CDP Forests Questionnaire Preview and Reporting Guidance 2018 - Version Control

Version control table will be updated weekly, so on Monday you can view all updates relevant to the previous week.

CDP disclosure cycle 2018

New for 2018: In response to market needs, CDP has developed questions specific to high-impact sector activities across its climate change, forests and water security programs. The 2018 questionnaires also include more forward-looking metrics, are further harmonized with other reporting frameworks, and include TCFD recommendations for climate-related disclosure.

Accessing questionnaire previews, reporting guidance, and scoring methodologies

CDP’s 2018 corporate questionnaire previews, reporting guidance, and scoring methodologies can be accessed by program (climate change, forests, and water security) from the guidance for companies page of CDP's website. You will be presented with three prompt screens that allow you to select the sectors and other details relevant to your organization. Questionnaires are valid for information requests from investors, as well as from customers that are members of CDP’s supply chain program. As there are sector-specific questions throughout the questionnaires, you might find that question numbers skip since not all questions will be applicable to your organization.

Responses to questionnaires are submitted via CDP's online response system (ORS), which is part of CDP's online disclosure platform. Please refer to Using CDP's Online Disclosure Platform for more detail. Note that while the questions themselves are the same in the questionnaire preview as they are in the ORS, the format may differ, particularly for drop-down options and tables.

Full and Minimum versions of the questionnaire

For all CDP questionnaires, there are two versions: minimum and full. The minimum version contains identical but fewer questions, and no sector-specific questions or data points.

• The minimum version of a questionnaire can by completed by:

- Organizations disclosing to that questionnaire for the first time; OR
- Organizations who are not disclosing to that questionnaire for the first time, but who have an annual revenue of less than EUR/US$250 million

• For previous responders with an annual revenue of less than EUR/US$250 million, CDP reserves the right to remove the option of a minimum version questionnaire due to the organization’s potential or existing environmental impact.
• Companies with an annual revenue of over EUR/US$250million that are disclosing for the first time and responding to the minimum version will not be eligible for scoring.
• Companies responding to the minimum version that have an annual revenue of less than EUR/US$250million will be eligible for scoring and will be scored using the minimum version of the methodology. They will not be eligible for the A list as the scores are not comparable to scores resulting from the full version of the scoring methodology.

Note that companies eligible to complete the minimum version of a questionnaire can choose to answer the full version if they consider this to provide greater benefit to their organization or stakeholders. For more information on scoring eligibility and implications, please see Scoring Introduction 2018.

Timeline:

For any disclosure-related questions, please contact [email protected]

CDP forests questionnaire

Introduction to CDP's forests program and questionnaire

Global demand for soft commodities is the primary driver of deforestation and forest degradation, as timber is extracted unsustainably and land is cleared for agricultural production. This represents major risks to businesses as forest risk commodities are the building blocks of millions of products traded globally and, thus, feature in the supply chains of numerous organizations.

Deforestation and forest degradation account for approximately 15% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Stopping deforestation and degradation of forests and other critical ecosystems are vital to significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the loss of natural capital, while preventing dangerous climate change and ensuring long-term business supply of agricultural raw materials.

CDP’s forests program acts on behalf of 656 signatory investors, with US $87 trillion in assets, who wish to understand how organizations are addressing their exposure to forests-related risks. In 2017, 201 organizations responded to the CDP’s forests questionnaire, which focuses on how organizations produce, source and use the four major soft commodities associated with detrimental impacts on natural resources: timber, cattle products, soy, and palm oil.

Commit to Action

CDP and its partners in the We Mean Business coalition have created a central platform for companies to take action on key climate issues. Hundreds of companies representing every economic sector and geography have taken action to date.

The leadership these companies demonstrated formed a critical part of the package of solutions reached in Paris at COP21 in 2015 and has continued to grow, now playing a critical role as the Paris Agreement moves from agreement to implementation. The We Mean Business “Take Action” platform gives companies a clear pathway for building the Paris Agreement into their business strategies and to future-proof growth, sending a strong signal that companies are making the transition to a low-carbon world and giving policy makers the confidence in raising their ambitions as governments prepare to ratchet up their national pledges in 2020.

One initiative companies can commit to on the We Mean Business platform is to remove commodity-driven deforestation from all supply chains by 2020. This commitment can be tracked in CDP’s forests questionnaire:

• Overview: Addressing deforestation, which accounts for approximately 10-15% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, is a critical component of climate change mitigation. The business community is helping lead the agenda on how the commodities linked to deforestation can be sustainably produced by committing to remove commodity-driven deforestation from their supply chains.
• Reporting: Companies can report this commitment, and progress against it, by answering F6.1 and F6.1b in full.

Forests questionnaire developments

The forests questionnaire structure has been modified to improve the discloser’s experience, to provide clear and robust data for investors and other data-users, as well as to better align with other reporting frameworks and policy agreements. The questionnaire now follows a narrative that begins with the organizations’ description, its current dependence on forest risk commodities, and impacts on the business to date. Then, the questionnaire extends its focus on the organization’s actions and plans to remove deforestation and forest degradation from its operations and supply chains. There are 10 forests modules, including the Signoff, plus a module presented only to organizations that supply goods or services to the member companies of CDP’s supply chain program.

Critical data points regarding organizations’ governance and strategy for using forest risk commodities have been added for 2018; as well as data points about organizations’ progress on verification and monitoring of their policies, commitments and standards.

A detailed document on forests question changes from 2017 to 2018 is now available. Revisions and changes to questions are also indicated by the “Change from 2017” row below each question, either as no change, a minor change, a modification, or a new question. Minor changes indicate wording edits and revisions to drop-down options, while a modification indicates where a new or revised data point has been added or removed from an existing question.

Sector approach

For forests, CDP has incorporated sector-specific questions for the paper & forestry sector. The rationale for developing a refined questionnaire for this sector is outlined in the relevant sector introduction. Organizations with business activities outside of this sector will receive a general questionnaire, as in previous years. Further sectors will be introduced in 2019.

Each question number in the forests questionnaire begins with the letter F. Questions that are unique to companies in the paper & forestry sector are labeled using a two-letter abbreviation of PF within the question number.

Preparing and submitting your CDP response

Correction: The ability to import data into the ORS will not be available for the 2018 reporting cycle. The CDP reporting guidance refers to this ability but we ask that you disregard these instructions. We apologize for the inconvenience caused. The questions affected are: F0.2

CDP disclosure support

Reporting guidance

CDP reporting guidance includes the following sections. Please be sure to review the guidance for all questions to which you are submitting a response, even if you have previously disclosed to CDP.

• Module-level guidance: for select modules this guidance provides an overview, key changes, sector-specific modifications for the module, and important disclosure notes. This section also presents question pathway diagrams showing the flow of questions through each module.
• Question-level guidance: at the question level, guidance is separated into the following components, to provide clarity around questions, terminology and requirements.

- Rationale: provides reasoning behind the inclusion of each question;
- Connections to other frameworks: notes linkages to the SDGs for each relevant question in the forests questionnaire;
- Requested content: offers context around each question and requested criteria;
- Explanation of terms: provides detailed definitions for specific terminology;
- Example responses: are included for select questions; and
- Additional information: is included for select questions

• Glossary: viewable at the end of the reporting guidance, the glossary contains a subset of "Explanation of terms"

If you have any questions that are not answered in the reporting guidance, or the additional guidance noted below, please contact your local CDP office or [email protected]

Additional CDP guidance

Links to CDP questionnaires, guidance, scoring methodologies, and select technical notes can be found on the guidance for companies page of CDP's website. The full suite of these materials will also be accessible from the guidance tool, after signing in.

Webinars and workshops

CDP is hosting a series of events through May, online and in person, to help companies with their disclosure in 2018. Visit the workshops and webinars and forests pages of CDP's website for more details.

CDP reporter services

CDP reporter services offers tailored support, enhanced data access and thought leadership on managing and reporting environmental risk to your business. Access the tools you need to move from disclosure to leadership on integrating climate, water security and forests management into your wider business strategy. For year-round, personalized disclosure support from a CDP account manager, a gap analysis of your previous response, and analytics tools to benchmark yourself against peers and understand best practice, contact [email protected] and visit the reporter services page of CDP's website for more information.

Notes for completing your disclosure

Acronyms

Avoid using bespoke internal acronyms unless required for your organization’s response, in which case please provide their meaning to enable correct analysis and scoring.

Blank responses

Leaving a response blank is interpreted as non-disclosure. For numeric fields, values of zero (0) imply a measurement has been made, and the value is zero (0). For numeric fields where no measurement has been made, please leave the field blank and provide an explanation in an open text field for that same question (e.g. 'Comment' or 'Please explain'). If there is no open text field for the question, you may provide an explanation in the 'Further information' field in the online response system (ORS) at the end of your disclosure. Leaving a response blank and entering a value of zero (0) have different scoring implications. Please see the scoring methodology for more details.

Character limits

Limits noted in the guidance and the online response system (ORS) include spaces.

Company-specific information

Some questions request company-specific information. Be sure to include company-specific detail, such as references to activities, programs, products, services, methodologies, or operating locations specific to your company’s business or operations. A company-specific explanation should include details that make the answer true for the responding company and are distinct from other companies in the same industry and/or geography. This level of detail gives data users confidence that the issue at hand has been thoroughly considered in the context of the responder’s own business and not simply assessed in general terms.

Consistency

CDP encourages a comprehensive and consistent response. Please ensure there is no conflicting information in your responses, both within a question and across the questionnaire.

Drop-down options ('Other, please specify')

Please select from the categories provided whenever possible, and only select 'Other, please specify' when none of the listed options is appropriate. This greatly assists data analysis.

'Further information' field

At the end of the questionnaire, there is an opportunity to provide additional information or context that you feel is relevant to your organization’s response. This field is optional and not scored.

Personal data

It is important that you do not include the name of any individual or any other personal data in your response. For questions that ask for the positions of staff, out of respect for personal data privacy we are asking only for the position and not for the individual’s name or any other information relating to them.

Submitting your response through CDP's online response system (ORS)

Please refer to Using CDP's Online Disclosure Platform for more details.

Introduction to CDP forests reporting guidance

CDP’s 2018 forests questionnaire seeks to achieve the following:

• Provide a logical structure that guides companies through the journey of removing commodity-driven deforestation from their value chain and improve their understanding of deforestation-related risks;
• Facilitate greater and more robust disclosure while reducing reporting burden, where possible;
• Provide structured disclosures that allow, to the extent possible, the automation of the forests scoring methodology;
• Produce responses that lend themselves to effective engagement between external stakeholders and companies, allow companies to demonstrate progress and good practice, and allow stakeholders to identify and engage with companies that do not take action.
• Gather data on deforestation and degradation of forests, as well as other natural ecosystems that provide important ecological services, e.g. natural grasslands, savannas and wetlands.

CDP’s approach to reporting on commodity driven deforestation risk

At present, CDP relies on relevant reporting principles from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (hereafter referred to as the GHG Protocol) to guide organizations reporting on deforestation risk related to the production or use of the forest risk commodities: timber products, palm oil, cattle products, and soy.

Application of GHG Protocol Principles

While various tools, methodologies, and initiatives have emerged to assist companies to report on deforestation risk related to forest risk commodities such as palm oil, soy and timber, no dominant methodology has yet been adopted. Therefore, widely-used sustainability standards such as the GHG Protocol, can be applied to the field of reporting on forest risk commodities. Where appropriate, this guidance incorporates definitions and approaches established by these bodies.

