Using the Online Response
System (ORS)
For corporate disclosure on climate change,
water and forests
CDP
[email protected]
+44 (0) 20 3818 3900
www.cdp.net
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Contents
Guidance to using the Online Response System .............................................................................. 3
Online Response System (ORS) Overview ........................................................................................ 3
The ORS Homepage ........................................................................................................................... 7
Key features of the ORS ..................................................................................................................... 8
Submitting your response ................................................................................................................. 12
Getting help ....................................................................................................................................... 13
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Guidance to using the Online
Response System
Online Response System (ORS) Overview
Companies are asked to respond to the information requests using the ORS. If you are unable to respond
via the ORS, please email [email protected].
Please note that the ORS works best with Internet Explorer (IE) 8.0 or later versions and that we therefore
advise you to use this browser to complete your response. You can use other browsers however there may
be some loss of functionality.
Activating your response
To access the ORS, a user first needs to be registered with CDP.
If this is the first time you have used CDP, either because it is the first time your company is participating or
the first time you are responsible for supplying information on behalf of your company, you will need to
register yourself (create your sign in details), and your company, as responding to a specific CDP program
through the activation link in the invitation email sent by CDP. Please contact [email protected] if you have
any issues registering.
If you responded to a CDP information request last year, you are probably already registered in our
database. You can use your existing details (username and password) to sign in to your ‘My CDP’. Please
still use your activation link for the current year the first time you sign in.
1. Sign in to the CDP portal
CDP will send an email, to nominated staff members at your company, with general information and a link
which will allow you to activate your company participation in the latest CDP program.
Example of email text:
Using the ‘click here’ link in the email will direct you to the ‘Sign In’ page of the CDP website. Contact
[email protected] if you have not received this email, and/or would like to register to respond.
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After creating your password and security details (if applicable), and signing in for the first time this year, you
will be taken to the ‘Respond’ page of your ‘My CDP’ portal (each time you sign in after that you will be taken
to your ‘My CDP’ page after signing). You will see three main tabs on the right side of the ‘Respond’ page
which you can use to navigate:

My CDP: This is the welcome page, where you can see news and updates related to CDP and CDP
initiatives; for companies responding to CDP’s supply chain program you will also find a list of the
requesting members that are asking you to respond;

Profile: This page allows you to view and verify, or in some fields update, personal details (e.g. your
business number). The Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) category of your company will
be displayed here which determines which sector modules (if any) you are required to complete. If you
are signing in to an account that is not your own, do not try to change this account to your details.
Instead, please contact CDP at [email protected];

