Why timing decides quality
CDP scoring rewards depth and consistency. Both require planning. The 2026 cycle has fixed dates that create natural milestones, and missing any of them either limits your scoring eligibility or compresses the work into a panicked sprint. The teams that score well plan backwards from the September 14 scoring deadline; the teams that struggle start in July.
This guide maps the official 2026 dates and pairs each with the work it should trigger.
The fixed 2026 dates
- 27 April 2026: CDP releases the 2026 corporate, SME and supply chain questionnaires.
- Week of 15 June 2026: the disclosure portal opens for respondents.
- Week of 14 September 2026: the deadline for responses to be eligible for scoring.
- Week of 26 October 2026: the final close of the disclosure window (responses after September 14 are accepted but not scored).
- Late 2026 / early 2027: scoring published.
The two deadlines that matter most are 14 September (scoring eligibility) and 26 October (final disclosure). Treat 14 September as the real deadline. Submitting unscored does not appear in investor or customer benchmarks.
October 2025 to January 2026: foundational work
By the time April arrives, the teams that will score well have already finalised:
- Inventory: Scope 1, 2 and material Scope 3 categories, calculated from primary data wherever possible.
- Verification: limited or reasonable assurance contracted and in progress for the inventory.
- Targets: SBTi validation status confirmed; if not validated, the commitment letter is at minimum filed.
- Governance evidence: board minutes, committee terms of reference, named accountabilities documented.
This is the foundation that the questionnaire renders. Companies that show up in April still building the foundation usually run out of time.
February to April: cycle scoping
Between February and the questionnaire release on 27 April:
- Review the prior year score (received late 2025 or early 2026) and gap analysis from the CDP scoring report.
- Decide which themes to disclose: Climate Change is mandatory for the score, Water Security and Forests are by relevance, Plastics and Ocean are opt in.
- For 2026 specifically: if you source cocoa, coffee or rubber even indirectly, factor them into your forests scope before April.
- Confirm internal stakeholders: legal, finance, operations, procurement, IT.
- Update the project plan with the 14 September deadline anchored.
27 April: questionnaire released
This is when the structure becomes concrete. Read the changes for 2026 carefully (ocean, expanded forests, water refinements, plastics, adaptive routing, SME A score). For the full breakdown see CDP 2026: what changes versus the 2025 cycle.
In the two weeks after release:
- Map your prior year answers to the new questionnaire structure. Some questions move, some are reworded, some are new.
- Identify gaps. New questions in 2026 typically need new evidence; do not assume existing documentation covers them.
- Confirm the routing intake for C1 and C2 so the system shows you the right questions.
15 June: portal opens
When the portal opens, you should already have draft answers in a working document. The portal phase is for upload, formatting and final review, not for first drafting.
Practical sequence in June:
- Week 1: load draft into the portal, run the platform validation.
- Week 2 and 3: address validation flags, attach evidence files, format text fields.
- Week 4: stakeholder review with sustainability leadership.
July to August: review and verification
July and August are the months when teams that started early do their best work and teams that started late realise the cost. This is when:
- The verifier issues the limited or reasonable assurance statement (cycle dependent).
- The board or executive committee reviews the response.
- Cross checks are run between modules (C2 risks reconcile with C7 inventory; C7 targets reconcile with C7.5 base year).
- External commentary (advisors, peer benchmarking) is incorporated.
14 September: scoring deadline
Submit by 14 September to be in the scoring batch. The CDP platform locks responses at the deadline. Late changes are not possible without a separate revision request, which is rare and discretionary.
Submitting one or two days early is the safe play. The platform load on the final day is heavy, and last minute upload failures are common.
26 October: final close
The 26 October close exists for companies that miss the scoring deadline but want to disclose anyway. Disclosures between 14 September and 26 October are accepted, made public on the CDP platform, but not scored. Investors and customers can read them but they do not appear in the published score band.
If you miss 14 September, the choice is: disclose unscored to maintain transparency, or wait until 2027. The unscored route is usually preferable: it preserves data continuity and demonstrates good faith, which matters for procurement and ESG reporting use cases.
Late 2026 to early 2027: scoring published
Scores are released in the autumn after the disclosure cycle. CDP also issues sector benchmarks and the A list. Treat the published score as the input for the 2027 cycle plan: gap analysis, prioritised work, target updates.
What to do this week
If you are reading this in May 2026, the highest priority actions are:
- Read the 27 April questionnaire and identify the 2026 changes that affect you.
- Confirm verification scope and timing with your assurance provider.
- Validate that your forests scope includes cocoa, coffee and rubber where applicable.
- Lock the project plan with the 14 September deadline.
For the broader scoring methodology that still applies in 2026, see the CDP scoring methodology. To see how Dcycle’s continuous data architecture lets you start the questionnaire in June with a near complete inventory rather than mid year fire drills, request a demo.
Final thought
CDP timelines are unforgiving for teams that compress work into July and August. They are routine for teams that built a continuous data discipline. The decision to score B versus C is usually made between October and February, not in the weeks before the September deadline.