A customer asked you to respond to CDP. Here is how.

A CDP supply chain questionnaire is a request from one of your customers, made through CDP’s online portal, asking you to disclose your climate data: emissions, energy, targets and how you manage climate risk. If you are a small business you can usually answer the shorter SME questionnaire, and if only customers asked you to respond, it is free. Once you have a carbon footprint, most of it is very answerable.

If the email has just arrived with your customer’s name on it and a portal link from CDP, there is no need to worry. Plenty of small UK suppliers respond to CDP every year, many of them for the first time. Here is what you are dealing with and how to get it done.

What is a CDP supply chain request?

CDP is a non-profit that runs a global environmental disclosure system. Large companies join its Supply Chain programme so they can ask their suppliers for climate data in one consistent format, instead of sending hundreds of different spreadsheets.

Your customer picked you from their supplier list, and CDP sent the invitation on their behalf. You log in to the CDP portal, set up your questionnaire, answer the questions and submit. Your customer then sees your response, alongside every other supplier they asked.

Why you? Usually because your business is part of their Scope 3 emissions. Their own footprint includes the goods and services they buy, and the most accurate way to measure that is to ask suppliers like you. It is routine supply chain reporting, not a sign anything is wrong.

Is CDP free for suppliers?

For most small suppliers, yes. According to CDP’s FAQs, a company requested to disclose only by CDP Supply Chain members is exempt from the Disclosure Admin Fee and selects the “No fee payable” option when setting up.

A fee does apply in two situations:

• You were also requested by investors. If CDP Capital Markets signatories asked for your data as well, the admin fee applies. This is rare for a private small business.
• You disclose as a self-selected company. If nobody asked and you choose to respond anyway, you pay.

Your score is also more private than people expect. CDP says scores for supply-chain-only requests are kept private unless the company scores an A. Your customer gets your answers, and you get feedback to improve on next year, without a low first score following you around.

Which CDP questionnaire should a small business use?

CDP has two corporate questionnaires: the full corporate questionnaire and a shorter SME questionnaire. The SME version was introduced in 2024 to replace the old minimum version. It has fewer and simpler questions, and it is aligned with the full questionnaire, so your answers still fit into the same system your customer uses.

For 2026, CDP’s eligibility works on headcount and revenue:

• Under 500 staff and under US$50m revenue: the SME questionnaire is recommended.
• Under 1,000 staff and under US$250m revenue: you can use the SME questionnaire, though CDP recommends the full one.
• Over 1,000 staff or over US$250m revenue: the full questionnaire is required.

A 15-person design consultancy in Leeds or a 60-person engineering firm in the Midlands sits comfortably in the first group. Choose the SME questionnaire unless your customer has specifically asked for the full one.

What does the CDP SME questionnaire ask?

The SME questionnaire is built in modules. All disclosers answer the climate change content, and the rest follows a logical order. According to CDP’s 2026 SME questionnaire overview, you will be asked about:

• Your organisation: headcount, revenue, what you do and your reporting year.
• Risks and opportunities: whether you assess climate-related risks, and any that could affect your business, such as rising energy costs or flooding at your premises.
• Governance: who is responsible for environmental issues and whether you have an environmental policy.
• Business strategy: whether you have a plan to cut emissions and how you engage with your own suppliers and customers.
• Consolidation approach: how you decided which emissions are yours to report.
• Climate change performance: your emissions method and exclusions, your Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions, a breakdown by activity, energy use, emissions targets and reduction initiatives.

Some questions only appear because a Supply Chain member asked you. The most common is a request to allocate part of your emissions to that customer. The simplest accepted method is by revenue: if they account for 20% of your turnover and your footprint is 30 tCO2e, roughly 6 tCO2e is theirs. Say which method you used.

In 2026 the SME questionnaire also added optional forests and water security modules. Forests applies to businesses that produce or source timber, cattle, palm oil, soy, coffee, cocoa or rubber. You choose whether to disclose on these during setup, and CDP only scores the climate change content for SMEs this year.

What can you take from your ESG Now report?

Most of the climate module comes straight from a well-documented carbon footprint. ESG Now calculates yours from plain-English questions, using the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard on an operational control basis and the UK Government’s conversion factors, with the factor year matched to your reporting period. Every calculation line is in the appendix, so you can copy figures across with confidence.