Respond: This page will let you check the CDP programs your company is currently responding to, as
well as the Registered Users (who can edit and submit the response) for each program and other
activated users (who will be able to edit the response).
2. Confirm your intention to respond
By clicking the ‘OK’ button next to a program you will be confirming your company’s participation in the
program for the current year, and allowing our system to generate your questionnaire in the ORS.
Companies need to go through this activation step confirming they will respond every year and for every
program.
The first member of the organization that activates the company response, by clicking the ‘OK’ button will
become the ‘Registered User’ for that program and year. Other users will be able to input and save data into
the ORS, but only the Registered User will be able to submit once the response is complete. You can check
who the Registered User is on your ‘Respond’ page. If your company is responding to multiple programs
you can have different users for those programs, but to be able to view your company response for each
CDP program, you must activate your access to each program separately.
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The ‘Respond’ page will show all the programs your company can respond to. This includes any that you
have not been invited to participate in, but which you may choose to opt in to. For example, in the image
below, the company has not been requested to respond to CDP’s water program, but can opt in by clicking
‘Respond’ and sending an email to [email protected].
3. Initiating your response, adding users, and entering the ORS
As soon as you click ‘OK’, the system will generate your company’s questionnaire. This will take
approximately 5 to 10 minutes before you are able to refresh the page and continue.
When you refresh the page, a ‘Respond Now’ button will appear to allow you to enter the ORS where we
require all the data to be entered.
If you are the first person to activate the questionnaire, you will now be the ‘Registered user’ (as
indicated on the page). If so you can add an ‘edit only’ user with the ‘Add Users’ button on this page.
The new contact will then be sent their own activation email.
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To continue, please click ‘Respond Now’. If you are not using Internet Explorer 8.0 or above, a pop-up will
appear to warn you that the ORS is most compatible with Internet Explorer 8.0, or later versions. The ORS
does work with other internet browsers, but some functionality may be restricted.
The home page of the ORS will then open in a separate tab – please ensure you have switched off any
pop-up blockers.
4. Returning to the ORS
It is not necessary to complete your response in one session, you can return to it as often as you require.
When working in the ORS, clicking ‘Save’ at the bottom of each page will save your answers (it is advisable
to do this frequently to avoid the loss of data, e.g. due to time-outs). To return to the ORS to continue
working on your response, please sign in by clicking the ‘Sign In’ button found at the top right hand side of
every page on the CDP website (www.cdp.net). ‘Sign In’ will then be replaced by your email address, which
you can click to sign back out again.
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After signing in with your username (email address) and password, you will be taken to ‘My CDP’. Please
click on ‘Respond’ to navigate to the respond page and click ‘Respond Now’ to access the ORS Homepage.
The ORS Homepage
Your ORS homepage should look like the one below, depending on which programs you have been
requested to respond to. This section briefly explains how it is organized and how you can use it to navigate
through responses.
On the left panel, you have information about response status and links to relevant questionnaires. The
middle panel is the submission panel, and the far right panel will display your submitted responses with the
link to open your company’s previous responses.
You can navigate to a particular information request in three different ways as presented below:
The first page of the questionnaire, the Introduction, needs to be completed and saved for the user to gain
access to the rest of the questionnaire, which will be generated based on data entered at this stage. Once
complete, you can start responding.
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Key features of the ORS
Accessing the guidance
Throughout the questionnaire, you can access the guidance document through the links on the right
hand side of the page. The guidance document will then open at the page which is relevant for the
question next to that link.
Text fields
Some questions ask for responses to be completed in text boxes. Companies are advised to complete their
response to text fields in the ORS before gaining management/legal approval as character counts made
within the ORS can differ slightly from those in Microsoft Word (due to formatting). The character limits that
apply to each question are stipulated in the specific question guidance. To try and prevent errors occurring
in the text fields due to rich text or formatting, we suggest typing straight into the text field, or pasting your
text into Notepad before pasting it into the ORS.
Attachments
Some questions allow attachments to be added directly to that question or in table columns. To attach a document,
click the ‘Browse’ button to locate the document and then click the ‘Attach’ button to upload it to the response.
The document name will then appear in the column with an empty tick box beside it. To remove the attachment,
tick this box and click on ‘Remove. Clicking the ‘X’ will remove that whole row.
Drop down options
Some questions ask for responses to be selected from a drop down menu. Clicking on the arrow to the right
of the field will reveal the full list of options. Companies should select the option that best describes their
situation. For a description of the meaning of each value in the list, when not straightforward, please consult
the guidance document for that specific question. For some questions, companies will be provided with the
option to select ‘Other’, and they must then fill in their answer in the text box that appears.
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Numeric fields
Only numeric responses will be accepted in these fields. Limits are imposed on these fields for the maximum
number of digits and decimal places, which are specified clearly in the guidance document for each question.
Please do not use commas in your figures.
Percentage fields
Numeric values between 0 and 100 will be accepted, with up to two decimal places. There is no need to
enter the ‘%’ symbol.
Tables
Some questions ask for responses to be completed in tables. The table columns can have any of the
characteristics listed above for the other question types. Where text responses are requested please consult
the guidance document for the character limit for each text field. Other types of table entry should comply
with the rules set out for the question types above. Rich text is not permitted for text entered into tables.
Further information/attachments
At the end of each page there is the opportunity to provide further information and/or attachments. Guidance
on attaching documents can be found above. Please note that any information or attachments provided
within the ‘Further Information’ sections will not be scored unless otherwise stated in the specific
question guidance.
Pre-population of the company’s response from the previous year
If you have responded to CDP before it is possible, for selected questions, to populate the ORS with your
answers from the previous year. When you navigate to a new page you need to scroll to the bottom of the
page and click the ‘Copy from last year’ button. This will populate all relevant fields. Note that all fields on the
page need to be blank for you to activate the ‘Copy from last year’ button. If you click ‘Save’ immediately
after opening a blank page, the ‘Copy from last year’ button will disappear. You must navigate away from
that page in order for it to return to the page when you revisit it.
Questions that are eligible for pre-population are detailed in the guidance documents.
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Navigation
Users can navigate around the site in two ways:
1.
The top navigation bar includes all relevant modules. Hovering over these tabs shows the
pages that are included in the module; clicking on one of the pages will take you to that page.
2.
You can use the ‘Previous’ and ‘Next’ buttons at the bottom of the page to move between pages. It is
advisable to use these rather than your browser buttons.
Saving, printing and exporting the response
It is also advised that you click the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of each page regularly and in particular after
entering significant sections of the response, or attaching/ removing documents. If you are planning to leave
the response inactive, you should also use the ‘Save’ button before moving away, as the system may
‘time-out’ after a long period of inactivity and data would subsequently be lost if not saved.
The response can be printed directly from the ORS by clicking the ‘Print’ button at the bottom of each page,
or it can be exported to a Microsoft Word Document by clicking the ‘Export to Word’ button. Please note that
if you make amendments in this document, and copy and paste back into the response, formatting will not
be retained.
Please also note that the questionnaires comprise of sets of questions that may, or may not, be shown to
you depending on your answers to certain questions (please refer to the pathways pages of the guidance
document for more information). If you press ‘Print’, you will be shown a view that contains only the
questions that you have selected (and are shown to you in the ORS). If you press ‘Export to Word’, you will
be shown a word document where you can see all the questions, including the ones that are not being
shown to you, which will be shown in gray. Exporting to Word has the advantage of allowing you to visualize
the alternative pathways to the questionnaire.
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Percentage (%) complete indicator
There is a % complete indicator on the ORS Homepage which will show you how far you have progressed in
completing your response.
It is important to note that this is updated based on the user ticking the ‘This page is complete’ box at the
end of each page.
Therefore, the % complete figure is not an automatic indication of the completeness of the response but
rather a tool specifically for the user to keep track of the status of each question page.
When the user ticks the ‘This page is complete’ box, this will also be shown in the top navigation bar, as a
full black box (as shown below). This will help you identify the pages that have been considered as
complete.
An exception to these rules is the Introduction page: it has no ‘This page is complete’ box. This is because
in order to generate the full questionnaire, a minimum amount of questions need to be answered in the
Introduction. Once these questions have been answered the system considers this page as complete
automatically.
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Signing out of the ORS
To sign out of the ORS you just need to close the web browser page that you have been using. However,
you may still be signed in to ‘My CDP’ in the CDP Portal. You can sign out of ‘My CDP’ by returning to the
‘My CDP’ pages and clicking on your email address in the top right hand corner. This will open a drop down
menu, where you can choose to ‘Sign out’.
Submitting your response
You are strongly encouraged to independently review your response prior to submitting it, paying particular
attention to ensure that:

