Overview
The 2025 CDP annual environmental information disclosure window officially opened on June 16, ushering tens of thousands of companies worldwide into a new cycle of questionnaire reporting.
For companies, this is not just an annual review exercise but also an opportunity to showcase their excellent environmental governance performance to investors, customers, and the public.
Recently, CDP released the 2025 Corporate Scoring Methodology Changes document. While the overall scoring framework is unchanged, a series of changes to the detailed scoring rules warrant the attention of every company.
CDP Scoring Methodology Adjustments: Optimized Details and Specific Impacts
To enhance the clarity and consistency of the scoring methodology, CDP has implemented a series of general optimizations. Now, the maximum achievable score is clearly indicated at the end of each scoring path and level, which helps companies assess the weighting of each item.
For questions not applicable to a specific business or environmental theme, the concept of a "not-applicable path" has been introduced, clarifying that such questions are not scored. This avoids potential confusion and reduces the burden on companies. For criteria requiring multiple conditions to be met for a score, specific elaborations have been provided.
Additionally, CDP has systematically standardized the scoring language and structure across all modules and themes.
Examples of some specific adjustments are detailed in the table below:
| Item/Question Number | Core Change | Primary Reason/Impact |
| Core Criteria (EC) | Provides additional guidance for specific industries, refining assessment criteria particularly for Financial Services (Life/Health Insurance), Electric Utilities, Construction, and Real Estate. | To make scoring more aligned with industry practices, making requirements more targeted for companies in these sectors. |
| Core Criteria (EC) | Details the reasons or scenarios under which a company can choose not to disclose certain topics on forests and water security. | Requires companies to provide more comprehensive and persuasive qualitative explanations when choosing not to disclose certain information. |
| 1.4 | Dates accepted in column ‘End date of reporting year’ updated to be between 1st October 2023 and 1st October 2025. | Ensures that the data submitted by companies complies with the disclosure cycle requirements. |
| 2.1 / 9.2 | Clarifies that a complete row of data or a continuous time range must be fully entered to receive a score. | Emphasizes the integrity of data disclosure; incomplete answers will make it difficult to score. |
| 5.2 | Wording corrected: The phrase "No, but we have..." has been updated to "Yes, but we have..." to better reflect corporate action. | Aligns with questionnaire wording, making company responses more intuitive. |
| 7.30.1 | Partial data auto-calculation: Data columns such as "Total energy consumption" will be auto-calculated by the system and will not be scored at the Disclosure and Awareness levels. For the cement industry, this will also not be scored at the Management and Leadership levels. | A questionnaire functional improvement that reduces the burden of manual calculation for companies and improves data consistency. |
| 7.53.4 | Extended target deadlines for the financial services sector: At the Management level, the criteria have been adjusted to accept long-term targets exceeding 15 years. | Aligns with best practices for net-zero targets in the financial sector (i.e., long-term 2050 targets that include interim goals). |
| 7.8 | Clarification added that rows ‘Other (upstream)’ and ‘Other (downstream)’ are excluded from Management-level scoring. | Clarifies the scoring scope and reduces the burden on companies. |
| 7.9.2 | Standard i) of Path A has been restructured. The line items for "Scope 2, location-based" and "Scope 2, market-based" will not be combined when calculating the total score at the Leadership level. | Clarifies scoring criteria. |
These adjustments bring both opportunities and challenges for companies.
On one hand, the increased transparency of the scoring rules provides companies with a clearer disclosure path and direction for improvement. Companies can more effectively translate their investments and achievements in environmental management into quantifiable CDP scoring performance, thereby reducing unnecessary point losses due to misunderstandings of the rules.
On the other hand, the clarification of the standards also places higher demands on the accuracy and completeness of corporate data disclosure. The room for flexibility in explanations has been compressed, meaning that incomplete data or qualitative statements with weak logic will be harder to get credit for under the new scoring system.
Corporate Response Strategies: Precisely Adapt to New Rules and Enhance Disclosure Quality
To effectively respond to this round of scoring methodology adjustments, companies are advised to adopt the following strategies:
Systematically study the scoring criteria: Organize relevant teams to conduct a systematic review of the scoring detail changes related to their industry, referencing the official documents. Identify potential scoring impacts and develop corresponding disclosure strategies.
Proactively prepare qualitative information: For sections with higher qualitative disclosure requirements (such as justifications for non-disclosure), companies should prepare well-argued and logically sound explanatory materials in advance to ensure their decision-making rationale is clearly communicated.
Strengthen cross-departmental data governance: Enhance collaboration with departments such as finance, operations, and supply chain to ensure that all data used for disclosure meets CDP's latest requirements in terms of scope, accuracy, and completeness.
Companies should view the 2025 scoring rule adjustments as an opportunity to optimize the quality of their own environmental information disclosure. Through rigorous preparation and precise disclosure, companies can not only adapt to the new scoring requirements but also potentially improve their standing in the new rating cycle.
REACH24H is dedicated to helping businesses seize opportunities in the green economy and achieve sustainable growth through effective environmental strategies. If you have any questions in this regard, please feel free to contact us at customer@reach24h.com.