The GHG Protocol outlines five principles to ensure a true and fair account of a company’s GHG emissions. CDP suggests that all of these principles be adopted for the purpose of reporting on forest risk commodities. These principles are as follows:

• Relevance: Ensure the commodity use inventory appropriately reflects actual commodity production or use and serves the decision-making needs of users – both internal and external to the company.
• Completeness: Account for and report on all activities with the potential for deforestation risk within the chosen inventory boundary. Disclose and justify any specific exclusion(s).
• Consistency: Use consistent methodologies to allow for meaningful comparisons of company’s use of forest risk commodities over time.
• Transparency: Address all relevant issues in a factual and coherent manner, based on a clear audit trail. Disclose any relevant assumptions and make appropriate references to the accounting and calculation methodologies and data sources used. Transparently document any changes to the data, inventory boundary, methods, or any other relevant factors in the time series.
• Accuracy: Ensure the quantification of commodity production or use is sufficiently accurate to enable users to make decisions with reasonable assurance as to the integrity of the reported information.

Information is considered relevant if it contains the detail that users, both internal and external to the company, need for their decision-making. When considering what to disclose, please identify and report information that is likely to be of use and benefit to the audience requesting it (in this case the investment community).

Working definitions

• Deforestation vs sustainably harvested: Please note that for timber-based commodities deforestation by its most rudimentary definition, i.e. the process of cutting down trees, is part of the production process. In these instances, management processes may be articulated in terms of ‘sustainable’ rather than ‘deforestation-free’ harvesting.
• Direct operations: your organization’s operations include anything your company does itself for the purpose of producing goods and services and maintaining the functionality of the business. This covers any internal supply chains between your organization’s business units. For example, a business unit within your company that supplies components to another business unit within your company would be considered part of your organization’s own operations.
• Forest*: tree-covered land - spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10% - that is not predominantly under agricultural or urban land use (Source: FAO Forest Resources Assessment, Working Paper 180, 2015).
• Forests-related issues: for the purposes of the forests questionnaire, this refers to deforestation and forest degradation as well as clearance and destruction of other natural vegetation.
• Natural habitat (or ecosystem): areas composed of viable assemblages of plant and/or animal species of largely native origin, and/or where human activity has not essentially modified an area’s primary ecological functions and species composition (Source: International Finance Corporation – IFC, Performance Standard 6). This includes all types of natural habitats, e.g. natural forests, savannahs, natural scrublands, peatlands, wetlands, and natural grasslands.
• Supply chain: your organization's supply chain is comprised of all external inputs to your operations, including materials, components, consumable inputs, and services. The scope of your supply chain may extend to multiple levels of supply, e.g. component suppliers and the suppliers of raw materials used to produce those components.
• Sustainable procurement is the broader process concerned with the logistics of acquiring materials. According to the Sustainable Procurement Task Force (SPTF) it “is a process whereby organizations meet their needs for goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis in terms of generating benefits not only to the organization, but also to society and the economy, whilst minimizing damage to the environment”.(Source: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2006).
• Sustainable production refers to a “productive, competitive and efficient way to produce agricultural products, while at the same time protecting and improving the natural environment and social/economic conditions of local communities”.(Source: The Consumer Goods Forum, 2017). Sustainable materials are defined as materials that are independently certified or otherwise verified as sustainable, such as those that have third-party certification from a credible scheme.
• Sustainably sourced: Sustainable development, according to the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations, “is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." (Source: United Nations General Assembly, 1987). In this context, sustainable sourcing can be understood as sourcing of materials that takes into account social and environmental responsibility to minimize resource depletion and thus ensures the ability to continue sourcing them in future (Source: The Consumer Goods Forum, 2017).
• Value chain: the entire sequence of activities or partners that provide value to or receive value from an organization’s products and services, either within, upstream or downstream of direct operations.

*CDP recognizes that a definition of a ‘Forest’ is still under debate. For the purpose of this request, please use the definition given in this document.

Sector introduction: Paper & forestry (Forests)

This sector is part of CDP’s agricultural cluster. For climate change, this cluster includes agricultural commodities (AC), food, beverage, & tobacco (FBT) and paper & forestry (PF) sectors.

Activities in the PF sector include the production and/or sourcing of timber and timber-based products. Note that non-timber forest products (NTFPs; e.g., rubber, nuts, seeds, etc.) are excluded, as the production and/or sourcing of these products are generally done at a smaller scale and consumed in local markets. Organizations that produce/source NTFPs are included in our AC sector.

Risks associated with the PF sector extend across the whole value chain and arise from:

• unsustainable forest management activities, such as illegal logging, burning or other practices that may cause deforestation/forest degradation
• the sourcing of timber-based products for the manufacture of wooden goods, paper, and packaging
• the use of wood as biofuel for facility energy use
• the downstream and upstream transportation and distribution
• the waste management from plantation/machinery residues

The general forests questionnaire has been developed to address specific issues related to the production and sourcing of forest risk commodities, and thus, it entirely focuses on the agricultural and forestry impacts on forests. Therefore, the general forests questionnaire is suitable to capture data from those organizations in the AC and FBT sectors. With regard to the PF sector, CDP has tailored the general questionnaire to address or emphasize various sector-specific issues, including the following:

• Commitment criteria which are mostly relevant to sustainable forestry practices
• A data point to capture progress on projects that seek to achieve habitat restoration and/or habitat protection

F0 Introduction

Module Overview

This module requests information about your organization’s disclosure to CDP and will help data users to interpret your responses in the context of your business operations, timeframe and reporting boundary.

The information provided here should apply consistently to your responses throughout the questionnaire and be complete and accurate as it may determine response options presented in subsequent modules. For this reason, you should respond to every question in this module and save your response before accessing the rest of the questionnaire.

Disclosure note

• Any exclusions of forest risk commodities, parts of your business, or supply chain should be highlighted in this module, and reasons for these exclusions should be provided in F0.5, F0.6a and F0.7a. You should ensure that your response does not contain significant exclusions. Examples of significant exclusions could include:

- a company with very large global operations reporting information for only one relevant country.
- a company choosing not to disclose data for a business area, commodity or product which is material to the business and simultaneously has the potential to have a large impact on deforestation/forest degradation.

• Common exclusions not considered to be significant include:

- in-house catering or office copy paper, unless it comprises a large part of the business; and
- biofuels consumed for transportation if they are blended with publicly available gasoline as a result of regulation.

• Organizations that exclude parts of their business or supply chain due to recent structural changes to the organization (within the reporting year), including mergers, acquisitions or divestments, should make it clear in this disclosure.

Key changes

• Currency question introduced to standardize all financial information disclose in this request.
• Rubber introduced as a new commodity.

Pathway diagram - questions

This diagram shows the general questions contained in module F0. To access question-level guidance, use the menu on the left to navigate to the question.

Introduction

(F0.1) Give a general description of and introduction to your organization.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F0.1)

Rationale

This introductory information about the company will help data users to put your response into context in terms of your business activities, impact on the environment, and potential risk exposure.

Response options

This is an open text question with a limit of 5,000 characters.

Please note that when copying from another document to the disclosure platform, formatting is not retained.

Requested content

General

• Provide information about your operations and business activities to help data users understand your organization’s forests-related issues and its forests strategy.

Note for SMEs

• Please provide a brief explanation of what you do, your main activities e.g. manufacturing furniture, the number of production units, the number of personnel you employ, and main countries you produce/source/sell commodities.

Explanation of terms

• Company: throughout this information request, “your company” refers collectively to all the companies, businesses, organizations, other entities or groups that fall within your definition of the reporting boundary.
• Organization: this term is used interchangeably with “your company”. CDP recognizes that some disclosing organizations may not consider themselves to be, or be formally classified, as “companies”.

(F0.2) State the start and end date of the year for which you are reporting data.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F0.7)

Rationale

This will help data users understand the time frame for which your disclosure relates to.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• Apply this reporting year to your answers for the entire questionnaire.
• If you are using the Export/Import functionality, please check that the imported date is correct.
• The current reporting year is the most recent 12-month period for which data is reported.
• The investment community generally prefers a company's disclosure period to match the fiscal year for their financial jurisdiction. This facilitates the assessment of environmental performance data in alignment with their financial performance data.
• CDP recommends that companies provide a year for which they have complete data for their response, if possible. If you do not have data for the entirety of your reporting year, you have the option to extrapolate or estimate your data to cover the entire reporting year.

Note for SMEs

• If this is your first disclosure we advise you to report on the current reporting year.
• If the data is not complete, extrapolate based on the data you have, e.g. even if you only have data for the last six months, you can use this information to estimate your 12-month figure. In this case, please state that you have extrapolated your data in the relevant question.

(F0.3) Select the currency used for all financial information disclosed throughout your response.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

CDP encourages companies to report financial figures associated with their impacts, risks, and opportunities. Establishing a single currency will facilitate the collection of comparable financial information. This will benefit investors and other data users when assessing the costs and benefits reported by your organization.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• Select the currency to be applied to all financial information and metrics reported in this disclosure.
• All disclosed financial figures throughout the questionnaire will be in the same currency. The currency reported in this question will apply to all reported figures throughout this request.
• For example, if you select USD ($) here, this will determine the currency of the ‘Total financial impact’ reported in column 7 of F1.7a.

(F0.4) Select the stage(s) of the value chain which best represents your organization’s area of operation pertaining to forest risk commodities.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F0.2)

Rationale

This will help data users to interpret your responses.

Response options

Select all that apply from the following options:

• Production
• Processing
• Trading
• Manufacturing
• Retailing

Requested content

General

• Select all business activities that are performed by your organization. You can find definitions of each activity in the ‘Explanation of terms’ section.
• Your selection(s) in this question will drive questions that are specific to your organization’s position in the value chain.

Note for SMEs

• Identify the main business activities undertaken by your organization, such as retailing or manufacturing. You can explain why some activities are to be excluded from your disclosure in F0.6a.

Explanation of terms

• Based on definitions from the Global Canopy’s The Little Black Book on Big Deforestation Drivers, and Forest 500, powerbrokers of deforestation Selection methodology, the value chain activities are broken down as follows:

Production: this is the first stage of the supply chain and generally refers to the creation of raw materials. This is naturally the stage where the direct impacts on forests arise. Companies whose activities include the conversion of land to establish oil palm or soy plantations, for cattle ranching, or for the timber industry, would select this activity. This includes vertically integrated companies with involvement in the upstream production of commodities.

Processing: for the purpose of this disclosure, processing encompasses the initial transformative activities that will add value to produce a finished product. For example:

- Companies involved in the production of crude palm oil from crushed fruit or the production of soy bean oil and soy bean meal from soy bean would select this activity. Further processing activities in the form of refining and fractionation should be considered in the Manufacturing stage.
- In the case of timber, companies whose activities include the initial processing of timber products in mills (i.e., sawmills, plywood and veneer mills, pulp and paper mills) would select this stage.
- For cattle products, activities at this stage primarily involve the slaughtering of cattle and the processing of raw hide into leather.

Trading: this is defined as activities that supply forest risk commodities to either domestic or export markets. This includes the transport and storage of the forests risk commodities. Companies performing trading activities include wholesalers, retailers, distributors, agents, exporters, and importers.

Manufacturing: this includes the production of final ingredients for the food, feed and fuel sectors amongst others, as well as the manufacturing of the final goods for consumer or industrial use. For example:

- In oil palm and soy bean supply chains, this stage may include the refining of oil into shortening and use as ingredients in the manufacture of a bakery product.
- For timber, the manufacturing stage involves the secondary processing of wood into multiple products. This may include furniture, flooring, plywood and boards, as well as building materials, as well as the conversion of pulp to printing and writing paper, newsprint, tissue, and container board.
- Companies may manufacture cattle products into products containing beef (e.g., retail meat products, fast food processed, byproducts including glycerin/gelatin) and leather products for various industries (such as footwear, clothing, furniture and car upholstery).

Retailing: is the final supply chain stage which refers to the sale of goods to private consumers as well as users of industrial products. Companies in this stage provide product manufacturers with consumer access.

• Value chain: the entire sequence of activities or partners that provide value to or receive value from an organization’s products and services, either within, upstream or downstream of direct operations.

