CDP Climate, Water, Forests: when to file which

CDP isn’t one questionnaire — it’s three. Companies can file one, two or all of them depending on materiality and stakeholder pressure.

Climate Change

The flagship questionnaire. Covers ~80% of all CDP respondents.

Scope

• Scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions (GHG Protocol).
• Climate risks and opportunities — physical, transition, value chain.
• Targets — SBTi validation, net-zero commitments, interim milestones.
• Governance — board oversight, named accountability, climate-linked compensation.
• Transition plan — capex allocation, scenario analysis.

File it if

• You have customer or investor requests.
• You operate in emissions-intensive sectors (energy, manufacturing, transport, real estate).
• You have any public climate commitment.

Water Security

Scope

• Withdrawal, consumption and discharge by source and location.
• Basin-level risk assessment.
• Water-related targets.
• Operational and supplier water management.

File it if

• You operate in water-stressed regions.
• You’re in food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, textile, mining, semiconductors, or agriculture.
• Water is materially in your value chain.

Scoring penalises companies that report only municipal supply while ignoring groundwater abstraction. Full boundary discipline matters here.

Forests

Scope

• Supply chain exposure to seven commodities historically linked to deforestation: timber, palm oil, soy, cattle products, rubber, cocoa, coffee.
• Commodity volumes by source geography.
• Deforestation-free status with chain-of-custody evidence (not just procurement claims).
• Certification coverage (FSC, RSPO, etc.).

File it if

• Your supply chain touches any of the seven commodities (even indirectly via ingredients or packaging).
• You’re subject to EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) compliance.

How to sequence them

A phased approach is sustainable; trying to file all three on day one usually means none of them is good.

Year 1 — Climate

• Build the emissions inventory.
• Document governance.
• Identify the top 2–3 climate risks.
• File Climate Change.

Year 2 — Add Water (if material)

• Stand up water data infrastructure if water is in your impact pathway.
• File Water Security alongside Climate.

Year 3 — Add Forests (if material)

• Build commodity traceability if your supply chain has forest exposure.
• File Forests alongside the others.

Cross-questionnaire economies

Suppliers, governance, board oversight, scenario analysis — these populate all three questionnaires. A single supplier engagement program feeds Climate (Scope 3), Water (supplier water risk) and Forests (commodity traceability). Build the program once.

Overlap with regulations

• Forests ↔ EUDR (EU Deforestation Regulation): much of the same underlying data, different output formats.
• Climate ↔ CSRD E1 (Climate change): scope, targets, governance — direct overlap.
• Water ↔ CSRD E3 (Water and marine resources): direct overlap.

Build the data architecture once, file everywhere.