Here is how the report maps onto CDP’s questions:

• Consolidation approach: operational control, stated in the method section.
• Emissions methodology: GHG Protocol Corporate Standard with UK Government GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting. Each source is labelled measured, estimated from activity data, estimated from a benchmark, or a data gap.
• Scope 1: gas, heating oil, LPG, fuel for plant and generators, refrigerant top-ups, and company cars, vans and HGVs.
• Scope 2: electricity location-based and market-based, including REGO-backed renewable tariffs, on-site solar and EV charging.
• Scope 3: well-to-tank and transmission losses, flights, rail, staff mileage in their own cars, taxis, hotel nights, commuting, homeworking, waste, water, courier deliveries you pay for, and an optional spend-based estimate of purchased goods and services.
• Energy: your energy use in kWh.
• Intensity: emissions per employee.
• Targets: any carbon target you have recorded, with its type, target year, baseline year and whether it is science-based.
• Governance: who owns ESG in your business, whether you have an environmental policy and a risk register, and your certifications.

The private action plan helps with the strategy questions too. When CDP asks what reduction initiatives you have planned, your prioritised list is a good place to start.

How long will yours take?

Pick the option that sounds most like your business. You will see a realistic time, what to have nearby and a head start on the questions.

Which sounds most like you?

Sole trader working from homeConsultants, designers, developers, coaches10 to 15 minSole trader or freelancer in a co-working spaceA desk at a WeWork, Regus or local hub10 to 15 minSmall team in a co-working or serviced officeStartups and agencies with 2 to 25 people15 to 20 minSME with its own office and no vehiclesProfessional services, tech firms, studios20 to 30 minSME with vans, cars or regular staff travelTrades, field services, consultancies on the road30 to 45 minShop, cafe, workshop or product businessRetail, hospitality, makers and manufacturers30 to 45 min

Your estimate

About 20 to 30 minutes

Around 50 questions, most of them multiple choice

Still comfortably under half an hour.

You will add your electricity and gas use, plus a quick estimate of your bins. If you do not have the exact figures, the questionnaire works them out from your floor area instead.

Handy to have nearby

• A recent electricity and gas bill (or your office size in square metres)
• How many general waste and recycling bins you have
• Headcount and a rough idea of business trains and flights
• How your team usually gets to work

Missing something? Estimates are fine, and you can come back to any answer later.

Office-based firms usually have clear, low-cost ways to cut their footprint. Your action plan will list them in order.

Start with this profile

First report free. No card needed.

What will you still need to answer yourself?

It is worth being clear about what the report does not give you, so you can plan for it.

• Forests and water security modules. ESG Now does not assess deforestation commodities or water security. If you source timber, palm oil or the other listed commodities, or water is material to your operations, those modules need separate work. For most service businesses, you can simply choose not to disclose on them.
• Some Scope 3 categories. Inbound freight from your suppliers, the use and disposal of products you sell, investments and overseas air or sea deliveries are not calculated. List them as exclusions with a short reason, such as “not yet measured; we plan to review this next year”.
• Supplier-specific product footprints. If your customer wants the footprint of an individual product you supply, that needs product-level data the report does not produce.
• Verification. CDP asks whether your emissions were independently verified. Your ESG Now report is not independently assured, so answer “no” and describe your method instead. That is a normal answer for a small supplier.
• Narrative on risks. The report records whether you manage ESG risks and keep a risk register, but you will write the description of specific climate risks in your own words.

CDP’s scoring introduction for SMEs shows that scores build in levels, from disclosure through awareness and management to leadership. Simply answering clearly and completely gets you onto the first rung.

When is the CDP deadline?

CDP runs one disclosure cycle a year. In 2026 the response window opened in the week of 15 June, the scoring deadline was 16 September, and the portal stays open for unscored responses until 28 October 2026, according to CDP’s 2026 disclosure hub. If you respond after the scoring deadline, your customer still receives your data, but it will not be scored.

Your customer may also set their own earlier date, so check the deadline in your request email and with your contact.

How to respond to CDP as a small business, step by step

1. Reply to your customer contact. Confirm you received the request and when you expect to submit. A short email builds goodwill.
2. Log in and set up the questionnaire. Enter your headcount and revenue, choose the SME questionnaire, select “No fee payable” if only customers requested you, and decide on the optional forests and water modules.
3. Work out your carbon footprint first. It answers the hardest third of the questionnaire. An office-based firm with no vehicles usually finishes ESG Now in 20 to 30 minutes, and a business with vans in 30 to 45.
4. Fill in the easy modules. Organisation details, governance and policies are mostly short answers you already know.
5. State your exclusions honestly. A clear “not measured, here is why” is far better than a guess.
6. Save everything. Next year’s request will look very similar, and your answers become a starting point.

If you have not set a target yet, our guides to net zero for small businesses and the SME Climate Hub commitment are a gentle introduction.

Get your figures ready today

A CDP request feels like a big formal exercise, but for a small supplier it comes down to a well-documented carbon footprint and a few honest answers about how you run the business. Your ESG Now report gives you the figures, the method and the governance answers in one place. Your first report is free, with no card needed. Answers save as you go, so you can stop to find a bill and pick up where you left off.

Start your report and have your CDP figures ready this week. For more help with customer requests, see our supplier questionnaires hub.