(F0.5) Do you produce, use, or sell materials or products that contain any of the forest risk commodities?

Question dependencies

The forest risk commodity(ies) you choose to disclose in this question will automatically populate following questions where information on the commodity(ies) is required.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F0.5, F0.6)

Rationale

This question clarifies your organization’s exposure to any of the forest risk commodities listed in this disclosure and establishes the commodity(ies) for which you will be disclosing corporate data.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

* Not shown for companies from the paper & forestry sector

Requested content

General

• Provide information on each forest risk commodity that your organization produces, processes, manufactures, trades and/or sells. This includes processed ingredients and manufactured goods that contain derivatives of forest risk commodities.

Forest risk commodity (column 1)

• Your company is expected to disclose information for all the key forest-risk commodities (timber, palm oil, cattle products and soy), it produces, processes, manufactures, trades and/or sells.
• Additionally, if your company produces, processes, manufactures, trade and/or sells natural rubber or products derived from this commodity, you can also choose to disclose information by filling the row for “Other – Rubber”.
• If none of the options are suitable, select ‘Other’ and specify your commodity in column 4. Examples of other commodities are, e.g., coffee, cocoa and bananas.

Produce/use/sell (column 2)

• Select ‘Yes’ if the forest risk commodity is present in raw materials or products that your organization produces, processes, manufactures, trades or sells.

Disclosing (column 3)

• Select ‘Yes’ if you are disclosing your corporate information about this commodity.
• Note that those commodity(ies) for which you select ‘Yes’ will feature throughout the questionnaire. For example, if you select ‘Timber’ and ‘Palm Oil’ here, only these options will appear in column 1 of F1.1.
• If you wish to add a commodity later, you will need to return to this question and add it by selecting ‘Yes’ in the row for the relevant commodity.
• Note that if you select a commodity in this question and then deselect it later, any information completed for that commodity in the subsequent questions will be lost. For example, if you change your response to only disclose on ‘Timber’ after filling information about ‘Timber’ and ‘Palm Oil’ commodities initially in F1.1, this action will delete any information you provided for ‘Palm Oil’.

Explanation if… (column 4)

• If you produce, process, manufacture, trade or sell raw materials/manufactured goods from a specific commodity but will not be disclosing on it as part of this information request, explain here why. Examples of significant exclusions are provided in the introduction to this module.

Note for SMEs

• Identify the commodities that your organization produces, processes, manufactures, trades and/or sells.
• You can exclude some commodities from your disclosure only to identify them in column 4 (Explanation if...). In this column it is possible to give the reason for omitting this commodity, e.g. volumes of the commodity are low, it is a discontinued product line, or alternatively explain what plans you have to include this commodity in future disclosure.

Example response

(F0.6) Are there any parts of your direct operations not included in your disclosure?

Change from 2017

No change (2017 F0.3)

Rationale

CDP seeks to share comprehensive and representative data. If companies exclude areas of their business from their disclosure, data users must be informed of the exclusions as this may affect their analysis.

Response options

Select one of the following options:

• Yes
• No

Requested content

General

• Any groups, companies, businesses or organizations that fall within your organizational boundary but are not included in your disclosure should be disclosed in F0.6a. Elements of your business may be excluded for a number of reasons:

- A geographical location may be excluded if there is no commodity usage or a current lack of visibility over management practices which makes reporting unfeasible for operations in that country or region until systems have been put in place;
- An activity (e.g. type of business process, or type of supplier) may be excluded due to limited data or reporting feasibility;
- A facility may be excluded due to recent business mergers, acquisitions of another company/subsidiary/facility and divestment of certain aspects of the business, outsourcing and in-sourcing of activities; and
- A specific product line may be excluded due to limited data or reporting feasibility. Retailers are only expected to report on their own-branded products, excluding products owned and branded by third parties.

• References in the information request to “your organization” are to the entities within your organizational boundary for which you are providing information. Please apply this logic consistently when responding to questions.
• If your disclosure includes all aspects of your organization please select ‘No’, however if your disclosure excludes certain aspects of your organization please select ‘Yes’.

Note for SMEs

• If your disclosure includes all aspects of your organization please select ‘No’, however if your disclosure excludes certain aspects of your organization please select ‘Yes’.
• If it is not possible to disclose all parts of your operations, it is advised to focus on parts of your business that have the most significant impact on forests.
• Those excluded parts should be identified in F0.6a. Examples of exclusions are micro-scale operations, low volumes of commodities, operations where there is limited data available.

Explanation of terms

• Direct operations: your organization’s operations include anything your company does itself for the purpose of producing goods and services and maintaining the functionality of the business. This covers any internal supply chains between your organization’s business units. For example, a business unit within your company that supplies components to another business unit within your company would be considered part of your organization’s own operations.

(F0.6a) Identify the parts of your direct operations not included in your disclosure.

Question dependencies

This question only appears if you select “Yes” in response to F0.6.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F0.3a)

Rationale

CDP seeks to share comprehensive and representative data. If companies exclude areas of their business from their disclosure, data users must be informed of the exclusions as this may affect their analysis.

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Requested content

General

• Any exclusions of your business can be highlighted here and duly explained.

Exclusion (column 1)

• Select the category that best describes the part of your direct operations that is being excluded from your disclosure.

Description of exclusion (column 2)

• Clearly outline these exclusions, including details such as the exact geographical location, activity, and the name of the business unit, product line, or facility.

Potential for forests-related risk (column 3)

• Potential for forests-related risk refers to any operation that may directly or indirectly impact forests. Please indicate whether you have evaluated whether there is potential for such a risk for the excluded location, activity, facility, product line, etc. and whether there is potential risk present or not.

Please explain (column 4)

• Use this column to explain your exclusions and their (potential) linkage to forests and provide an indication of the percentage of sales that these represent.

Note for SMEs

• Indicate which operations or parts of your business, under your direct control, that you are excluding from this disclosure in column 1 and provide a detailed description of the activity/part of your business/selected facility/etc.in column 2. Use column 4 (Please explain) to provide your explanation for exclusion.

Explanation of terms

• Business activity: include any activity engaged in the primary purpose of making a profit. This is a general term that encompasses all the economic activities carried out by a company during the course of business. This could be a type of business process for example.
• Direct operations: your organization’s operations include anything your company does itself for the purpose of producing goods and services and maintaining the functionality of the business. This covers any internal supply chains between your organization’s business units. For example, a business unit within your company that supplies components to another business unit within your company would be considered part of your organization’s own operations.
• Facility: as a broad term, may be used to describe a variety of types of business operations as well as fixed buildings, factories, sites, or other grouping of assets.
• Source/country/geographical area: a geographical location that can include a country, state/region, province, municipality or any other national, regional or local administrative division where you produce/source materials from.
• Specific product line(s): a group of related products under a single brand sold by the same company.

Example response

(F0.7) Are there any parts of your supply chain not included in your disclosure?

Change from 2017

No change (2017 F0.4)

Rationale

CDP seeks to share comprehensive and representative data. If companies do need to exclude parts of their supply chain from their disclosure, data users must be informed of the exclusions as this may affect their analysis.

Response options

Select one of the following options:

• Yes
• No

Requested content

General

• Any groups, companies, businesses or organizations that fall within your supply chain but are not included in your disclosure should be disclosed in F0.7a.
• References in the information request to your ‘supply chain’ are to the entities outside of your organizational boundary for which you are providing information. Please apply this logic consistently when responding to questions.
• If your disclosure includes all aspects of your supply chain please select ‘No’, however if your disclosure excludes certain aspects of your supply chain please select ‘Yes’.

Note for SMEs

• If your disclosure includes all aspects of your supply chain please select ‘No’, however if your disclosure excludes certain parts of your supply chain, select ‘Yes’.
• If it is not possible to disclose on your entire supply chain, it is advised to focus on parts that have the most significant impact on forests.
• Those excluded parts should be identified in F0.7a.

Explanation of terms

• Supply chain: your organization’s supply chain is comprised of all external inputs to your operations, including materials, components, consumable inputs, and services. The scope of your supply chain may extend to multiple levels of supply, e.g. component suppliers and the suppliers of raw materials used to produce those components.

(F0.7a) Identify the parts of your supply chain not included in your disclosure.

Question dependencies

This question only appears if you select “Yes” in response to F0.7.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F0.4a)

Rationale

CDP seeks to share comprehensive and representative data. If companies do need to exclude parts of their supply chain from their disclosure, data users must be informed of the exclusions as this may affect their analysis.

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Requested content

General

• Any exclusions of your supply chain can be highlighted here and duly explained.

Exclusion (column 1)

• Select the category that best describes the part of your supply chain that is being excluded from your disclosure. Elements of your business may be excluded for a number of reasons:

- A geographical location may be excluded if there is no commodity usage or a current lack of visibility over management practices which makes reporting infeasible for operations in that country or region until systems have been put in place;
- An activity (e.g. type of business process, or type of supplier) may be excluded due to limited data or reporting feasibility;
- A facility owned or controlled by your supplier may be excluded due to recent business mergers, acquisitions of another company/subsidiary/facility and divestment of certain aspects of the business, outsourcing and in-sourcing of activities; and
- A specific product line may be excluded due to limited data or reporting feasibility. Retailers are only expected to report on their own-branded products, excluding products owned and branded by third parties.

Description of exclusion (column 2)

• Please clearly outline these exclusions, including details such as the exact geographical location, activity, and the name of the business unit, product line, facility or supplier.

Potential for forests-related risk (column 3)

• Potential for forests-related risk refers to any operation that may directly or indirectly impact forests. Please indicate whether you have evaluated whether there is potential for such a risk for the excluded location, activity, facility, product line, etc. and whether there is potential risk present or not.

Please explain (column 4)

• Please use this column to explain your exclusions and their (potential) linkage to forests and provide an indication of the percentage of sales that these represent.

Note for SMEs

• Indicate which parts of your supply chain you are excluding from this disclosure in column 1 and provide a detailed description of the activity/facility/region/etc. in column 2. Use column 4 (Please explain) to provide your explanation for the exclusion.

Explanation of terms

• Business activity: include any activity engaged in the primary purpose of making a profit. This is a general term that encompasses all the economic activities carried out by a company during the course of business. This could be a type of business process for example.
• Facility: as a broad term, may be used to describe a variety of types of business operations as well as fixed buildings, factories, sites, or other grouping of assets.
• Source/country/geographical area: a geographical location that can include a country, state/region, province, municipality or any other national, regional or local administrative division where you produce/source materials from.
• Specific product line(s): a group of related products under a single brand sold by the same company.
• Supplier: an organization that provides goods or services that are used as inputs or add value to a product. For example, if you are a food manufacturer, your suppliers might consist of producers and processors of raw materials.
• Supply chain: your organization’s supply chain is comprised of all external inputs to your operations, including materials, components, consumable inputs, and services. The scope of your supply chain may extend to multiple levels of supply, e.g. component suppliers and the suppliers of raw materials used to produce those components.

Example response

F1 Current state

Module Overview

This module provides a snapshot of how forests-related issues are associated with your business and how aware your company is of these issues throughout its value chain, including:

• your business’ dependency on forest risk commodities;
• your business’ use of land resources;
• how your business has been impacted by any forests-relates issues so far; and
• your business’ awareness of the current and immediate future supply of forest risk commodities.

This module contains a few questions that are country-specific, which will only be shown according to your selection of countries in F1.1.

Key changes

• Modified question now asks companies to disclose both the states/regions and municipalities where commodities originate from, in case you have operations in countries under high deforestation risk.
• Companies now can report a financial figure associated with any detrimental impact caused by their production/sourcing of forest risk commodities.
• Modified question now asks companies to report how they have secured commodity supply in the short-term (current and in the next two years).

Pathway diagram - questions

This diagram shows the general questions contained in module F1. To access question-level guidance, use the menu on the left to navigate to the question.

