CDP Questionnaire 2025: What changes and how does it differ for large corporations compared to small and medium enterprises (SMEs)?

Since 2024, CDP has offered an adapted questionnaire for SMEs alongside the comprehensive questionnaire for corporations. Sustainability managers from both company sizes should be familiar with the structure, scope, and requirements of the respective version to report efficiently. In this article, we examine the differences between the CDP Questionnaire for Corporates and SMEs and discuss the key changes in 2025 compared to 2024.

The Full Corporate Questionnaire 2025 – Structure and Scope

Large companies and corporations with extensive resources typically participate in the “Full Corporate Questionnaire”. This comprehensive CDP questionnaire covers all relevant environmental topics and is structured in detail:

• Modules and Topics: The Corporate Questionnaire 2025 is divided into 13 modules. Modules 1 to 5 cover cross-sectional topics, i.e., Introduction and Framework (e.g., reporting boundary, organizational profile), Identification of Dependencies, Impacts, Risks & Opportunities, specific Risks & Opportunities, Governance, and Business Strategy. From Module 6 onwards follow key topics such as Environmental Performance/Indicators in various areas. Specifically, Module 6 covers methodological aspects of reporting (consolidation approaches), Module 7 focuses on Climate Change, Module 8 on Forests, Module 9 on Water Security, Module 10 on Plastic (newly introduced in the integrated approach), Module 11 on Biodiversity, Module 12 contains industry-specific questions for Financial Services, and Module 13 serves for final confirmation and signing (see official documents 1)

• Scope and Detail Level: For a company reporting on all topics (climate, forest, water, biodiversity, plastic), the questionnaire can encompass more than a hundred questions. Many questions are tabular with multiple sub-questions. For example, in the climate section, emission data (Scope 1, 2, 3) must be collected and supplemented with targets, reduction strategies, and risk mitigation measures. The forest module requires information on deforestation-relevant raw materials (such as palm oil, soy, timber, beef), including safeguarding mechanisms in the supply chain. The water module inquires about water withdrawals, risk areas, and water management strategies. Since 2024, integrated questions on plastic and biodiversity have been added, now embedded in the questionnaire – even though these areas are (still) not graded 2. The detail depth is high in the Corporate Questionnaire: Many questions require text descriptions and quantitative data; documents may need to be uploaded or web links provided.

• Requirements and Mandatory Information: Certain key data must be mandatory in the Corporate Questionnaire to achieve a score better than D. This includes the complete disclosure of Scope-1 and Scope-2 emissions, presenting a climate target, describing the risk management processes, and formal board responsibility for climate topics. Without these elements, the score usually remains low, as CDP has defined so-called Essential Criteria that must be met at least 3. In 2025, for instance, the specification of the reporting currency (question 1.2) was explicitly made mandatory to keep financial information consistent 4.

In summary, the Full Corporate Questionnaire is a comprehensive reporting tool that requires companies to gather considerably data and coordinate efforts. It offers the opportunity to thoroughly report on all environmental aspects and receive scores in all categories (climate, water, forest) – assuming the company is relevant in these areas. CDP explicitly points out that not every company needs to complete all topic-specific modules.

The SME Questionnaire 2025 – Tailored for SMEs

CDP has developed a separate SME Questionnaire for small and medium enterprises, first introduced in 2024. This SME Questionnaire is still available in 2025 and allows qualified companies to participate in CDP reporting with less effort. The main features:

• Eligibility: Not all companies may use the SME Questionnaire. CDP sets thresholds based on employee count and revenue to distinguish which is considered an SME in the CDP sense. Simplified, companies with fewer than 1,000 employees and revenue under approximately 250 million USD/EUR are classified as SMEs and can opt for the simplified version 5. As seen in the official overview from CDP, there are gradual transitions. If a company is slightly above the SME thresholds, CDP recommends the Full Questionnaire. Conversely, ambitious smaller firms can voluntarily complete the large questionnaire if they aim for an A rating (more below).

• Structure and Topic Focus: The SME Questionnaire 2025 consists of 8 modules, numbered as Modules 14 to 21. Modules 14-19 and 21 are integrated modules containing questions that address multiple environmental aspects together (e.g., governance, targets, risks – each across climate, forest, water). Module 20 is specifically dedicated to climate change 6. Practically, this means that the SME Questionnaire has a strong climate focus, but also covers fundamental questions on forest and water issues to help SMEs engage with these areas. Unlike large corporations, SMEs do not need to answer sector-specific data points (e.g., for specialized CO₂-intensive industries). The volume of questions is significantly less. The SME Questionnaire includes fewer and simpler data points than the full questionnaire.

• Requirements and Focus: The SME Questionnaire clearly emphasizes climate data. CDP has decided that SMEs in 2025 should primarily disclose their climate strategy and emissions, while forest and water aspects are queried but (yet) not graded 7. Concretely, only the climate section will be assessed, and here CDP has simplified some indicators for SMEs. Mandatory information such as emission data remains relevant, but it's acknowledged that SMEs are often still developing their data capabilities. The focus is designed to lower the barrier for smaller companies to participate in CDP.

