CDP’s Activity Classification System (CDP-ACS) framework allocates sector-specific questions to companies. This CDP framework categorizes companies by focusing on the activities from which they derive revenue and associating these with the impacts across a company’s value chain from climate change, water security and deforestation.
The CDP Activities are mapped to the thematic questionnaires: Climate Change, Water Security and Forests. A company must earn at least 20% of its revenue in an activity to be mapped to the relevant sector questionnaire. If no sector questionnaire exists, the company will only be required to respond to the general questions for that theme.
CDP-ACS is a three-tiered system comprised of (from bottom-up) Activity, Activity Group and Industry. See the full list of CDP-ACS. The sector-based approach allows CDP to make more meaningful assessments of companies' responses, incorporating each sector's characteristics and nuances, resulting in a score that reflects the company's progress in environmental stewardship and enabling better benchmarking against other companies.
Note that companies will only be scored on their primary questionnaire sector. This means that if more than one set of sector questions applies to a company, not all questions will be scored. Sector-specific questions are labelled to indicate which sector(s) they apply to. However, we strongly encourage companies to respond to all questions that apply to them.
Selecting or changing your CDP-ACS allocation
Your CDP-ACS allocation will either be set for you or you will have the choice to select/change this on your dashboard depending on your authority requests. Please see our article on activating your questionnaire as an organization for more guidance on this.
If you are a supply chain member only requested company, you will be able to:
- Select your CDP-ACS during the questionnaire activation process if it is your first time responding to CDP
- Change your CDP-ACS from your dashboard following activation
If you are an investor requested company and need to amend your CDP-ACS category, please contact us via My Support in the Help Center.
You may also find the following articles helpful:
- Activate your CDP questionnaire as an organization
- CDP request for companies
- Questionnaire guidance for companies
- Timeline for responding
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