This article is for disclosing companies who have recently received their CDP score or are preparing to do so. It explains how CDP scores are developed, when they are released, what information is included in your initial score, and how to interpret your results. It also summarizes CDP’s commitment to transparency and quality.
Disclosers can use this article alongside the scoring materials on our website. You can find the key supporting documents listed at the bottom of this article.
Note: we will provide more information in Q1, 2026 about Supplier Engagement Assessments (SEA), formerly Supplier Engagement Rating (SER). For information on SEA, please see our SEA Scoring Introduction and SEA Methodology documents.
Contents
What is a CDP score?
CDP scores measure how well Disclosers understand and manage their environmental impacts. Each response is evaluated using a detailed methodology that assesses Disclosure, Awareness, Management, and Leadership across key environmental issues.
CDP undertakes scoring by assessing responders against a scoring methodology, which details how each question in the questionnaire will be scored, evaluating the responder’s progress towards environmental stewardship. The scoring methodology provides a roadmap to companies on how to achieve best practice, and by developing the scoring methodology each year to align with best practice, CDP aims to drive changes in corporate behavior to improve environmental performance.
Note: Disclosers responding to the SME questionnaire are scored against the SME methodology. Please see the ‘For SMEs’ tab of our ‘Scoring materials’ page for more information.
In 2025, CDP continues to score companies on Climate Change, Forests, and Water Security. The Plastics and Biodiversity issues remain unscored in 2025 to allow companies to build capacity in these areas. This year, Forests and Water Security for Financial Services will be publicly scored for the first time, alongside Climate Change.
For a full overview on scoring, please see our Full Corporate Questionnaire Scoring Introduction document.
How does CDP score Disclosers?
Scoring is carried out by CDP and accredited partners under strict quality assurance procedures. Scores are based solely on the data provided in your CDP response. External links or attachments are excluded unless specifically stated in the scoring methodology. Disclosers should ensure responses are complete, accurate, and current.
Each response is assessed separately against CDP’s public scoring methodology per environmental issue: Climate Change, Forests, and Water Security. Sector-specific questionnaires are scored as per the relevant sector-specific scoring methodology.
Disclosers are allocated a final letter score for each environmental issue area on which they have been scored, ranging from A to D-. Within each level, two separate scores are available, allocated based on the percentage of points achieved within the scoring level. Final overall scores are derived from weighted category results and fulfillment of Essential Criteria. More information can be found in the section below titled ‘What’s included in the initial score release’ and the other sections that follow. For further guidance please also see the ‘For Corporates’ tab of our ‘Scoring materials’ page.
Note: If a requested company did not provide a response or provided insufficient information to be scored, they will be marked as ‘Did not disclose’.
Essential Criteria
Essential Criteria are absolute requirements that must be met to achieve a scoring level. Failure to meet Essential Criteria may limit a Discloser’s score. Please see our Scoring Essential Criteria Climate Change, Forests and Water Security documents for more information.
Scoring levels
Disclosers are evaluated across four scoring levels, representing stages of environmental maturity:
Disclosure (D/D–): Measures the completeness of a company’s reporting. The number of points allocated to each question depends on both the amount of data requested and their relative importance to data users.
Awareness (C/C–): Reflects the understanding of how environmental issues relate to the company’s activities and impacts. This level indicates awareness but not yet action.
Management (B/B–): Recognizes evidence of action and processes to manage environmental issues, showing that the company is moving from understanding to implementation.
Leadership (A/A–): Represents best practice performance, where the Discloser demonstrates environmental leadership through ambitious strategies, verified progress, and sector-leading action.
How to read your score
Final score and overall score allocation
Your final score is based on performance across the scoring levels (Disclosure → Leadership) and your results in each category. Scores reflect disclosure of quality and maturity, rather than absolute environmental performance.
To progress from one scoring level to the next, a minimum score threshold and all Essential Criteria for that level must be met. If these conditions are not fulfilled, your final score will remain at the previous level, even if there are areas of strong performance. The application of Essential Criteria ensures a consistent baseline of reporting at all levels of CDP scores.
The resulting overall score will appear in the CDP Portal at the top of your score page, with category scores displayed below.
For more detail on thresholds and the scoring structure, see the Full Corporate Questionnaire Scoring Introduction.
Categories scores
Disclosers receive a breakdown of category scores. Scoring categories are groupings of questions by topic. They are sub-groups of the 2025 questionnaire modules and are consistent across all sectors. Category scores provide a snapshot of a Discloser’s performance across key question groups. At the Disclosure and Awareness levels, scores are calculated as a percentage of points achieved.
Weightings are applied to scoring categories for the calculation of the overall score at the Management and Leadership levels only. Weightings reflect the relative importance of each category in an organization's progression towards environmental stewardship, within the boundaries of the CDP questionnaire and available scoring criteria. As such, the weighting applied to each category varies across sectors to highlight the area’s most important to environmental stewardship in specific sectors. For example, the Governance and Target-setting categories typically carry higher weightings due to their strategic influence.
