How do I answer CDP's question asking me to allocate emissions to my customer?

Question

Accepted Answer

Your customer requested you through CDP, and question 7.26 of the corporate questionnaire (2025 numbering) asks you to give it a share of your emissions for what you sold it that year. You fill one row per scope: method, quantity supplied, tonnes and how sure you are. 7.27 and 7.28 ask what made it hard and how you will improve. Requesting member: already filled in. Check it is the right customer for this reporting year. Scope of emissions: Scope 1, Scope 2 location-based, Scope 2 market-based, or Scope 3. One scope per row, so most suppliers fill two rows per customer. You only need to allocate one Scope 2 figure. Allocation level: company wide, business unit, facility or commodity. If you pick facility, name it. Allocation method: mass, volume, energy content, chemical content, number of units, area or another physical factor, or the market value of what they bought. Unit and quantity supplied: the tonnes, kilograms, rupees or other unit you name for what you sold this customer. If your goods share no common unit, CDP asks for market value, in the currency you chose in question 1.7. Emissions in tonnes CO2e, then uncertainty in plus or minus per cent, your major emission sources, and whether a third party verified the allocation. Answer Yes only if an independent verifier checked it. Two text boxes: how you identified the emission sources and what you assumed, and a reference for any published or industry average data you used. Allocate only the emissions you reported earlier in the same response (questions 7.6, 7.7 and 7.8). A different total here is the first thing a reviewer spots. What you allocate becomes your customer's Scope 3. Which Scope 3 category it falls in is their call, not yours. If you allocate by facility or subsidiary, the same breakdown must appear in your Scope 1 and 2 split by subsidiary (7.23.1), with the names written the same way. If you pick "allocation not necessary" because you have primary data per customer, the calculation columns disappear. Use it only if you truly metered that customer's work. CDP counts mass, volume, units and area as physical allocation and market value as economic allocation, and points to Chapter 8 of the GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard for the choice. If you make one kind of product, use tonnes or pieces: it follows the energy you actually used. Use market value only when you sell this customer a mix of goods with no common unit. Revenue loads more emissions onto a customer who pays a higher price for the same steel or cloth. 7.27 gives fixed reasons, such as too many product lines to cost each one, a customer base too large to track, or the need to disclose commercially sensitive data, plus "no challenges". Add what would help, for example a sub-meter on the line that runs this customer's parts. 7.28 asks whether you plan to get better at allocation. A short, dated plan beats "No" with "lack of internal resources".

How do I answer CDP's question asking me to allocate emissions to my customer?

The 7.26 table, column by column

Rules that trip suppliers up

Physical or market value

7.27 and 7.28: say what is hard, honestly

Worked example: a forging unit, one customer, FY 2025-26

What Senseible does here