Pathway diagram - questions for minimum version questionnaire

This diagram shows the questions contained in module F1 that are included in the minimum version of the questionnaire. To access question-level guidance, use the menu on the left to navigate to the question.

Dependence

(F1.1) How does your organization produce, use or sell your disclosed commodity(ies)?

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F1.1)

Rationale

This question gathers details on your business’ dependency on forest risk commodities. Disclosure of this information, regarding both direct operations or other parts of the value chain, reflects best practices of corporate reporting and provides context to investors and other data users on how relevant forest risk commodities are to the disclosing organization. Organizations benefit from disclosing this information by increasing awareness of their own dependency on forest risk commodities and promoting transparency of their business activities.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the "Add Row" button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Activity (column 2)

* Cattle Products only

Form of commodity (column 3)

** Not shown for companies from the paper & forestry sector

Requested content

General

• Please respond to this question considering each commodity(ies) selected in F0.5, by adding a new row for each activity for which the commodity is used. More than one row per commodity is allowed.
• Include both direct and indirect commodity use. For example, include soy used for animal feed, if applicable.
• Disclose information on all raw material inputs to your direct operations, as well as on goods that are bought in for use within the business or for onward sale to customers.

Activity (column 2)

• For this column select the option that best describes how you use the commodity selected in column 1 (Forest risk commodity). If your organization uses the disclosed commodity(ies) in more than one activity, please add a new row for each activity.
• If none of the available options are suitable, select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete. If you need more than 40 characters, use column 7 (Comment) to provide your response.

Form of commodity (column 3)

• If you use more than one form of a commodity for the same value chain activity, please select all that apply. For example, a manufacturer of personal products may use both palm oil derivatives and palm kernel oil derivatives.
• If none of the available options are suitable, select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete. If you need more than 40 characters, use column 7 (Comment) to provide your response.

Source (column 4)

• The source refers to the type of supplier you source the commodity from for the activity and in the form of commodity selected in column 3.
• If you source the commodity from more than one type of supplier, you may select all that apply. For example, a processor may source timber to produce pulp from their own plantations as well as from smallholders.
• If none of the available options are suitable, select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete. If you need more than 40 characters, use column 7 (Comment) to provide your response.

Country/Region of origin (column 5)

• Country/region of origin refers to the country/region in which your disclosed forest risk commodity(ies) are grown, harvested or reared, and not the location where it is further processed or turned into manufactured goods.
• Select all applicable countries. If none of the available options are suitable, select 'Other, please specify' and a text box will appear for you to complete.If you need more than 40 characters, use column 7 (Comment) to provide your response.
• Select 'Don't know' if you are unsure about the country/region of origin of the disclosed commodity(ies).

% of procurement spend (column 6)

• For the activity(ies) and form(s) selected in the previous columns, please indicate the associated percentage of your total procurement spend. This figure should be the percentage of procurement spend on each form of the commodity as a percentage of total sourcing across your organization, to give an indication of relative spend.
• CDP expects all responding companies to provide this estimation. For producers, however, this information may not be relevant. If an estimation of procurement spend is not applicable for your business activity please select 'Not applicable' in this column and explain this in the 'Comment' column.

Comment (column 7)

• You may use this column to provide:

- An explanation if you selected 'Not applicable' in % procurement spend (column 6).
- Details on the form of the commodity and/or source for which you selected 'Don't know' in the 'Country/Region of origin' (column 5).

Note for SMEs

• This will establish the dependency your company has on the forest risk commodities. If you are a smallholder and producer, in column 4 (Source) select the ‘owned/managed land’ drop-down as opposed to ‘smallholder’, as this column asks about the source of the commodity.
• If you only grow, harvest, or rear the forest risk commodity(ies) in one country/region it is possible to state this by only selecting the relevant country/region in column 5 (Country/Region of origin). If it is more than one country/region, then select all that apply.
• As a producer, it is also not expected that you provide a % of procurement spend (column 6), you should instead select ‘Not applicable’.
• Tools and approaches to collecting this data can include simple software such as Word documents, Excel spreadsheets through to sophisticated tools such as tagging systems and databases.

Explanation of terms

• Smallholder: a producer who primarily relies on family or household labor, or reciprocal workforce exchange with other members of the community (Source: Accountability Framework Initiative, 2017, The core document – draft for public consultation).

Example response

(F1.1a) Indicate from which State/region(s) and municipality(ies) your disclosed commodity(ies) originate.

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select one of the following as ‘Country/Region of origin’ in response to F1.1: Angola, Argentina, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Colombia, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Gabon, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Liberia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), and Zambia.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 SF0.9a, SF0.9b)

Rationale

CDP has included this question to gather more granular geographical data on the production, use and/or trade of forest risk commodities by your organization. This question is directed to those responding organizations with operations and/or suppliers in countries under high deforestation risk. This information provides data users with more clarity about your organization's exposure to deforestation/forest degradation risks. Disclosers will benefit from this question by becoming more transparent and being able to more easily identify any risks to their business.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add row]

* Only tropical countries with high deforestation risk will be shown.

Requested content

General

• For each row added in F1.1, for which you selected a country/region under high deforestation risk*, please provide further details regarding the state/region(s) and municipality(ies) where you produce, process, manufacture, and/or trade your forest risk commodity(ies). For example, if in F1.1 you responded that you produce soy in Argentina, please add the same entry to columns 1-3 and provide the additional information on the state/region(s) and municipality(ies) as well as details about these operations.
• *Source: Global Canopy Programme. 2016. The Forest 500: 2016 Jurisdiction Selection Methodology .

State/Region (column 4)

• This refers to a sub-national level jurisdiction, e.g. a federal state, a department or a province, for instance the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil.
• If your organization has operations in or sources from more than one state/region in a specific country, please add one row for each state/region.
• If your company has no information on the state/region where your forest risk commodity(ies) is coming from, select “Don’t know” and provide an explanation in the ‘Please explain’ column.
• If your company has the information but is not disclosing, select “Not disclosing” and provide an explanation in the ‘Please explain’ column.

Municipality (column 5)

• This refers to the local smallest government unit, e.g. city or town, for instance the municipality of Alta Floresta in Mato Grosso (Brazil).
• If your organization has operations in or sources from more than one municipality in a state/region, please specify all municipalities that apply. You can specify up to 15 municipalities for each state/region. If the forest risk commodity is produced in and/or sourced from more than 15 municipalities, specify here the most relevant municipalities in terms of volume of the forest risk commodity.
• If your company has no information on the municipality where your forest risk commodity(ies) is coming from, select “Don’t know” and provide an explanation in the ‘Please explain’ column.
• If your company has the information but is not disclosing, select “Not disclosing” and provide an explanation in the ‘Please explain’ column.

Please explain (column 6)

• Detailed description of the method/strategy used to track the commodity.
• Provide details on the operations disclosed, including the percentage of production/consumption volume associated, % of suppliers in that country.
• If you are unable to disclose either state/region(s) or municipality(ies) or both, provide an explanation as to why this is the case.
• Specify on which biome or ecoregion the state/region and/or municipality are located, e.g. Cerrado biome.

Note for SMEs

• This question relates to where the commodity was produced/reared/harvested and the process that your organization uses to determine this.
• The origin of the commodity may prove difficult to trace and often concerted efforts over a period time are required to reveal the sources.
• Numerous supply chain management resources which aid transparency are available from trade associations, NGOs and commercial organizations.
• Determining the origin of the commodity prior to purchasing has proven the most effective mechanism to drive disclosure from suppliers.

(F1.2) Indicate the percentage of your organization’s revenue that was dependent on your disclosed forest risk commodity(ies) in the reporting year.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F1.2)

Rationale

This question gathers data on your business revenue associated with each of your disclosed commodities (or their derivatives/products) and aims to establish the relevance of each forest risk commodity to your business, by highlighting your organization’s revenue dependence on the commodity during the reporting year. CDP has chosen the metric of “percentage of revenue dependent on commodity” in collaboration with stakeholders. This metric was found to be representative of the importance of the commodity to the business, readily quantifiable, and comparable. CDP data-users can further assess the relative importance of each forest risk commodity to your business and link this information to other disclosed data points throughout the questionnaire.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• For each of your disclosed commodity(ies), indicate the percentage of your organization’s revenue that was dependent on the commodity in the reporting year by selecting a percentage range. Note that, if you are a producer/processor, this refers to the percentage of revenue associated with the total production of the actual commodity. Whereas, if you are a manufacturer/retailer this refers to the percentage of revenue associated with the derivative/product containing the forest risk commodity. Any of these options could apply if you are a trader.
• Enter any additional information you wish to provide to your stakeholders in column 3 (Comment). Additional information should include, where possible, an explanation of how this figure was calculated, the exact percentage of revenue dependent on the commodity, or any factors that may have contributed to how the percentage was estimated.
• Your reporting year is the time period you stated in response to question F0.2 in the introduction module.

Example response

A retailer disclosing on palm oil, soy and timber products

A materials company disclosing on timber products

An apparel company disclosing on cattle products

Measurement

(F1.3) Do you own or manage land used for the production of your disclosed commodity(ies)?

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F5.1)

Rationale

This question gathers information on how your organization’s land resources are managed and monitored for deforestation and forest degradation risks. This information gives a snapshot about organizations’ due diligence to avoid deforestation and forest degradation on their own property(ies).

Deforestation or forest degradation on owned or managed land can pose operational or reputational risks, e.g. organizations may lose the license to operate if found to be illegally deforesting land used to produce their forest risk commodity(ies). Therefore, it is important to demonstrate to investors and other stakeholders that your organization has a robust control over its land resources, as well as a system in place to monitor forests-related risks.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table. The table is displayed over several rows for readability. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

*Not shown for Timber

** Only appears for companies from the paper & forestry sector

Requested content

General

• CDP encourages organizations to provide data that encompasses all their operations.
• Where your organization owns and/or manages land, please disclose by adding a row per commodity for each country and land type. For example, if you are disclosing information on your owned properties for palm in Indonesia, provide a breakdown of your land type by adding a new row for each type of land owned/managed in this specific country.

Forest risk commodity (column 1)

• Please add at least a row for each of your disclosed commodity(ies) per country where you own/manage land.
• If you do not own or manage any land associated to one or more commodity(ies), you still have to add a row for the commodity and then indicate in column 2 (Own and/or manage land?) that you do not own/manage land for that commodity.

Own and/or manage land? (column 2)

• If all options apply to a specific commodity and country, or if you would like to add another type of control, select ‘Other, please specify’ and text box will appear for you to complete.
• If your organization does not have any land under its control, either full or partial, for a specific commodity, please select ‘Don’t own or manage land’. If you select this option, the cells in the subsequent columns will not be editable.

Type of control (column 3)

• Select the option that best represents your organization’s control over land in a specific country, considering the following:

- An organization has financial control over an operation if it has the ability to direct the financial and operating policies of the operation with a view to gaining economic benefits from its activities. Generally, an organization has financial control over an operation for defining land management responsibilities if the operation is treated as a group company or subsidiary for the purposes of financial consolidation.
- An organization has operational control over an operation if the organization or one of its subsidiaries has the full authority to introduce and implement its operating policies at the operation.
- Under the equity share approach, a company accounts for its operations according to its share of equity in the operation. The equity share reflects the economic interest, which is the extent of rights a company has to the risks and rewards flowing from an operation. Typically, the share of economic risks and rewards in an operation is aligned with the company’s percentage ownership of that operation, and equity share will normally be the same as the ownership percentage.

• If none of the available options are suitable, select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.

Description of control (column 4)

• Provide details on the type of control indicated in column 3 (Type of control), including the percentage of each type of control per country.

Country/Region (column 5)

• If you own/manage a property located in more than one country/region, please add a row for each relevant country/region.

