Key takeaway
CDP is not one questionnaire. It is one questionnaire delivered through five different doors. Which door you walk through (Full Corporate, Minimum Version, Supply Chain, RE100, Public Sector) decides which questions you see, what your scoring depth is, and whether your response shows up publicly. Picking the wrong pathway can make you do twice the work for half the score. This lesson explains the pathways and how to choose.
The five response pathways
Every responder enters the same Online Response System (ORS), but the system shows you a different set of questions depending on the pathway you are on.
| Pathway | Who it is for | Depth | Public default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full Corporate | Most large public and private companies | Full questionnaire (all relevant modules) | Public unless opted private |
| Minimum Version | Smaller companies invited by their customers, often first-timers | Subset of the Full questionnaire (mostly Disclosure-tier) | Often private, varies |
| Supply Chain (SC) | Companies invited by a CDP Supply Chain customer (Walmart, L'Oreal, Microsoft, etc.) | Same as Full or Minimum, plus engagement-specific questions | Visible to invitees, optionally public |
| RE100 | Companies that have committed to 100 percent renewable electricity | Climate-focused subset, with renewable energy emphasis | Public |
| Public Sector (Cities, States, Regions) | Cities, states, regional governments | Different questionnaire entirely (separate course) | Public |
This course covers the Corporate pathways (the first four). The Public Sector questionnaire has its own structure and is typically handled by city or regional sustainability teams rather than corporate ones.
How to know which pathway applies to you
CDP determines your pathway based on three signals:
- Whether you were invited. Most companies are invited to disclose by an investor or a customer. If your customer is in the CDP Supply Chain programme (Walmart, Tata, L'Oreal, etc.), you will be invited under the Supply Chain pathway.
- Your size and disclosure history. First-time responders below a revenue threshold can sometimes opt for the Minimum Version. Large companies with prior responses default to Full Corporate.
- Your existing commitments. RE100 members are channelled through the RE100 pathway automatically.
You can have multiple invitations layered on top of each other. A company that is invited by both an investor and a Walmart can be on Full Corporate plus Supply Chain at the same time. The submission counts for both audiences but is one set of answers.
Analogy
Think of the pathways like airline check-in lines. Economy, premium economy, business, and first all board the same plane and arrive at the same destination. The amenities and the ticket price differ, but you are all going to the same place. CDP's pathways work the same way: same airline, same destination, different service levels along the way.
Full Corporate, the default
If you are a large company with multiple investor and customer requests, this is your pathway. You will see every module relevant to your sector activity classification (the answer you give in Module 1 about what your company does), and you will be scored across all four tiers (Disclosure, Awareness, Management, Leadership).
A Full Corporate response typically runs 80-200 pages of structured disclosure. It is the most demanding pathway and the one this course is built around.
Minimum Version, the on-ramp
The Minimum Version is CDP's way of bringing smaller companies into disclosure without scaring them off. It contains a subset of the Full questionnaire and emphasises Disclosure-tier questions over Leadership.
Worked example
Sundar Foods Ltd, India. A 250-crore-revenue food processing company invited to disclose by a multinational customer. They opt for the Minimum Version pathway in their first year, complete around 30 questions instead of 150, and earn a C-band score. The next year, they upgrade to Full Corporate with the experience and confidence to push for B.
The pattern is common: Minimum Version in year one, Full Corporate in year two. The key trade-off is that Minimum scores cap at lower bands (typically B at most), so a company aiming for the A-list cannot stay on Minimum.
Supply Chain, the customer-driven pathway
If a CDP Supply Chain customer (any of the 280-plus members like Walmart, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Tata, Bridgestone, Kao, etc.) has invited you, you will be on the Supply Chain pathway. The questionnaire content is similar to Full Corporate, but with additional questions about your relationship to the inviting customer (allocated emissions, engagement frequency, commercial sensitivity).
The big practical difference: your response is visible to the inviting customer in detail, including questions you might keep private on a Full Corporate response. This is procurement-grade disclosure.
A Walmart or Microsoft invitation is technically optional, but ignoring it has consequences. Most Supply Chain customers track non-response rates internally and use them in supplier selection and renewal decisions. A "no response" reads as a yellow flag, not a neutral signal. If you receive an invitation, the calculation is rarely "should I disclose," it is "how minimum can I make my response while still satisfying the request."
RE100, the climate-focused pathway
RE100 is a corporate commitment to source 100 percent renewable electricity. Members of RE100 disclose through CDP's RE100 pathway, which adds detailed questions about renewable energy procurement, energy attribute certificates (EACs), and progress toward the 100 percent target.
If your company is not in RE100, this pathway does not apply. If you are, the pathway is mandatory; you cannot opt for Full Corporate instead.
Public versus private responses
Every response, regardless of pathway, has a public-or-private toggle.
- Public: Your full response is visible on CDP's website, downloadable as PDF, and indexed by search engines and ESG ratings agencies.
- Private: Only your inviting investors and customers see your response, plus CDP's scoring partners.
The default is public. CDP's own framing is that public disclosure is the higher-quality signal.
Worked example
Reliance Industries, India. Public CDP responses since 2017 across climate, water, and forests. Their public response is referenced in their Integrated Annual Report and used by ESG ratings.
Mahindra & Mahindra, India. Public on climate, has historically kept water disclosure private to manage commercial sensitivity around water-stressed plant locations. This is a deliberate trade-off that limits some scoring upside in exchange for protecting strategic information.
The decision to go private is rarely free. CDP scores private responses one or two letters lower than the equivalent public response on the same content. A B-band private response is, in CDP's eyes, a C-band public response. The penalty is built into the rubric to incentivise transparency.
Picking your pathway, the practitioner's heuristic
Most responders do not actually pick. The pathway is chosen for you by your invitations and your size. But if you have a choice (typically because you are a first-time responder below the size threshold), the heuristic is:
- Going for an A-list listing eventually? Skip Minimum, go straight to Full Corporate. The on-ramp time saved is more valuable than the year-one comfort.
- Mostly here because a customer asked? Use Supply Chain pathway, public response, with the customer's expectations as your floor.
- First time and not sure if you will respond again next year? Minimum Version is fine. You can always upgrade.
- In RE100? Pathway is decided for you. Lean into the renewable energy detail.
Key Takeaways
- CDP delivers one questionnaire through five pathways: Full Corporate, Minimum Version, Supply Chain, RE100, and Public Sector
- Most responders do not pick their pathway; it is determined by invitations, company size, and existing commitments
- Minimum Version is a year-one on-ramp; companies aiming for the A-list move to Full Corporate as soon as possible
- Supply Chain pathway responses are visible to the inviting customer in detail and have procurement consequences
- Public responses score one to two letters higher than private responses on the same content; the public-default is the better strategic choice for most companies
Knowledge Check
Test what you just learned
6 questions · check each one as you go
Which of the following is NOT one of the five CDP corporate response pathways?
Who decides which pathway you respond on?
True or false: Public CDP responses score the same as identical-content private responses.
Which pathway is most demanding in terms of question coverage?
What is true of the Supply Chain pathway?
Select all that apply
Match each pathway to its typical respondent profile.
Match each item to its pair
Full Corporate
Minimum Version
Supply Chain
RE100