CDP Supply Chain Questionnaire: What Suppliers Actually Have to Do

A customer has asked you to disclose through CDP. Before you open the portal, establish which questionnaire you will get, when it closes, whether you pay, and who sees the result.

Program details, dates and links checked 14 September 2026 against CDP's 2026 SME documents.

CDP introduced the SME questionnaire in 2024; CDP says around 11,000 SMEs used it in 2025. The rest of this guide covers the 2026 cycle.

Why your customer is asking

CDP Supply Chain members are large companies (270+ of them, with more than US$6 trillion of procurement spend) that use CDP to collect climate data from their suppliers in one standardized format. Your response feeds their own Scope 3 accounting and their own CDP score, which is partly based on how many suppliers respond. That is why the request is persistent, and why it comes from procurement or sustainability rather than sales.

You are responding to an invitation, not disclosing independently. That determines fees and score visibility, covered below.

Full questionnaire or SME questionnaire?

CDP runs two corporate questionnaires:

• Full corporate questionnaire — for organizations with more than 1,000 employees or more than US$250 million annual revenue. Includes sector-specific questions.
• SME questionnaire — for organizations below both thresholds. Fewer, simplified datapoints, no sector-specific questions. You can still opt into the full version if you want to, but there is rarely a reason to.

The SME questionnaire has ten modules. Every discloser answers the climate change content; two further modules — forests (for companies producing or sourcing timber, palm oil, cattle products, soy, rubber, cocoa, or coffee) and water security — appear only if you choose to disclose on them during setup, and in 2026 neither is scored. Some questions appear only for companies responding to a Supply Chain member's request.

The climate module asks for:

• Your emissions methodology and any exclusions
• A Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions inventory
• A breakdown of emissions by business activity
• Energy-related activities
• Emissions reduction targets
• Emissions reduction initiatives

There is also an introduction module (company details, reporting year, the commodities question that switches forests on or off) and governance and risk questions that ask who owns climate decisions and what climate-related risks you have identified. For a 60-person company, "the managing director reviews energy and emissions quarterly" is an acceptable governance answer; you are not expected to have a board sustainability committee.

The 2026 dates

Dates shift each year; CDP's website carries the current ones. The window is roughly three months. The emissions inventory is what takes the time, so start it when the invitation arrives, not when the portal opens.

Who pays

CDP charges disclosing companies an administrative fee, but organizations requested only by Supply Chain members (or banks, private-markets members, or RE100) are generally exempt. You still have to walk through the fee step in the portal and select "No fee payable" before the Submit button activates. If you have also been requested by an investor, the fee applies regardless of which questionnaire you complete.

How SMEs are scored

SME responses to the climate module receive a letter score from SME D to SME A — there are no minus grades in the SME scale. The four levels build on each other, and you have to clear a threshold at one level before points at the next level count:

Unanswered questions score zero for that question, which is why a complete response with honest "no" answers outscores a partial one with polished prose. Companies that were asked but did not respond are marked "Did not disclose"; late responses are "Not scored".

Visibility: if you were requested only by Supply Chain members, your score is private to those customers unless you achieve SME A. Investor-requested scores are public.

For a first response with a real Scope 1 and 2 inventory and no formal targets, SME D or SME C is the normal outcome. Customers check whether you disclosed before they check the letter. "Did not disclose" is the status to avoid.

What data you actually need

An emissions inventory for your reporting year. Scope 1 (fuel you burn, company vehicles, refrigerant leaks) and Scope 2 (purchased electricity, heat, steam), calculated with the GHG Protocol. You need consumption figures — liters, kWh, cubic meters — and published emission factors. If you have never done this, the carbon footprint calculation guide covers the method, and the free carbon calculator produces a first Scope 1 and 2 figure from your bills. If electricity is your main energy source, the Scope 2 calculator handles the kWh-to-tCO2e conversion on its own.

Scope 3, as far as you can. CDP asks for it, but for SMEs a screening estimate of your largest categories — typically purchased goods, fuel-related activities, and business travel — is credible. State clearly which categories you have and have not estimated. The guide on what customers actually need for Scope 3 explains what your customer will do with the number.

Your methodology, written down. Organizational boundary (operational control is the usual choice), data sources, emission factor sources, exclusions. CDP scores transparency about limitations; it penalizes inconsistency.

Targets, if you have them. Absolute or intensity-based, with a base year and target year. If you have none, you are not obliged to invent one for the questionnaire. If you are considering one, a Scope 1 and 2 reduction target you can actually track is worth more than an ambitious one you cannot evidence next year.

Governance in one paragraph. Who is responsible, how often it is reviewed, whether climate appears in any business process.

Third-party verification is asked about but is not required for SMEs.

A realistic first response

If you have never disclosed before, aim for this:

1. Complete the introduction and governance questions fully — they determine which later questions appear.
2. Report Scope 1 and 2 with a documented method. This is the weighted core.
3. Report whichever Scope 3 categories you can estimate, and say which you cannot.
4. Answer every remaining question, using "No, and here is where we are" rather than leaving blanks: "We do not currently have an emissions reduction target. We completed our first Scope 1 and 2 inventory in 2026 and will set a target once we have a second year of data."
5. Answer the customer-specific questions. They are visible to the customer who invited you; blanks there read as disinterest.
6. Submit before the scoring deadline.

Your first response sets a baseline. Each year you can add coverage, and the CDP levels are designed so that visible progress moves you up.

Common mistakes

Assuming you need the full questionnaire. Check the thresholds first; most suppliers reading this qualify for the SME version.

Starting in the last fortnight. The portal work is not the problem. Gathering twelve months of fuel and electricity data from invoices is.

Inconsistent numbers. If your Scope 2 figure differs between two questions, it is flagged.

Skipping the fee step. Even when exempt, Submit stays grayed out until you have selected "No fee payable".

Treating it as a one-off. The same inventory answers EcoVadis, IntegrityNext, and the customer's own spreadsheet. Keep the calculation.

Reusing what you built

Store the emissions figures, methodology note, and governance paragraph outside the portal. They answer the climate sections of most other supplier questionnaires. If several customers are CDP Supply Chain members, one response serves all of them. If only one customer asked, ask whether a direct data submission would satisfy them; it can be less work than a full disclosure.

For how CDP compares with EcoVadis and Sedex, and what happens when you are asked for more than one, see EcoVadis vs CDP vs Sedex.

Official References

• CDP SME Questionnaire Overview 2026
• CDP SME Scoring Introduction 2026
• CDP Help Center — admin fee and exemptions
• CDP Supply Chain
• GHG Protocol Corporate Standard

Related Guides

• EcoVadis vs CDP vs Sedex: What Suppliers Actually Have to Do
• What Data Customers Actually Need for Scope 3 Reporting
• Carbon Footprint Calculation for Manufacturers