Land type (column 6)

• Provide information for each type of land relevant for your organization within each country.
• See the definition of each land type option in the ‘Explanation of terms’.
• You should select ‘Unknown, if you do not know the land type breakdown for your land within a specific country.
• Select ‘Other, please specify’ if you would like to add another land type and a text box will appear for you to complete.

Size (hectares) (column 7)

• Please use hectare as your unit of area to disclose the land area associated with your organization’s owned/managed total land area or a breakdown of the total area for a specific country.

Do you have a system in place to monitor forests-related risks? (column 8)

• Systems may involve Geographical Information System (GIS) monitoring and assessment or regular audits, among others. If your organization has any type of monitoring system to track deforestation risks, please select ‘Yes’.

Type of monitoring system (column 9)

• Select the option(s) that best describes your organization’s monitoring system(s). More than one option is possible.
• If none of the available options are suitable, select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.

Description of monitoring system (column 10)

• Describe your monitoring system(s), including the name of the system, coverage for each system or the service provider in the case it’s performed by a third-party.
• If your system does not cover your entire land, explain your reasons and provide details on the % total area covered.
• If you are disclosing by land type and your organization has the same monitoring system for all land type(s), please state that in your description.

Recent infractions? (column 11)

• Indicate whether there have been any cases of illegal or unauthorized deforestation and/or forest degradation on any land owned/managed by your organization in the reporting year.

Explanation of infraction (column 12)

• Provide details on the infraction(s), by indicating the nature of the infraction estimated date and the region where the infraction occurred within the disclosed country.
• Indicate if you received any fines or penalties for the disclosed infraction(s) or if your organization is currently under any legal dispute.
• If you are disclosing by land type and your organization has the same infractions for all land type(s), please state that in your explanation.

Note for SMEs

• In column 3 (Type of control) you can disclose the relevant ownership drop-down.
• It is possible to have complete control of the business and you own or control all your business operations. If this is the case, disclose this through selecting ‘Other type of control, please specify’.
• If you are a schemed or associated smallholder that is bound by a contract or credit agreement to produce the forest risk commodities, please specify this by selecting ‘Other type of control, please specify’

Explanation of terms

• Aerial monitoring system: monitoring of the Earth’s surface, which includes aerial photography or other remote sensing techniques, e.g. using satellite or high-flying aircraft.
• Conservation set aside: the area owned and/or managed by the company that is not used for production or planned development and is set-aside for conservation purposes.
• Geographic information system (GIS): a system designed for gathering, managing and analyzing geographical and spatial data.
• Ground-based monitoring system: information acquired from on the ground field surveys.
• Land certified area: refers to the total area that is certified for the production of forest risk commodities.
• Outgrowers: an out-grower scheme is defined as a contractual partnership between growers or landholders and a company for the production of commercial forest products (Source: FAO, 2001).
• Planted area: area of land planted with crops or trees.
• Productive forest (also known as a production forest): it is the area of natural forest designated for the extraction of wood and/or non-wood products (Source: FAO Forest Resources Assessment, Working Paper 180, 2015).
• Scheme/plasma smallholders: area of land managed for schemed smallholders or plasma scheme plantations.
• Unplanted area: land reserved for planting, but as yet unplanted. Note that this may include land that is planned to be developed in the future (Source: SPOTT, 2017).

(F1.4) For your disclosed commodity(ies), indicate if you collect data regarding your own compliance and/or the compliance of your suppliers with the Brazilian Forest Code.

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Brazil’ in Column 5 (‘Country/Region of origin’) in response to F1.1.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 SF4.4, SF4.5)

Rationale

Tackling deforestation/forest degradation is highly important in tropical countries such as Brazil because they combine rich biodiversity and natural resources with high and fast rates of forest loss. It is important that organizations can demonstrate compliance with national legislation. Legality aspects are not only critical for producers but also of interest for procuring companies and investors as they might also be held co-responsible for impacts of the production of forest risk commodities. Given the clear and countrywide regulations established in Brazil – known as The Brazilian Forest Code - and the critical importance of this country for the global commodities market, there is an opportunity to easily track progress towards national regulation compliance in this country. This information provides context to investors and other data users regarding organizations’ due diligence and awareness of regulation compliance, both in their direct operations and/or their supply chain.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• For your disclosed commodity(ies), select the option most applicable with regards to collecting data on the Brazilian Forest Code.
• Provide details on the type of data you collect, the method of collection, and how often you collect it.
• Provide a detailed explanation of methods and technology used to collect the data.
• If you do not collect data from owned/managed land or from suppliers, or if you do not collect any data at all, please provide an explanation as to why not.

Note for SMEs

• Select the option most applicable or provide information as to why you do not collect data.

Additional information

According to WWF. Brazil's New Forest Code: a guide for decision-makers in supply chains and governments (2015):

• The Brazilian Forest Code (Código Florestal Brasileiro) - Brazilian national environmental law, originally introduced in 1934, that aims to regulate the use and conservation of private land. After its revision in 2012 (Law no. 12.651, from May 25th 2012) two main requirements were modified to the following:

1. Legal Reserve or RL (the acronym in Portuguese) – the proportion of the land on which native vegetation must be maintained. Requirements for the proportion of land which must be set aside vary depending on the biome a municipality is officially located in: 50-80% in the Legal Amazon, 35% in the Cerrado, and 20% elsewhere.
2. Permanent Protection Areas or APP (the acronym in Portuguese) – areas which must be set aside such as river banks, watersheds and steep slopes. These areas vary between properties and may be allocated within the Legal Reserve.

• Additionally, those property owners with deficit of forest cover or liabilities on their Legal Reserve and/or Permanent Protected Area should sign agreements of regularization with the Government. These agreements are called 'Environmental Regularization Program' or 'PRA' (the acronym in Portuguese), under which a plan for achieving compliance should be approved. The path towards compliance can rely on reforestation commitments or on an offsetting mechanism called 'Environmental Reserve Quotas or 'CRA' (the acronym in Portuguese), that enable those with deficit to financially maintain forest surplus in other properties within the same biome.
• The principal monitoring tool established by the Forest Code to enforce compliance is the 'Rural Environmental Registry' or 'CAR' (the acronym in Portuguese). It is a public electronic registry system in which landowners must register their properties, specifying the areas of legal reserve and permanent protected areas. This identification of the property is georeferenced allowing the environmental agencies to monitor compliance with the environmental regulations and address administrative, civil and criminal liabilities, as well as negotiation and approval of the 'Environmental Regularization Program' or 'PRA'.

(F1.4a) For your disclosed commodity(ies), indicate which Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you use to measure your own compliance with the Brazilian Forest Code and your performance against these indicator(s).

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Yes, from owned and/or managed land’ or ‘Yes, from both suppliers and owned/managed land’ in response to F1.4.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 SF4.5a)

Rationale

This question gathers details on the indicators used to measure compliance with the Brazilian Forest Code on land owned by your organization. This information provides context to investors and other data users regarding organizations’ due diligence and awareness of regulation compliance in their direct operations.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Requested content

General

• Select the check box for all KPIs that apply to each of your disclosed commodity(ies) and, if the data is available, provide specific performance information against the indicator in column 3 (Please explain).
• Definitions of all the Forest Code terms can be found in F1.4 under ‘Additional information’.

KPI and performance (column 2)

• '% of owned and/or managed properties registered on the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) database' – This is the first requirement of the Forest Code, which specifies that all rural properties must be registered in the CAR by a specific deadline. As of this writing, the deadline was December 31^st, 2018 (see decree here).This refers to the % of the total number of properties and not to the total land area under control.
• '% of owned and/or managed properties with signed Terms of Commitment of the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA)' – Considering only the owned or managed properties with liabilities to comply with the Legal Reserve (RL) and/or Permanent Protected Area (APP), it is the percentage that have signed the Terms of Commitment of the Environmental Regularization Program, or PRA. Properties with liabilities must have committed to the PRA by December 31^st, 2018. If the landowner has not been presented with the Terms of Commitment, then indicate this in the ‘Please explain’ column.
• '% of owned or managed properties with no gross deforestation after July 2008' – The cut-off date for landholdings that do not comply with the Legal Reserve or Permanent Protection Areas stated in the Brazilian Forest Code is July 22^nd, 2008, this option refers to the percentage of landowners with no gross deforestation, legal and illegal, after this date.
• 'Other, please specify' – If you monitor any other KPI that you think is relevant and want to share it with CDP, please select this check box, and describe it in the ‘Please explain’ column.

Please explain (column 3)

• Provide a description of the technology and tools used to measure and monitor compliance against your KPIs.
• Provide any details on how your organization measures/calculate the KPIs selected in column 2 (KPI and performance), indicate how often these KPIs are updated and specify any exclusion(s).
• If you selected ‘Other, please specify’ in column 2, describe your KPI here.

Note for SMEs

• Medium and large landowners are defined as those with areas larger than four fiscal modules. These modules vary between municipality, and a single module can differ from 5 to 110 hectares. For example, in the South of Brazil, a small property can vary between 20 to 40 hectares, while in the North, a small property may be 350 to 400 hectares.
• There is a simpler process for the registration of smaller properties that are fewer than four fiscal modules. You will be required to provide the following to register with the CAR:

-Identification of owner;
-Proof of ownership; and
-A rough map/sketch of the property’s perimeter, the APPs, Legal Reserve areas, and any areas of restricted use.

• If you are landowners with fewer than four fiscal modules, then it is possible to disclose the KPI most relevant to you in column 2 by selecting ‘Other, please specify’ and providing more specific information in column 3.
• The Brazilian state government should provide technical and legal support to smallholders for CAR enrollment. If you are not receiving this support, then the following online document could be of assistance:

-WWF: Brazil’s new Forest Code: A guide for decision-makers in supply chains and governments. 2015.

Explanation of terms

According to definitions from WWF’s Brazil’s new Forest Code: A guide for decision-makers in supply chains and governments. 2015:

• Environmental Compliance Program or PRA (the acronym in Portuguese): defines the activities to be implemented within or outside the rural property to comply with the Forest Code, including the conservation, reforestation or restoration of APPs, Restricted Use Areas, as well as the compensation of Legal Reserve areas.
• Legal Reserve or RL (the acronym in Portuguese): the proportion of the land on which native vegetation must be maintained. Requirements for the proportion of land which must be set aside vary depending on the biome a municipality is officially located in: 50-80% in the Legal Amazon, 35% in the Cerrado, and 20% elsewhere.
• Permanent Protection Areas or APP (the acronym in Portuguese): areas which must be set aside such as river banks, watersheds and steep slopes. These areas vary between properties and may be allocated within the Legal Reserve.
• Rural Environmental Registry or CAR (the acronym in Portuguese): the central tool for rural properties to become compliant with Forest Code requirements. All rural property owners must register their lands in CAR, including the location of APPs, Legal Reserves, and other elements. CAR is regulated by the National System of Information on the Environment (SINIMA).
• Terms of Commitment: a formal document signed by the rural landowner in which he or she commits to redress the environmental deficit of the property, including, at least, commitments to conserve, reforest or restore APPs, Legal Reserves and Restricted Use Areas. Legal Reserve areas may be restored or compensated.

(F1.4b) For your disclosed commodity(ies), indicate which Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you use to measure the compliance of your suppliers with the Brazilian Forest Code and their performance against these indicator(s).

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Yes, from suppliers’ or ‘Yes, from both suppliers and owned/managed land’ in response to F1.4.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 SF4.4a)

Rationale

This question gathers details on the indicators used to measure compliance with the Brazilian Forest Code on land owned by your suppliers. This information provides context to investors and other data users regarding organizations’ due diligence and awareness of regulation compliance in their supply chain.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Requested content

General

• The use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can be used to measure the level of compliance with the Forest Code by suppliers. Select the check box for all KPI's that apply and, if the data is available, provide specific performance information against the indicator(s) in the ‘Please explain’ column.

