“By failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail” – Benjamin Franklin
It may feel early to start thinking about CDP submissions for next year given the rating submission deadline was October 9th. In fact, preparing for next year’s CDP may at the bottom of your agenda if you put in extra long hours for your company’s 2024 submission.
You aren’t alone. The 2024 CDP questionnaire introduced a series of significant changes that made an already rigorous submission even more meticulous this year.
Changes to CDP in 2024
CDP restructured its format in 2024 to consolidate all categories of Climate Change, Forests, Water Security, Plastics, and Biodiversity into a single questionnaire. This is a welcome change for organizations reporting across multiple categories; however, 62% of companies in 2023 opted to only include climate change disclosures as part of their CDP submissions. This meant that most reporting organizations were urged to expand their responses this year.
Formerly known as Carbon Disclosure Project, CDP has grown significantly in the past few years from fewer than 10,000 disclosing organizations and entities in 2020 to more than 23,000 disclosers in 2023. This year, over 700 financial institutions representing US$142+ trillion in assets requested more than 33,000 companies to submit sustainability disclosures through CDP.
The Role of Sustainability Reporting Software
In light of these challenges, sustainability reporting software like IsoMetrix Lumina, has emerged as a vital tool for organizations aiming to streamline their CDP reporting processes. Offering a range of capabilities designed to simplify data collection, management, and reporting, sustainability reporting software makes it easier for companies to comply with the CDP requirements and their annual changes.
- Automate Data Collection: Reduce human error and manual effort required for collecting data from multiple sources and stakeholders with versatile methods to automate data collection.
- Centralize Data Management: Improve confidence with a single source of truth for sustainability data that is organized intuitively and easily accessible helping to nearly eliminate version control issues and accelerate reporting.
- Real-Time Reporting: With real-time reporting capabilities, organizations can quickly generate accurate and up-to-date reports, facilitating timely and informed decision-making as well as ad hoc disclosure reports with ease.
- Compliance Assurance: Align with the latest CDP requirements (as well as other major standards like GRI, IFRS S 1 & 2, SASB, etc.) helping to ensure reports are comprehensive and formatted correctly.
Looking Ahead to 2025
As we look ahead to 2025, the benefits of adopting sustainability reporting software like IsoMetrix Lumina become even more apparent. By investing in a solution now, organizations can not only ease the burden of CDP reporting but also enhance their overall sustainability performance. This proactive approach will position companies to better navigate future changes in sustainability reporting requirements and demonstrate their commitment to transparency and accountability.
Find out how IsoMetrix Lumina can help with your CDP reporting now