CDP Scoring Methodology 2025: Changes from 2024 and What Companies Should Consider

In this article, we focus on the CDP Scoring Methodology 2025 and aim to answer the questions of how submitted data is translated into scores and what has changed compared to 2024. For sustainability officers in companies—whether SMEs or large corporations—understanding the criteria by which CDP assesses performance is crucial.

Stable Foundations with Targeted Improvements

First, the good news: The evaluation logic of CDP remains largely stable in 2025. According to CDP, this year's scoring methodology has only been refined to make formulations clearer and the assessments more consistent 1. No radically new evaluation criteria have been introduced. The fundamental score levels (Leadership, Management, Awareness, Disclosure) and the point system behind them remain unchanged. This provides companies with planning security—those who understood the mechanics in 2024 can build on that in 2025.

However, CDP has highlighted three areas where improvements or changes have been made 2:

1. Essential Criteria—More Precise Guidelines: The so-called Essential Criteria are the indispensable core points that a company must meet to advance to higher score areas. They set a sort of baseline for A and B scores by ensuring that important data points have been reported (e.g., complete emissions disclosures, climate targets, risk analyses). These essential criteria remain unchanged in 2025, but CDP now provides clearer guidance on what exactly is expected. Particularly on sensitive points such as exclusions (e.g., if a part of the company is not covered) or non-response to individual sub-questions, CDP offers additional guidance: Companies should clarify why certain emission sources were excluded and how relevant they are. For the area of forest and water security, it has been explained which data points are examined in cases of exclusions (such as non-disclosure of certain raw materials). This means that in 2025, even more attention is paid to understandable justifications. Tip: Ensure that all essential criteria are met and either data or a convincing justification is provided for each compulsory point, if something is missing.

   
   

2. Financial Sector: Publication of Forest and Water Scores: An important change affects financial institutions (banks, insurers, investors) participating in CDP. As of 2025, CDP will publicly disclose the scores for forest and water-related financial activities for the first time. Previously, financial companies received internal assessments of how well they manage deforestation risks in their credit portfolios or consider water aspects, but these were not published. Now, however, CDP believes the time has come to send a signal: The impacts on forests and water are also important in the financial sector and should be made transparent. Concretely, this means that, for example, a bank participating in the CDP Climate, Forests & Water Programme will, in addition to their climate score, also receive a publicly listed forest score and water score—similar to industrial companies where this is already common practice. (Exceptions apply only when a company uses a private score package according to CDP guidelines, which is not often the case for most publicly traded financial institutions.) For affected companies, the message is: Do not neglect forest and water issues! Even if the focus often lies on climate risk, stakeholders will gain insights from 2025 on how, for example, forest risk in credit portfolios or water stress in investment portfolios has been assessed. Poor performance in these areas can no longer be kept under wraps.

   
   

3. SME Scoring—Adjustment of Evaluation Levels: SMEs have only been included in a dedicated CDP scoring track since 2024. At that time, CDP introduced the SME score, which only covers the climate area and was initially cautiously calibrated. In 2025, CDP will make an adjustment to the threshold values for SME scores, based on the first year's experience. Important to note: An A score is still not available in the SME programme. Just like in 2024, SMEs can achieve a maximum of B—the SME score range spans from D to B (with B signalling leadership in the SME peer group). An SME A-level is (yet) not awarded, as CDP wants to collect more data first to define a truly meaningful leadership category for SMEs. In other words: Companies using the SME questionnaire will receive a score between B and D at the end of the year, even if they meet everything perfectly. This approach serves to set realistic benchmarks and not measure SMEs against the same absolute high standards as large corporations—at least in this transition phase. CDP emphasises that in 2025 no changes will be made at the question level in terms of evaluation (the scoring criteria for each individual question remain unchanged), but the criteria for score levels will be reviewed and possibly slightly adjusted to meaningfully reflect the distribution of SME results. Data from 2024 will be used to develop a robust scoring model for SMEs from 2025/26, which may then possibly include an A rating for pioneers. For SMEs, this means: those who achieved a B in 2024 can aim for a B again in 2025—an A is unattainable for now unless they switch to the Full Questionnaire.

What Should Companies Prepare For?

In light of these changes, companies—depending on their affiliation—should keep the following points on the radar:

• All Companies (Corporate & SME): Review the essential criteria. These ensure you don't overlook any 'knockout criteria.' For example, climate targets, emissions data, and responsibilities must be stated. Use the 2025 guidelines to see if CDP expects additional explanations (e.g., when parts of the business are excluded). Transparency in boundaries and exceptions is even more important in 2025 to avoid deductions.

• Industry/Non-Financial Corporates: Little changes in the scoring methodology here. If your company has answered both the climate and forest and water questionnaires, you will still receive three scores (one per topic). Plastic and Biodiversity remain unscored in 2025 (they do not contribute to any score). The main novelty is that assessments are more clearly defined in the background. In practice, this could mean that explanations for 'not applicable' are now scrutinised more closely. Prepare internal explanations if you are unable (or unwilling) to answer certain questions.

  
  

Outlook: Continuity and Continuous Improvement

The updates in the CDP Scoring Methodology 2025 signal that CDP is committed to continuity, coupled with a gradual raising of the bar. In the long run, CDP will likely weigh themes such as biodiversity and plastic more heavily and possibly incorporate them into the scoring—those who start collecting data now will gain an advantage.

CDP publishes extensive scoring guides per question. However, given the number of questions, it can quickly become confusing and time-consuming to understand the evaluation criteria for each question. Automation and AI can help ensure nothing is overlooked in the evaluation process. Our browser extension from turnus.ai provides response suggestions based on company data, checks whether all required fields are filled in, and identifies where there might be potential for improvement to achieve a higher score.