KPI and performance (column 2)

• '% of suppliers on the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) database' – Is the percentage of suppliers registered with the Rural Environmental Registry. This is the first requirement of the Forest Code, which specifies that all rural properties must be registered in the CAR by a specific deadline. As of this writing, the deadline was December 31st, 2018 (see decree here).
• '% of owned and/or managed properties with Legal Reserve (RL) and/or Permanent Protected Area (APP) deficit' – Is the percentage of suppliers with known deficit of forest cover on their Legal Reserve (RL) and/or Permanent Protected Area (APP), based on the CAR
• '% of suppliers with signed Terms of Commitment of the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA)' – Considering only the suppliers with liabilities to comply with the Legal Reserve (RL) and/or Permanent Protected Area (APP), it is the percentage that have signed the Terms of Commitment of the Environmental Regularization Program, or PRA. Suppliers with liabilities must have committed to the PRA by December 31^st 2018. If the supplier has not been presented with the Terms of Commitment, then illustrate this in the ‘Please explain’ column.
• '% of suppliers with no gross deforestation after July 2008' – The cut-off date is July 22nd, 2008 for landholdings that do not comply with the Legal Reserve or Permanent Protection Areas stated in the Brazilian Forest Code, this column refers to the percentage of suppliers with no gross deforestation, legal and illegal, after this date. If you just monitor illegal or legal deforestation, please specify in the ‘Please explain’ column.
• 'Other, please specify' – If you monitor any other KPI that you think is relevant and want to share it with CDP, please specify.

Number of suppliers (column 3)

• Report the aggregate number of suppliers from which you source your disclosed forest risk commodities.

Please explain (column 4)

• Provide a description of the technology and tools used to measure and monitor compliance against your KPIs
• Provide details on how your organization measures/calculate the KPIs selected in column 2 (KPI and performance), specify the percentage used as a KPI (if applicable), indicate how often these KPIs are updated and specify any exclusion(s).
• If you selected ‘Other, please specify’ in column 2, describe your KPI here.

Note for SMEs

• Medium and large landowners are defined as those with areas larger than four fiscal modules. These modules vary between municipality, and a single module can differ from 5 to 110 hectares. For example, in the South of Brazil, a small property can vary between 20 to 40 hectares, while in the North, a small property may be 350 to 400 hectares.
• There is a simpler process for the registration of smaller properties that are fewer than four fiscal modules. You will be required to provide the following to register with the CAR:

-Identification of owner;
-Proof of ownership; and
-A rough map/sketch of the property’s perimeter, the APPs, Legal Reserve areas, and any areas of restricted use.

• If you are landowners with fewer than four fiscal modules, then it is possible to disclose the KPI most relevant to you in column 2 by selecting ‘Other, please specify’ and providing more specific information in column 3.
• The Brazilian state government should provide technical and legal support to smallholders for CAR enrollment. If you are not receiving this support, then the following online document could be of assistance:

-WWF: Brazil’s new Forest Code: A guide for decision-makers in supply chains and governments. 2015.

Explanation of terms

According to definitions from WWF’s Brazil’s new Forest Code: A guide for decision-makers in supply chains and governments. 2015:

• Environmental Compliance Program or PRA (the acronym in Portuguese): defines the activities to be implemented within or outside the rural property to comply with the Forest Code, including the conservation, reforestation or restoration of APPs, Restricted Use Areas, as well as the compensation of Legal Reserve areas.
• Legal Reserve or RL (the acronym in Portuguese): the proportion of the land on which native vegetation must be maintained. Requirements for the proportion of land which must be set aside vary depending on the biome a municipality is officially located in: 50-80% in the Legal Amazon, 35% in the Cerrado, and 20% elsewhere.
• Permanent Protection Areas or APP (the acronym in Portuguese): areas which must be set aside such as river banks, watersheds and steep slopes. These areas vary between properties and may be allocated within the Legal Reserve.
• Rural Environmental Registry or CAR (the acronym in Portuguese): the central tool for rural properties to become compliant with Forest Code requirements. All rural property owners must register their lands in CAR, including the location of APPs, Legal Reserves, and other elements. CAR is regulated by the National System of Information on the Environment (SINIMA).
• Terms of Commitment: a formal document signed by the rural landowner in which he or she commits to redress the environmental deficit of the property, including, at least, commitments to conserve, reforest or restore APPs, Legal Reserves and Restricted Use Areas. Legal Reserve areas may be restored or compensated.

(F1.5) Does your organization collect production and/or consumption data for your disclosed commodity(ies)?

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F5.2)

Rationale

This question gathers information on whether organizations collect data on the production and/or the consumption of their disclosed forest risk commodity(ies). Collecting data that is representative of your total production and/or consumption volumes reflects best practices in corporate reporting and provides context to investors and other data users about how informed you are regarding your own operations and/or your supply chain. Companies that collate this information can attain a better picture of their reliance on forests risk commodities and potential exposure to any related risks and impacts, which is an important step in removing deforestation and forest degradation from direct operations and supply chains.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• Select the option that best describes the collation of data on each of your forest risk commodities. Depending on your organizational structure, this can be either production or consumption data, or both.
• Subsequent questions will allow you to provide details on these data.

Note for SMEs

• It is encouraged that you disclose your entire usage of the forest risk commodities, however if this is not possible you will be able to explain that in F1.5a-c.
• If the data is not available, then setting up new systems to collect and aggregate data is encouraged.
• This data collection is often already undertaken for compliance with other management systems, e.g. ISO 9000 / 14000 type systems. In addition, you might routinely make field visits, send out questionnaires or request audits, etc.

Explanation of terms

• Consumption data: refers to data on the sourcing/purchasing of the forest risk commodities within your supply chain. For example, if you are a manufacturer that collects data from your suppliers.
• Production data: refers to data on the cultivation/rearing/harvesting of raw materials, such as data from your production of soy beans or palm oil.

Additional information

• Companies tracking soy consumption, for example, could use the CGF Soy Ladder - framework developed by The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) in conjunction with KPMG to better understand soy usage within their supply chains, and the associated deforestation risk.

(F1.5a) Disclose your production and/or consumption data.

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Consumption data available, disclosing’, ‘Production data available, disclosing’, or ‘Consumption and production data available, disclosing’ in response to F1.5.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F5.2a)

Rationale

This question gathers details on the data organizations collect data on the production and/or the consumption of their disclosed forest risk commodity(ies).

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Requested content

General

• Please add at least one row for each commodity for which you collect data, as disclosed in F1.5.

Data type (column 2)

• If you can provide production and consumption data as separate figures, you can do so by adding a new row for the same commodity and selecting the appropriate option in this column.
• If you both produce and buy a commodity and wish to provide a consolidated figure, select the appropriate option.

Volume (column 3)

• Provide a figure in this column that is consistent with the type of data you selected in column 2 (Data type).

Metric (column 4)

• For the figure provided in column 3 (Volume), select the metric in which this has been given. If none of the available options are suitable, select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.

Data coverage (column 5)

• Indicate if the data provided covers your entire production and/or consumption of the commodity, apart from exclusions already described in F0.6, F0.6a, F0.7, and F0.7a.

Please explain (column 6)

• If the data you have provided excludes certain parts of your business or supply chain other than the ones reported in the Introduction module, e.g. a specific product line, please provide an explanation of the exclusion, including what percentage of your total production and/or consumption of that commodity the figure represents.

(F1.5b) Why is your organization not disclosing production and/or consumption data for your disclosed commodity(ies)?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Data available, but not disclosing’ in response to F1.5.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F5.3)

Rationale

This information provides context to investors and other data users about the primary reason why organizations are not disclosing data on the production and/or the consumption of their disclosed forest risk commodity(ies).

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Requested content

General

• Please respond to this question regarding the commodity(ies) for which you selected ‘Data available, but not disclosing’ in F1.5, by adding a new row for each commodity.

Primary reason (column 2)

• Select the option that best describes the primary reason for why your organization cannot disclose data.
• If none of the available options are suitable, select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.

Please explain (column 3)

• If ‘Only partial scoping of forest risk commodities in products/supply chain completed’ is selected in column ‘Primary reason’, inform which areas of production and/or consumption were scoped and why these were chosen; indicate when the full scoping will be completed, and method used for scoping commodities.
• If ‘Data considered confidential’ is selected in column ‘Primary reason’, provide a detailed explanation of why this data is considered confidential and indicate whether this information will be made public/non-confidential in the future.
• If ‘Other, please specify’ is selected in column ‘Primary reason’, explain why your organization chose not to disclose this information.
• If applicable, include the percentage of data not disclosed from your total production/consumption.

(F1.5c) Why is production and/or consumption data not available for your disclosed commodity(ies)?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Data not available’ in response to F1.5.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F5.4)

Rationale

This information provides context to investors and other data users about the primary reason why organizations do not collect data on the production and/or the consumption of their disclosed forest risk commodity(ies) and/or on any future plans to collect these data.

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Requested content

General

• Provide one row for each of the commodity(ies) for which data is not available.

Primary reason (column 2)

• Select the option that best describes the primary reason for which data is not available for a specific commodity.

Please explain (column 3)

• Outline the challenges your organization faces to collect and provide data.
• Provide details on your organization’s plans for implementing data collection, including:

- When data will be collected
- Which Methods/strategy will be used
- Specify the stages of your value chain from which you will collect these data (i.e., direct operations, supply chain and or other parts of your value chain)
- Specify any exclusions

(F1.6) Have you identified sufficient sources of sustainable materials to meet your current operational needs? If yes, what are you doing to ensure the security/continuity of this supply?

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F10.1)

Rationale

This question focuses on whether your organization has secured an adequate supply of forest risk commodity(ies) to meet its operational demand in the reporting year and immediate future (up to the next two years). This evidence informs investors and other data users on whether organizations are assessing their demand for raw materials and addressing any issues that might impact their supply in the short-term. This information is relevant to guide investments as well as corporate actions to ensure business resilience.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

Sustainable source identified (column 2)

• Select ‘Yes’ if you have identified a sufficient source of commodities to supply your organization’s current demand and within the immediate future demand (i.e., up to next 2 years).

Primary action to ensure supply (column 3)

• Select the option that best describes your organizations primary actions to secure the supply of sustainable materials from a given forest risk commodity, in the short term.
• To explain actions your organization is taking internally to increase capacity other than ‘Supply chain mapping’ and ‘Supply chain diversification’, please select ‘Supplier improvement plans to increase capacity of supply’.
• To explain efforts to build the capacity of suppliers to provide your organization with sustainable materials/products, or increase the demand by customers for such products, please select ‘Engaging in capacity building activities in the value chain’.
• If none of the available options are suitable, or you would like to add another action, please select ‘Other, please specify’ and indicate which action in the next column.

Please explain (column 4)

• Provide details on your organization’s primary action to ensure the current and near future security of supply for its disclosed commodity(ies), indicating why and how this action has been effective in securing the supply.
• Specify the timeframe for which your organization has secured its supply of sustainable raw materials.

Note for SMEs

• There are several points to be considered here before answering to this question:

-What is required to produce/manufacture/trade/sell your product(s)?
-Who are the immediate suppliers?
-The situation in the countries where it is produced, e.g. any geopolitical issues?
-The volume sourced as disclosed in F1.5. How secure is that supply?
-What contingency plans are in place if the immediate supply fails?

• If the above questions have been considered, and you have identified an adequate supply, then please select ‘Yes’ in column 2 and provide more information in the subsequent columns.
• Getting this information from your supply chain is crucial, as well as engagement with your procurement team.

Detrimental impacts on your business

(F1.7) Has your organization experienced any detrimental forests-related impacts?