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

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Spelling and grammar are correct;
Your answers adhere to the guidance document;
Answers to questions are not provided in the ‘Further Information’ fields or as attachments unless
specifically requested;
Web links and cross references are not used to answer questions;
The value ‘Other’ is selected in the drop down list only if no other option fits your required value.
When you have completed your response, click on the ‘Home’ button at the top right of each page in the
ORS. That will take you to the ORS Homepage.
In the ORS Homepage check that your response is correctly selected as public or non-public. You will need
to un-check the tick box under ‘Public’ to make your response non-public.
Please also remember to check the Terms & Conditions that apply to the response you are submitting, by
clicking on the link ‘T&C’ (Terms & Conditions). If you agree with the Terms & Conditions, tick the box to
confirm that you have read and understood them and then click ‘Submit’.
Please note that only the registered user (i.e. the staff member that first activated the response) can submit
the response.
Submission: confirmation
After clicking ‘Submit’ you will be asked to confirm your intention to submit your response. Please read
through this confirmation page and your response thoroughly to ensure that it is as complete as
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possible before submitting, as you will not be able to directly amend your response after
submission.
If you are not ready to submit and wish to perform final checks, e.g. spelling, emissions figure, attachments,
click ‘Cancel’ to return to the ORS Homepage.
If you are absolutely sure you are ready to submit, click ‘Confirm’, and an email will be sent from
[email protected] to the registered user confirming your submission and with a copy of your response
attached.
Getting Help
If you have any problems in accessing or using the ORS, you can check our online FAQs, or email
[email protected] with full details of your issue.
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