This article is for Requesters and covers CDP’s parent-subsidiary reporting policy.
Contents
- Parent-subsidiary reporting policy
- Guidance on requesting the correct entity
- Parent-subsidiary mapping for DUNS number
Parent-subsidiary reporting policy
Requesters have the option to request either the subsidiary for which they have a direct business relationship with or the subsidiary’s parent company. The preferred approach is for parent companies to respond on behalf of their entire group by submitting a consolidated response which includes all subsidiary data. This is in line with GHG Protocol, and the International Sustainability Standards Board’s IFRS S2. This approach ensures the parent company has complete control of all requests sitting at both subsidiary and parent level. It also helps reduce CDP’s reporting burden, as subsidiary companies do not need to submit a separate response.
Nonetheless, CDP understands that companies may struggle to gather all their subsidiaries’ information, thus parent companies have the option to disclose a consolidated or independent response from their subsidiaries and they can choose to respond for as many or as few of their direct subsidiaries as they wish.
Parent companies have complete control over this in the CDP portal. They will be able to see all the requested subsidiaries associated with their company and choose to merge these requests to their response or not. Parents do this at the organization level, which grabs all requests of each selected subsidiary as well as all requests from the subsidiary’s subsidiaries.
Until the parent actively merges the request from the subsidiary, the subsidiary will be able to begin their response without having to reach out to CDP. Before a parent company grabs their subsidiary’s request, the parent will be informed that any progress the subsidiary has made on their response will be lost, but if the request was grabbed in error the progress previously lost can be recovered. The parent organization will need to raise a case for this.
Guidance on requesting the correct entity
CDP encourages Requesters to direct requests at the specific entity with which they are engaging. In many cases, this may be a subsidiary company. This will allow the subsidiary to respond should the parent let them, while also permitting the parent company to respond to this request with full visibility should they choose to.
However, you may choose to request the parent company directly, for instance if the parent company is a known Discloser, or if you wish to request multiple subsidiaries of the same parent company. In such instances, we encourage you to inform the parent company of the entity or entities you engage with.
In some cases, we may suggest moving a request from the subsidiary to the parent company. This may be because the parent company has no requests of their own and is therefore unable to grab and respond to their subsidiaries’ requests. To streamline the disclosure process, CDP may ask for your cooperation in adjusting the request setup. Please refer to our article on add organizations to your Request list for further guidance or contact your Account Manager for support.
Parent-subsidiary mapping for DUNS numbers
CDP continually improves its database of company hierarchies. If a new organization is added and CDP is able to identify their parent company in the CDP database using Dun & Bradstreet data, then the organization hierarchy will be created automatically. Parent companies that are unknown to CDP will not be created automatically.
If you encounter a missing or incorrect parent-subsidiary link, please inform your Account Manager or raise a case via the Help Center. When raising a case, please choose the category ‘I am a requester and have a query’ and the subcategory ‘I have an issue with my request list’ in the Help Center, to ensure your case goes to the right team and is resolved as soon as possible.
You may also find the following articles useful:
- Overview of CDP Help Center guidance for Requesters
- View your Request list as a Requester
- Add organizations to your Request list
- Resolve issues with DUNS numbers
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