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F1.3)

Rationale

Past impacts are useful indicators of inherent risks that your organization may be exposed to. The response to this question presents a picture of how issues related to forest risk commodities may have detrimentally impacted your business. Note that in this question CDP asks about events in the past that have impacted your business and not those inherent risks or those that have impacted the environment. The magnitude of impact and the total financial impact figure, data points requested in the follow-on questions, are important for investors and other data users to understand the context within which the impact(s) affected your business. Your organization’s response strategy to past impacts informs CDP data users how you are attempting to prevent future impacts and build resilience.

Response options

Select one of the following options:

• Yes
• No

Requested content

General

• Please select ‘Yes’ if you have experienced any detrimental impact(s) in your business operations, revenue or expenditure in the reporting year that was related to the production and/or procurement of deforestation risk commodities.
• For businesses, detrimental impacts from the production or procurement of forest risk commodities may result in direct financial impacts such as production or revenue loss, however this may also result in other impacts, such as loss of a license to operate, regulatory implications or brand damage.

Note for SMEs

• Detrimental impacts can include physical (weather extreme events), or transitional, i.e. regulatory, reputational and markets, and technological impact drivers.
• This is not looking at future risks that your organization might be impacted by but impacts that have occurred in the period you are reporting for.
• For example, a period of prolonged drought could have impacted the productivity of palm oil, reducing production and therefore your organizations revenue. Alternatively, failing to comply with local laws on the production/procurement of timber could cost your business in terms of fines and litigation fees.

Explanation of terms

• Forests-related impact: the effects on an organization of a physical, regulatory, reputational or technological challenge, event or action related directly or indirectly to forests.

(F1.7a) Describe the forests-related detrimental impacts experienced by your organization, your response, and the total financial impact.

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select 'Yes' in response to F1.7

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F1.3a)

Rationale

Past impacts are useful indicators of inherent risks that your organization may be exposed to. The response to this question presents a picture of how issues related to forest risk commodities may have detrimentally impacted your business. Note that in this question CDP asks about events in the past that have impacted your business and not those inherent risks or those that have impacted the environment.

The magnitude of impact and the total financial impact figure are important for investors and other data users to understand the context within which the impact(s) affected your business. Your organization’s response strategy to past impacts informs CDP data users on how you are attempting to prevent future impacts and build resilience.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Primary impact driver (column 3)

Primary impact (column 4)

Primary response (column 6)

Requested content

General

• Add a new row for each commodity and its associated detrimental impact(s) on your organizations’ business operations, revenue or expenditure during the reporting year.

Impact driver type (column 2)

• The driver of the impact is the factor/ driving force causing the impact reported. Impact drivers are either physical (e.g. weather extreme events), or transitional, i.e, regulatory, reputational and markets, and technological.
• Each selected impact driver type determines the options for the primary impact driver in column 3.
• Add a new row for each impact driver type if you have more than one per commodity.

Primary impact driver (column 3)

• Select the option that best describes your primary impact driver, i.e., that is closely related with or largest responsible for your detrimental impact.
• If none of the available options are suitable, please select ‘Other… driver, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.
• If you select “Other, please specify”, provide a label for the primary impact driver. If you need more than 40 characters, please use the comment box by clicking on the “speech bubble” icon.

Primary impact (column 4)

• Select the option that best describes your primary detrimental impact.
• If none of the available options are suitable, please select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.

Description of impact (column 5)

• Explain how the impact was detrimental to your organization, by indicating the scale of the impact. Include details as to the length of time your business was impacted, and the parts of your business affected.

Primary response (column 6)

• Select the option that best describes your primary response to the impact disclosed in column 4 (Primary impact).
• If none of the available options are suitable, please select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.

Total financial impact (column 7)

• Please disclose the financial figure associated with your disclosed impact. This figure should reflect the same currency indicated by your organization in F0.3.
• Please include the total financial cost including those caused by your organization’s response to the impact. If the total financial cost is not available, provide an estimate.
• If you are unable to provide an estimated figure, provide and explanation in column 8 (Description of….)

Description of response (column 8)

• Use this section to provide details on your organization’s response to the identified detrimental impact, detailing your approach, stakeholders involved and outcomes to date. Include an explanation of the methodology used to calculate the reported financial figure.
• If you were unable to provide a financial figure in column 7, please provide an explanation.

Explanation of terms

• Afforestation: establishment of forest through planting and/or deliberate seeding on land that, until then, was not classified as forest, what implies a transformation of land use from non-forest to forest. (Source: FAO Forest Resources Assessment, Working Paper 180, 2015).
• Ecosystem services: the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well-being. The concept ‘ecosystem goods and services’ is synonymous with ecosystem services (Source: TEEB, 2010).
• Forests-related impact: the effects on an organization of a physical, regulatory, reputational or technological challenge, event or action related directly or indirectly to forests.
• High-deforestation risk jurisdictions: this includes the following 25 countries and sub-national level jurisdictions within these countries: Angola, Argentina, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Colombia, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Gabon, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Liberia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), and Zambia (Source: GCP, 2016).
• Impact driver: the driver of the impact is the factor/ driving force causing the impact reported. Impact drivers are either physical (e.g. weather extreme events), or transitional, i.e, regulatory, reputational and markets, and technological.
• Landscape level approach: refers to actions taken over a large spatial scale for allocating and managing land, under conflicting use (e.g., agriculture, mining, urban, forests), to efficiently address social, economic and environmental issues. (Source: DEFRA, 2011; Sayer et al. 2013).
• Multi-stakeholder initiative: initiative that is governed by different stakeholder groups, including private sector companies and their associations, civil society organizations (e.g., environmental and social NGOs) and possibly farmer organizations, government organizations and knowledge providers. (Source: SAI Platform, 2015).
• Reforestation: re-establishment of forest through planting and/or deliberate seeding on land classified as forest. (Source: FAO Forest Resources Assessment, Working Paper 180, 2015).
• Restoration: forest restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed (Source: SER, 2002).
• Sustainable forest management: the process of managing a forest for achieving the continuous production of desired forest products and services without reducing its inherent values and future productivity, avoiding undesirable social-environmental effects. (Source: modified from ITTO).
• Traceability: the ability to identify and trace the history, distribution, location and application of products, parts and materials, to ensure the reliability of sustainability claims, in the areas of human rights, labor (including health and safety), the environment and anti-corruption. (Source: UN Global Compact, 2014).

Example response

F2 Procedures

Module Overview

This module requests information about the procedures that organizations have in place to manage issues salient to their sector and to understand inherent risk exposure. These management procedures are considered important to addressing forests-related issues - independent of a company’s own perception or an assessment of any associated net risk for their company. This is why CDP asks companies to answer these questions before disclosing whether they consider themselves exposed to substantive forests-related risks and what those risks are.

This information provides data users with confidence that your risks disclosure of in Module 3 (Risks and opportunities) is comprehensive.

Key changes

• Organizations are now requested to provide details on the methods and tools, issues and stakeholders considered in their risk assessment.

Pathway diagram - questions

This diagram shows the general questions contained in module F2. To access question-level guidance, use the menu on the left to navigate to the question.

Pathway diagram - questions for minimum version questionnaire

This diagram shows the questions contained in module F2 that are included in the minimum version of the questionnaire. To access question-level guidance, use the menu on the left to navigate to the question.

Risk identification and assessment

(F2.1) Does your organization undertake a forests-related risk assessment?

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

It is important to provide details of your procedures to forests-related risk assessment so that investors and other CDP data users can consider the thoroughness of your company’s understanding of its forests-related risk exposure.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Select one of the following options:

• Yes, forests-related risks are assessed
• No, forests-related risks are not assessed

Requested content

General

• If you have completed a risk assessment for at least part of your direct operations and/or other parts of your value chain, as well as for at least one of your disclosed commodities, select “Yes”.
• If your organization has an integrated environmental risk assessment that considers any inherent forests-related risks among other environmental issues, select "Yes".
• Only select "No" if you have not conducted any form of risk assessment that included forests-related issues.

Note for SMEs

• If you have carried out any form of risk assessment at this stage, then select ‘Yes’. Subsequent questions will ask about this process in more detail.

Explanation of terms

• Forests-related: for the purposes of the forests questionnaire, this refers to deforestation and forest degradation as well as clearance and destruction of other natural vegetation.

(F2.1a) Select the options that best describe your procedures for identifying and assessing forests-related risks.

Question dependencies

This question only appears if you select 'Yes' in response to F2.1.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F2.1, F2.1a)

Rationale

It is important to describe your forests-related risk assessment coverage and content so that investors and other data users can understand and assess the thoroughness of your risk assessment processes and whether your adopted risk assessment procedures are appropriate for the context and risks. Reporting the frequency and horizon of your risk assessments helps demonstrate whether these aspects of your assessments are appropriate for the context and risks reported.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• This question examines your broader risk assessment procedures across your whole value chain, i.e. your operations, supply chain and other parts of your value chain.

Value chain stage (column 2)

• State which parts of your business are included in your risk assessment for that specific commodity. You may select multiple options in this column to indicate, for example, that your risk assessment covers all of your direct operations and supply chain.
• Select “Not applicable” only if your organization has no procedures for identifying and assessing forests-related risks for any of the disclosed commodities you selected in F0.5. In this case, justify the lack of a forests-related risk assessment for the forest-risk commodity in the “Please explain” column.

Coverage (column 3)

• If certain elements of your direct operations, supply chain or other parts of your value chain are excluded from the risk assessment process, please select ‘Partial’ and explain your reasons in column 8 (Please explain).

Risk assessment procedure (column 4)

• Select the option that best describes how your organization assesses forests-related risks associated with each of your disclosed commodity(ies). If multiple approaches apply, select the main or primary approach taken by your organization.
• If none of the available options are suitable, select 'Other, please specify' and a text box will appear for you to add a label that describes your approach. You’ll be able provide further details on your approach in column 8 (Please explain).
• If you select “Other, please specify”, provide a label for the risk assessment procedure. If you need more than 40 characters, please use the comment box by clicking on the “speech bubble” icon.

How far into the future are risks considered? (column 6)

• This column refers to for how many years into the future your risk assessment considers forests-related issues

Tools and methods used to identify and assess risks (column 7)

• Select the options that best represent the tools and methods used by your organization to identify and assess forest-related risks.
• If none of the available options are suitable, select 'Other, please specify' and a text box will appear for you to add a label that describes the tools/methods used.

Please explain (column 8)

• Explain why you have chosen this:

-Procedure;
-level of coverage and scale; and
-frequency and time horizon.

• Specify the tool/method selected in column 7 (Tools and methods...) and explain why you have chosen it and how it has been used to assist your risk assessment on forests-related issues.
• If ‘Partial’ was selected in column 3 (Coverage), and more than one option was selected in column 2 (Value chain stage), specify which stage(s) of your value chain is only partially covered, provide details on the level of coverage and how the coverage is determined, e.g. which tiers of the supply chain?
• If “Not applicable” is selected in column 2, present a detailed explanation on why your organization does not undertake a forests-related risk assessment for the forest-risk commodity.

Note for SMEs

• This question gauges the procedures, process and frequency of carrying out a risk assessment.
• If you carry out a risk assessment where forests-related risks are integrated with other risks across the business, then please disclose this in column 4 (Risk assessment…) by selecting ‘Assessed as part of an established enterprise risk management framework’. If forests are assessed as an isolated issue, then it is also possible to select this option.
• If you carry out a risk assessment but the options in column 4 do not exactly match your process select ‘Other, please specify’ and provide an explanation in column 8 (Please explain).
• In column 5, if the frequency is variable then select ‘Not defined’, e.g. buyers conduct risk assessments when visiting a supplier.
• In column 7, there are likely important sources of information that you use that are not listed, e.g. trade association, local civil society groups. If that’s the case, select ‘Other, please specify’ and explain in column 8.

