2024 CDP Disclosure: Plastics Questionnaire Updates You Need to Know
Insights
2024 CDP Disclosure season has begun and if your company uses plastics, there are some important changes to the CDP Questionnaire that you need to know.
Key Differences in the 2024 CDP Questionnaire
Last year, Anthesis published CDP guidance on the newly added questions, W10 Plastics, which was then part of the CDP Water Security Questionnaire. At the time, CDP asked 7,000 companies to answer 9 questions regarding their understanding of their plastic footprint. However, CDP reported that only 2,962 companies (42%) provided responses to the water security questionnaire for 2023 and that most of them did not report plastic-related risks.
For the CDP 2024 Questionnaire, CDP is asking all disclosing companies, over 23,000 in total, to disclose their plastics risks and their risk mitigation efforts as part of an integrated questionnaire.
Some companies in high-impact sectors will get additional questions [1]. However, as in 2023, the responses to the Plastics questions will not be scored by CDP in 2024, as CDP recognizes that many companies are in the early stages of developing their action, accountability, and reporting on plastics.
And there are some significant changes to the questionnaire. Namely, plastics questions are now incorporated throughout the questionnaire, signaling the potential impacts to climate and nature. The table below shows the 2024 changes to section 10: Environmental Performance – Plastics.
| 2024 Questions (2023 Analog) | Requested Responses |
|---|---|
| 1.24.1 (W10.1) Have you mapped where in your direct operations or elsewhere in your value chain plastics are produced, commercialized, used, and/or disposed of? | Yes No and planned No and not planned Upstream Downstream End of life Other *Reasons are requested for a No response. |
| (W10.2) Deleted | |
| (W10.3) Deleted | |
| 10.1 (W10.4) Do you have plastics related targets, and if so what type? | Target type and metric required |
| 10.2 (W10.5) Indicate whether your organization engages in the following activities. | Production/commercialization of plastic polymers (including plastic converters), durable plastic goods and/or components (including mixed materials). Usage of durable plastics goods and/or components (including mixed materials), Production/commercialization of plastic packaging, goods/products packaged in plastics. Provision/commercialization of services that use plastic packaging (e.g., food services), waste management and/or water management services, financial products and/or services for plastics-related activities. Other activities not specified. |
| 10.3 (W10.6) Provide the total weight of plastic polymers sold and indicate the raw material content. | Total weight of plastic polymers sold (MT). Virgin, renewable and recycled content percentage. |
| 10.4 (W10.7) Provide the total weight of plastic durable goods/components sold and indicate the raw material content. | Total weight of plastic polymers sold (MT). Virgin, renewable and recycled content percentage. |
| 10.5 (W10.8) Provide the total weight of plastic packaging sold and/or used, and indicate the raw material content. | Plastic packaging sold, used (MT). Virgin, renewable and recycled content percentage. |
| 10.5.1 (W10.8a) Indicate the circularity potential of the plastic packaging you sold and/ or used. | Plastic packaging sold, used (MT). Reusable, technically recyclable, recycled in practice and at scale percentage. |
| 10.6 (NEW) Provide the total weight of waste generated by the plastic you produce, commercialize, use and/or process and indicate the end-of-life management pathways. | Production, commercialization, usage, processing (MT). End of life management pathway percentage. |
CDP is giving its disclosing companies another year to address their plastics risks.
The questionnaire changes for 2024 are indicative that CDP is intent on its goal to map plastics risks and reward companies that are proactively addressing them. By adding the mapping question 1.24.1 to the Introduction section of the questionnaire, an expectation of disclosure is being established as the very minimum.
How should you prepare for CDP disclosure related to plastics for 2024?
- Understand your plastics: Where do they come from? How are they used? What is their end-of-life fate? To help answer these questions, Anthesis supported the WWF in building the ReSource Plastic Footprint Tracker to provide brands with the ability to map the fate of their plastic packaging around the world.
- Understand your plastic usage: A packaging baseline can give you insight into plastic used to produce and package each item you produce. A supplier engagement activity is usually part of this process to fill in the information gaps. A properly built baseline can also support goal tracking and compliance reporting.
- Set impactful targets: An essential element of any sustainability plan is goals and targets that are rooted in reducing the environmental and social impacts of consumption. While it is important to reduce the effects of unmanaged waste on our ecosystem, we have reached a tipping point where these targets need to be assessed by climate-change impact, too. Targets should best match the concerns of all stakeholders and be holistic in their scope.
The Anthesis team includes experienced CDP practitioners and sustainable production experts (products, packaging and waste recovery included). Please see these examples of our work:
- SCATTER: an online tool providing GHG emissions data and climate action planning for United Kingdom local authorities.
- Scope 3 emissions data added to corrugated industry LCA, allowing box users to calculate carbon emissions.
- Supply chains and corrugated packaging: A marriage made to last.
CDP Services
[1] Additional questions on organizational activities for the following high-impact sectors: Agricultural commodities, Capital goods, Cement, Chemicals, Coal, Construction, Electric Utilities, Financial services, Food, Beverage & Tobacco, Metals & Mining, Oil & Gas, Paper & Forestry, Real Estate, Steel, Transport original equipment manufacturers (OEMS), and Transport services
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