This week, the disclosure platform for CDP 2020 officially opened for companies. Many organisations across all sectors worldwide will be invited to report their environmental data through CDP, some for the first time.
Greenstone, a Gold CDP accredited software provider, recently held a webinar with a guest speaker from CDP, on ‘CDP Reporting: preparing for 2020’. We had a number of interesting questions during and after the webinar. Below are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about CDP reporting in 2020.
It’s our first time responding to a sector-specific questionnaire. How are they scored differently?
The scoring for general questions has been designed to incentivise actions that are to a certain extent applicable to all companies, in all sectors and in all geographies. The scoring for sector-specific questions incentivises actions applicable only to companies operating within that sector, across all geographies. Each sector within each theme is affected by and manages environmental issues in a specific way. To capture these specificities, different weightings will be applied amongst sector scoring categories in each theme. For more details please view the Scoring Introduction document on the CDP guidance page.
If we think our activities / sector have been determined incorrectly what do we do?
If you think your classification is incorrect, please contact the CDP team through your account manager, or by contacting your local CDP office or respond@cdp.net.
Can you give some examples of how companies manage their projects to report to CDP?
It can be difficult for organisations to gather information about projects and initiatives at the end of the year. Well prepared organisations will have a process for recording, monitoring and reporting initiatives and how the savings feed into their targets throughout the year.
Greenstone’s software has an Initiative Savings functionality, fully aligned with CDP, to help its clients track, monitor and report consumption, carbon and financial savings against environmental initiatives.
Is CDP aligned with TCFD?
CDP committed to aligning with the TCFD recommendations in 2019. A mapping of the TCFD recommendations to the CDP questionnaire is available on the CDP website. As a CDP Gold accredited software provider, Greenstone has implemented TCFD alignment into the Greenstone Enterprise software platform in addition to the CDP 2020 questionnaire content.
If we do not receive a request from investors this year, do we still need to complete the questionnaire?
CDP encourages companies who have not been requested by investors to continue reporting through the CDP questionnaires. This results in continued provision of data to the investor community, whilst allowing companies to continue to benefit from disclosing via CDP, for example through benchmarking. Please note that companies requested to respond by their customers will receive a notification from CDP in April.
To view a recording of Greenstone and CDP’s webinar, ‘CDP Reporting: preparing for 2020’, please visit Greenstone's webinar channel.
CDP reporting with Greenstone
Greenstone’s global sustainability management software has been accredited Gold by CDP and is designed to meet the requirements of CDP reporting.
It has a suite of dedicated tools to streamline the CDP reporting process including GHG Protocol aligned data collection covering Scope 1,2 & 3, climate change risks and opportunities, and an initiatives savings functionality for analyzing savings against targets.
Using Greenstone’s software companies can:
- Define bespoke question sets from a range of reporting frameworks, including CDP, GRI and SDGs
- Collect data and supporting information across a diverse organization
- Consolidate data into internal and external reporting templates
CDP response support
As well as software, Greenstone provides its clients with support services to help them improve their reporting and achieve their broader sustainability goals. With in-depth knowledge of the CDP reporting system, our team of industry experts work closely with our clients through the whole process to ensure they submit a robust, clear and complete CDP response.
Discover the latest news and stay up to date with all the changes regarding CDP disclosure.
If you have a question about your CDP response for 2020, or your broader sustainability reporting strategy, please talk to us.
On-Demand Webinar | How to prepare for CDP reporting in 2021