Companies classified as SMEs can show transparency with significantly less effort and still receive a recognized CDP score (for climate). For large corporations, however, the Full Questionnaire is mandatory, as only it offers the depth and breadth required to appropriately assess complex organizations.

Differences at a Glance: Corporate vs. SME Questionnaire

The essential differences between the Corporate and SME Questionnaire can be summarized as follows:

• Scope: The Corporate Questionnaire is considerably longer and more detailed. It includes all topics (climate, forest, water, biodiversity, plastic) and sector-specific deep dives. The SME Questionnaire is shorter, focusing on climate, with forest/water touched only lightly.

• Modules: Corporate: 13 modules (some integrated, some topic-specific, plus sector modules if applicable). SME: 8 modules (7 integrated and 1 specifically on climate).

• Rating (Scoring): For Corporates, each relevant area is assessed individually (climate, forest, water each receive a separate grade, which is published). For SMEs, only the climate section is graded; forest and water data do not contribute to the rating. This means SMEs receive a combined score (Climate D to B) – details see next section on Scoring Methods 2025.

• Sector-specific Questions: Corporates: yes, if applicable (CDP uses its sector classification system ACS to present certain industries with extra questions, e.g., energy-intensive industry, financial sector). SME: no, all participants of the SME Questionnaire answer the same set of questions regardless of industry.

• Newly Added Topics: Both questionnaires have recently integrated topics such as plastic and biodiversity, albeit to different extents. In the Corporate questionnaire, these are present as standalone Modules 10 and 11 with several questions. In the SME questionnaire, questions on biodiversity/plastic may appear in integrated modules, but very limited and mainly qualitatively.

Key Changes 2025 Compared to 2024

CDP emphasizes that minimal changes were made for both the Corporate and SME Questionnaire in 2025 8. Following the significant revision in 2024 (introduction of the integrated questionnaire design), 2025 focuses on stability to provide continuity for companies. Nonetheless, there are some innovations and fine adjustments that CDP officials should be aware of:

• Clarifications in Module 1 (Introduction): The currency specification for financial information (question 1.2) is now mandatory so that all figures in the questionnaire can be uniformly interpreted. Moreover, CDP has provided additional guidance on boundary delineation (“reporting boundary”) to help companies transparently manage discrepancies between CDP reporting boundaries and, for example, financial consolidation. New support is available for indicating excluded company areas and their impacts. In question 1.24.1 (Value Chain Mapping), a new dropdown option “Direct operations” was added to specify that an aspect exclusively relates to direct business activities 9.

• Technical Fixes and Minor Changes: In Module 2 (Identification of Risks/Opportunities), a technical error was corrected: The logic that displayed supplier levels for certain responses was fixed. Module 3 (specific Risks & Opportunities) remained largely unchanged, although dropdown lists were updated (e.g., selection options for regions, raw materials etc.) to be up to date.

• Governance and Strategy (Modules 4 & 5): There were minor clean-ups. A duplicate response option in the question about governance mechanisms was removed to avoid redundancy. Additionally, CDP adjusts dependencies between questions – e.g., a question about financial incentive structure (4.7) now only appears if it is relevant to the company (for instance, financial services providers). In Module 5 (Business Strategy), guidance in a key question (5.2) was expanded to clarify that firms can use data reported to CDP for other reports (e.g., TCFD, sustainability reports). This clarification aims to help reduce duplicate efforts.

• Overall, CDP has not introduced completely new topic areas, neither in the Corporate nor in the SME Questionnaire, likely a relief for many repeat participants.

• SME Questionnaire remains stable: For SMEs, there are no substantive innovations in the question catalog. The SME Questionnaire 2025 is practically identical to that of 2024 in terms of questions and structure. CDP deliberately refrained from changes so that smaller companies can focus on the climate aspect without having to learn afresh every year. The only change concerns the general expansion of guidance: CDP provides more support and examples to assist SMEs in completing it, as many are participating for the first time.

The changes in 2025 are predominantly incremental – they involve fine-tuning and clarifications. Those familiar with the 2024 questionnaire will find no surprises in 2025 but should still consult the “Key Changes” documents to avoid potential pitfalls 10.

How do companies deal with it?

SMEs who participated for the first time in 2024 can benefit from this experience in 2025 and expand their climate data set. Larger companies, who perhaps struggled with the integrated format in 2024, can use the same structure in 2025 and optimize processes.

For companies reporting for the first time in 2025, intensive weeks lie ahead. Using digital assistants can be pivotal for easing workload. Software solutions like turnus.ai can automate the input of qualitative and quantitative data into the CDP template by employing AI and checking for consistency.

Early Access Tip: We at turnus.ai enable automated CDP questionnaire completion with existing company data. The tool extracts information from a central database and formulates automatic responses that only need approval. This drastically reduces manual effort and avoids consistency errors. Interested? Secure Early Access to turnus.ai now and effortlessly master CDP disclosure 2025.