they may be looking towards the 2026 opening of the CDP response window during the week of June 15. The window will close the week of October 26, with scores being released the week of November 30.
G&A is ready to help your organization navigate this evolving disclosure environment with clarity and confidence. To explore how we can support your CDP strategy and broader sustainability goals, access our website and reach out to us at info@ga-institute.com.
ABOUT NATALIA MENEZES
Senior Sustainability Analyst, G&A Institute
Natalia Menezes is a Senior Sustainability Analyst at Governance & Accountability Institute. Her role includes supporting client needs through ESG data review, benchmarking research, and gap analyses. She is driven to help companies create positive and sustainable impacts for all their stakeholders.
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