Please see the Category Mapping and Category Weightings documents on our ‘Scoring materials’ page for full details and make sure to select the appropriate environmental issue.
Further explanation on both sub-sections above is available in the ‘Final score allocation’ section (page 10) of our Full Corporate Questionnaire Scoring Introduction.
Forest scoring commodities
Companies disclosing on Forests (excluding Financial Services companies) report on up to seven forest risk commodities. Four of which - timber products, palm oil, cattle products, and soy - are scored and contribute to a single Forests score.
Commodity sub-scores contribute to an overall Forests score but do not individually determine A-List eligibility. Those disclosing only on any combination of rubber, cocoa, or coffee will not receive a Forests score. Please see the ‘Forests scoring’ and ‘Commodity sub-scores’ section (page 7 and 8) of our Full Corporate Questionnaire Scoring Introduction document for further details.
Timeline of score release
The full disclosure cycle has several stages to ensure consistency and quality of submissions, as follows:
Disclosure period: This is the timeframe when Disclosers prepare and submit their questionnaire responses via the CDP Portal before the scoring deadline, September 17, 2025.
Scoring and quality review: After the disclosure period, CDP’s accredited scoring partners and internal scoring teams assess responses using the relevant scoring methodology and quality assurance processes.
Initial score release: CDP makes scores available to Disclosers on December 10, 2025, through the CDP Portal, providing visibility of their results ahead of public release.
Public release: Final scores are published on CDP’s website in January 2026, for companies that have a public score.
Disclosers will be notified of the schedule and key milestones via email and through the CDP Portal.
What’s included in the initial score release
2025 scores will be released through initial score release on December 10. Scored Disclosers receive the following upon initial score release:
Overall Score: Their score (D– to A) based on the assessment of the response against the public scoring methodology.
Category Breakdown: Results by key scoring categories such as Governance, Targets, and Risk Disclosure. Forests Disclosers will also receive sub-scores for each disclosed commodity.
Sector and regional averages: Where available, comparison to sectoral and regional averages to support analysis and planning.
These results allow you to review your performance ahead of public release.
Note: SEA scores will be released at a later date. These will not be available at the time of the initial score release. CDP will provide more information in Q1 2026.
Why was I not scored?
In certain cases, a Discloser may not receive as score for the current scoring cycle. The reason behind this will be clearly stated underneath the ‘Score’ tile in your company’s Portal. Common reasons include:
Language of submission: in 2025, CDP will only score responses submitted in English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, and Portuguese. Responses submitted in any other language (where ‘Other – please specify’ is selected as the language of their response) are not eligible to be scored.
Missed scoring deadline: If your response was submitted after the scoring deadline, September 17, 2025, it may not be eligible for scoring.
Geographic restrictions (Russia/Belarus): in line with section 11 of CDP’s Terms and Conditions, companies subject to geographic restrictions (e.g., located in or operating from Russia or Belarus) may not be eligible to be scored.
Other eligibility factors: CDP may not score a response if it does not meet required conditions (e.g., invalid ACS status) as per CDP’s Terms and Conditions. If this applies, CDP will notify the Discloser via email.
If you have questions about your eligibility or believe you should have been scored, please raise a case through My Support in the CDP Help Center. When raising a case via My Support, choose the category ‘I have a query related to CDP scoring’ and the subcategory ‘I have a query related to my organization’s score’ to ensure your case goes to the correct team.
Transparency and quality: our commitment
CDP is committed to ensuring scores are accurate, transparent, and fair. All scoring follows standardized methodologies, Essential Criteria, and multi-layered quality assurance.
Score Appeal Process
If a Discloser believes an error has occurred in a score, CDP does offer an appeal process for 6 weeks following the initial score release. If a Discloser wishes to take advantage of the score appeal process, they may submit an appeal form. Each appeal is independently reviewed by CDP’s scoring oversight team. Please review the full Score Appeal Policy and Process for further information.
CDP will communicate the outcome once the review is complete. CDP reserves the right to fully review a Discloser’s response, including content that was not mentioned in the appeal. The result of the appeal is final.
This process helps ensure that all companies are scored fairly, and that CDP maintains the highest standards of data quality and transparency.
For appeal support, please raise a case through via My Support on the CDP Help Center. When raising a case via My Support, choose the category ‘I have a query related to CDP scoring’ and the subcategory ‘I have a query related to my organization’s score’ to ensure your case goes to the correct team.
CDP Scoring resources
All mentioned resources in this article can be found on CDP’s website. The following direct links may be useful:
Scoring Methodology: Climate Change / Forests / Water Security
Essential Criteria: Climate Change / Forests / Water Security
Corporate Questionnaires and Scoring Methodologies Updates 2025
Full Corporate Category Mapping: Climate Change / Forests / Water Security
Full Corporate Category Weightings: Climate Change / Forests / Water Security
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