# In CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) question 7.17, should a single-plant manufacturer break Scope 1 down by division, facility or activity?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/cdp-7-17-division-facility-or-activity-breakdown

Tick every breakdown you can give that investors would find useful. For one plant, "by facility" is a single row, so in my reading "by activity" tells the reader more: boiler, generator, vehicles, refrigerant. CDP wants activity names a stranger can understand.

## What 7.17 asks

You select all that apply: by business division, by facility, by activity. CDP says to identify breakdowns relevant to your business and of interest to investors. Choosing one opens a follow-up question: 7.17.1, 7.17.2 or 7.17.3.

## What each choice means in CDP's guidance

- Division: shows the relative performance of your divisions. CDP recommends matching the divisions to those in your company filings and financial statements.
- Facility: CDP quotes the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol definition, buildings, equipment and structures on a single site or contiguous or adjacent sites owned or operated by the same entity. Facility type, such as cement plant, is preferable to include.
- Activity: defined by you, for example stationary combustion, mobile combustion, fugitive emissions, process activities, office activities.

## Writing activities well

- Use language clear to someone outside your organisation and avoid company-specific terms.
- Break each activity down far enough to show a complete emissions profile, but stop where more detail adds nothing.
- A company that generates its own electricity should list it as a separate activity, preferably split by fuel.

## My reading for a single plant

One plant gives one facility row, which repeats your total. A by-activity split shows where the tonnes come from, so the buyer sees what to fix. You can tick both.

## Example: one plant, four activities

- Coal in the boiler: 180.0 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
- Diesel in the generator: 96.0 tonnes CO2e.
- Diesel in forklifts and vehicles: 24.0 tonnes CO2e.
- Refrigerant top-ups: 20.0 tonnes CO2e.
- Total: 180.0 + 96.0 + 24.0 + 20.0 = 320.0 tonnes CO2e, matching Scope 1 in 7.6.

Example numbers. The split should add to your own reported Scope 1.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so the litres, kilowatt hours and months are in one place to copy from. A diesel invoice does not say which machine burned the diesel. That split comes from your own logs.

- [CDP 7.17.2: facility rows and coordinates](https://senseible.earth/answers/cdp-7-17-2-facility-rows-coordinates-and-vehicles)
- [CDP 7.22: group versus other entities](https://senseible.earth/answers/cdp-7-22-group-versus-other-entities-emissions)
- [Allocating emissions to a customer in CDP](https://senseible.earth/answers/cdp-allocate-emissions-to-customer-question)
- [Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) carbon number](https://senseible.earth/msme-carbon-number)

Sources: [CDP, Full Corporate Questionnaire Module 7 reporting guidance, April 2025 edition](https://cdn.cdp.net/cdp-production/cms/guidance_docs/pdfs/000/005/688/original/Full_Corporate_Questionnaire_Module_7.pdf)

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. CDP revises its questionnaire and guidance every year. Check the version your customer sent you before you answer.