Carbon Disclosure Project API

The API enables programmatic completion and submission of CDP's annual climate change, water security, and forests questionnaires. Organizations can map internal data schemas directly to CDP's question identifiers, eliminating manual data entry and reducing transcription errors.

• Supports the full CDP question set with versioned schema validation
• Enables bulk submission across multiple reporting entities and subsidiaries
• Returns real-time completeness checks and validation errors before final submission

The API integrates with CDP's emission factor database to automatically convert activity data into CO2 equivalent (CO2e) values. This ensures consistent application of Global Warming Potential (GWP) factors across all reporting periods.

• Pulls the latest emission factors for Scope 1, 2, and 3 calculations
• Supports region-specific grid emission factors for electricity consumption
• Maintains an audit trail of which factor version was applied to each data point

The API supports the end-to-end verification lifecycle, allowing accredited third-party auditors to access, review, and sign off on disclosed data directly through the platform. This streamlines the assurance process required by many institutional investors.

• Enables role-based access for external verification providers
• Supports version locking of data sets under review
• Returns verification status and auditor commentary via API endpoints

CDP's supply chain module allows corporate buyers to request and track environmental disclosures from their suppliers through the API. This enables automated Scope 3 Category 1 (Purchased Goods & Services) data collection at scale.

• Programmatically invite suppliers to disclose and track response status
• Aggregate supplier emission data into a normalized data model
• Compare supplier performance against industry benchmarks and reduction targets

The API provides access to CDP's scoring methodology results, returning letter grades (A through D-) and detailed category scores as soon as they are published. This enables automated integration of CDP scores into internal supplier scorecards and procurement systems.

• Retrieve current and historical scores for any disclosing entity
• Access category-level breakdowns (Governance, Risks, Targets, etc.)
• Benchmark against sector averages and peer group percentiles

The API supports event-driven architecture through configurable webhooks that notify integrated systems of key disclosure milestones. This enables real-time synchronization between CDP's platform and internal sustainability management systems.

• Trigger notifications on submission deadlines, score publication, and verification completion
• Receive alerts when suppliers respond to disclosure requests
• Integrate with internal workflow engines to automate follow-up actions

The CDP API facilitates the creation of an immutable, cryptographically secured audit trail for environmental data. By acting as the authoritative source for primary emission data, the API establishes data lineage from the reporting entity to the final disclosure. This provenance is critical for assurance and audit readiness, proving that a reported figure originated from a verified supplier response, not an estimate.

A procurement evaluation model that incorporates an internal carbon price into the traditional TCO calculation. The CDP API enables this by feeding verified supplier emission data directly into procurement systems. This allows a buying organization to automatically apply a financial penalty to high-emission bids and a credit to low-carbon alternatives, making carbon a real factor in sourcing decisions.