Explanation of terms

• Enterprise risk management: an integrated and joined up approach to managing risk across an organization and its extended networks (Source: Institute of Risk Management, 2016).
• Risk management: involves understanding, analyzing and addressing risk to make sure organizations achieve their objectives. This must be proportionate to the complexity and type of organization (Source: Institute of Risk Management, 2016).

Example response

(F2.1b) Which of the following issues are considered in your organization's forests-related risk assessment(s)?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select 'Yes' in response to F2.1.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F2.1b)

Rationale

As an indication of the comprehensiveness of the risk assessment, data users need to know which contextual issues inform your company’s understanding of its forests-related risks within the markets, jurisdictions and geographies where it operates, and which are considered relevant and why.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• Companies should state whether each listed issue is considered in their risk assessment.

Issue (column 1)

• If an issue you assess is not listed here, please specify another issue in column 3 (Please explain)for the row 'Other, please specify’.

Relevance & inclusion (column 2)

• Select the option that most accurately represents your organization’s inclusion of the issue in its risk assessment.
• Only select “Relevant, always included” if the issue is factored into your organization’s risk assessment considering forests-related risks throughout the entire organization.
• Some companies may have assessed an issue as not relevant for their forests-related risk assessment, but they nevertheless continue to include it the assessment process. This may be for a number of reasons, such as completeness or to facilitate future consideration. If this is the case for your organization, select "Not relevant, included".

Please explain (column 3)

• Where an issue is included in your organization’s risk assessment, please provide company-specific information regarding:

- Why you include this information (why is this issue important to your business?);
- How you assess this issue;
- If, and why, the issue is covered for your whole value chain, if not specify which and why;
- How that information is used internally for decision-making;
- If the issue is relevant at particular organizational levels and how relevance is defined; and
- If the issue is a current or emerging issue.

• Where an issue is considered not relevant please explain why this is the case.
• If you have another issue you assess for the row 'Other, please specify', please use this column to provide further details of your issue.

(F2.1c) Which of the following stakeholders are considered in your organization’s forests-related risk assessments?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Yes' in response to F2.1.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

As an indication of the comprehensiveness of the risk assessment, data users need to know which key stakeholders inform your organization’s understanding of its forests-related risks within the markets, jurisdictions and geographies it operates in, which are considered relevant and why.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• This table has fixed rows for different stakeholders who may be factored into your organization’s risk assessment. You should select from column 2 (Relevance & inclusion) the relevance of each stated stakeholder to your organization’s risk assessment.
• Complete the table with as much data as possible for each of the stakeholders in the table. If a stakeholder you factor into your risk assessment is not available in this table, please fill in the ‘Other stakeholder’ row, including information about the stakeholder in column 3 (Please explain).

Stakeholder (column 1)

• You should choose the stakeholders which most accurately reflect the bodies you engage with and then provide a company specific explanation for each stakeholder. For example, you may engage with government agencies at a national level, or with regulators that are independent of government.
• If any stakeholders you consider are not listed here, please specify another stakeholder in column 3 (Please explain) for the row 'Other, please specify’.

Relevance & inclusion (column 2)

• Select the option that most accurately represents your organization’s approach to the stakeholder in column 1 (Stakeholder).
• If “Relevant, included” is selected, CDP expects that the identified stakeholder is always factored into your organization’s risk assessment of forests-related issues throughout the entire organization.
• Some companies may have assessed a stakeholder as not relevant, but they nevertheless continue to include them for the assessment process. This may be for a number of reasons, such as completeness or to facilitate future consideration. If this is the case for your organization, select "Not relevant, included".

Please explain (column 3)

• Where a stakeholder is included in your organization’s risk assessment, please provide context as to:

- Why you have considered this stakeholder;
- How you have considered this stakeholder;
- Specify whether you have directly engaged with the stakeholder as part of the risk assessment procedure; and
- For those stakeholders which you have engaged with, describe: how you engaged with this stakeholder (e.g. public meetings, supplier reporting or training, facilitation through other organizations) and when you engaged with this stakeholder (e.g. pre-planning, scheduled engagement, ad-hoc as the need arises).

• If "Relevant, not included" is selected, explain why the relevant stakeholder was not included and provide indicate if you plan to include the stakeholder in the future.
• If "Not relevant, explanation provided" is selected, explain why these stakeholders are not currently relevant, and why they are not expected to be relevant in the future.
• If you have another stakeholder you consider for the row 'Other stakeholders, please specify', please use this column to provide further details of your stakeholder.

(F2.1d) Why does your organization not undertake a forests-related risk assessment?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘No, forests-related risks are not assessed' in response to F2.1.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F2.2)

Rationale

Because a thorough risk assessment is integral to effectively identifying and addressing forests-related risks, data users want an understanding why your company does not carry out such assessments, as well as any plans to do so in the future. Without undertaking a risk assessment, organizations may be unable to determine the best ways to prepare for future uncertainties and liabilities. Organizations may have many reasons for not undertaking risk assessments, and data users are interested in learning more about the planning processes and contexts of each company.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• In this question, it is possible to disclose the drop-down that best describes why your organization has not conducted a forests-related risk assessment. An organization should provide a further explanation in column 3 (Please explain) as to why it has not carried out a risk assessment or if it is planning to do so.

Primary reason for not having a process (column 2)

• For any commodities for which you selected ‘No, forests-related risks are not assessed' in F2.1, choose the option from the drop-down menu that best describes the reason why you do not have a process in place. If none of the available options are suitable, please select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.
• If a company is in the process of compiling a forests-related risk assessment or planning to introduce a risk assessment in the near future, then select the appropriate drop-down. Only include these options if your organization has already developed plans or has agreed to a future evaluation.

Please explain (column 3)

• Use this column to provide any additional information on the drop-down selected in column 2 (Primary reason for…), in particular if a company has selected ‘judged to be unimportant’ then a clear explanation should be provided as to why this is the case.

Note for SMEs

• SMEs are recognized to have greater resource limitations. Here you can indicate the main reason you have for not undertaking a risk assessment.
• Column 3 is a chance to explain forests risk assessment developments so far, any plans to extend, and any future challenges faced.

F3 Risks and opportunities

Module Overview

This module allows organizations to show that they have a clear awareness of the extent to which they are exposed to inherent forests-related risks in their direct operations and other parts of their value chain.

CDP asks organizations to report substantive forests-related risks, the potential impacts of those risks and share details of their associated response strategies.

We also invite organizations to share any forests-related operational or market opportunities being realized that could substantively benefit their business.

Discloser note

• Providing information about inherent risk exposure rather than residual risk allows data-users to consider the potential impact and the appropriateness of the organization’s response.
• CDP asks about risks anywhere in your business that are substantive at the corporate level (not those that are significant only at the facility level, for example). We wish only to know about risks that have the ability to impact the business, financially, strategically or otherwise, at the corporate level.
• You may wish to consult with your financial, legal, and/or compliance departments for advice on your company’s general approach to the provision of forward-looking statements and information concerning risks.

Key changes

• New question asking companies to define what constitutes a substantive impact for their business.
• Companies now have the opportunity to report not only their risks, but also their response to these risks and a figure for the potential financial impact of the risks and opportunities disclosed.
• Lists of the risks and opportunities have been revised, including a full list of financial incentives, e.g. REDD+ incentives.

Pathway diagram - questions

This diagram shows the general questions contained in module F3. To access question-level guidance, use the menu on the left to navigate to the question.

Pathway diagram - questions for minimum version questionnaire

This diagram shows the questions contained in module F3 that are included in the minimum version of the questionnaire. To access question-level guidance, use the menu on the left to navigate to the question.

Risks

(F3.1) Have you identified any inherent forests-related risks with the potential to have a substantive financial or strategic impact on your business?

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F3.1)

Rationale

Data users wish to know whether your organization has knowledge of forests-related risks across any part of its value chain that are substantive at the corporate level. This information is critical for guiding investments as well as corporate actions to improve business resilience and forests stewardship. Note that CDP only requests information on risks that have the potential to substantively impact your business at the corporate level.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• Please indicate if, as a result of your risk assessment, you have identified any inherent forests-related risks, and in which part of your value chain the risk resides; or select ‘No’ and explain why not in F3.1c.
• For the purposes of this response, the risks considered should only be those which:

- Have the potential to pose substantive financial or strategic impacts (as per your company-specific definition of “substantive”);
- Have the potential to pose a substantive risk at the corporate level, and not simply at the asset/business unit/geographic level at which they may occur are inherent (the risk that exists in the absence of controls, i.e., not taking into account any potential mitigation or management measures that could be implemented).

• These risks may have the potential to impact on your organization either now or in the future.

Explanation of terms

• Forests-related impact: the effects on an organization of a physical, regulatory, reputational or technological challenge, event or action related directly or indirectly to forests.
• Forests-related risk: the likelihood, over a specific time, of an organization experiencing an impact caused directly or indirectly by deforestation/forest degradation (e.g., fines, loss of license to operate, supply chain disruption, loss of revenue, etc.). The extent of a risk is a function of its likelihood and the severity of the potential impact. The severity of potential impact itself depends on the intensity of the challenge posed by the risk, as well as the vulnerability of the organization.
• Inherent risk: the risk that exists in the absence of controls, i.e., not taking into account any potential mitigation or management measures that could be implemented.

(F3.1a) How does your organization define substantive impact on your business?

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

Explaining your organization’s threshold for including risk data in this request provides critical context for CDP data users. What is considered as a substantive impact for a business will be different for each responding organization, so before proceeding with any further questions in this module, it is important that you explain how your organization defines a substantive impact at the corporate level.

Response options

This is an open text question with limit of 5,000 characters.

Please note that when copying from another document to the disclosure platform, formatting is not retained.

Requested content

General

• What constitutes a substantive impact will vary between companies. For example, a 1% reduction in profits will have different effects on different companies depending on their respective profit margins. Companies are therefore asked to determine substantive in the way that they would use for their business decision-making. For example, a substantive impact of relatively high magnitude could occur because of a large number for any one of these aspects, or a small number in all three combining to create a larger impact:

- the proportion of business units affected;
- the extension of the impact on those business units;
- the dependency of the organization on that unit;
- the potential for shareholder or customer concern.

• Describe, in detail, how your organization defines ‘substantive impact’ on your business at the corporate level, including aspects as operations, revenue or expenditure, asses & liabilities, and capital allocation.
• The description of your definition should make clear the thresholds for:

- the magnitude;
- probability to occur;
- frequency of the impact;
-and how they are applied together.

• Include details of any metrics used and report how often these metrics are reviewed and updated.
• Please indicate if your definition/thresholds/metrics relate to direct operations and/or other parts of your value chain.
• Note: in this question, we are not requesting:

- information about what is a substantive impact at the level of facilities, business units, etc.;
- details of the risks your organization is exposed to.

(F3.1b) For your disclosed forest risk commodity(ies), provide details of risks identified with the potential to have a substantive financial or strategic impact on your business, and your response to those risks.

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select 'Yes' in F3.1.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F3.1a, F3.1b, F3.1c)

Rationale

Your response to this question allows CDP data users to understand:

• the inherent risk(s) that your organization is exposed to because of drivers associated with the production, consumption and/or trade of forest risk commodities;
• the estimated potential impact of the risk(s) at the corporate level, and
• your response strategy to address the risk(s)

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Response options

Please complete the following table. The table is displayed over several rows for readability. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Primary risk driver (column 5)

Primary potential impact (column 6)

Primary response to risk (column 13)

Requested content

General

• Please disclose the main risks your organization has identified to its direct operations and/or other parts of its value chain. For example, risks may arise from decreasing availability and/or quality of forest risk commodities due to changes in the physical parameters. These risks could lead to increased costs or disrupted operations and/or supply for your organization. Therefore, these risks may have the potential to generate a substantive financial impact in your business operations, revenue or expenditure.
• Provide information regarding each of your disclosed forest risk commodity(ies).

Type of risk (column 2)

• Select the option that best represents your type of risk, having the following in mind:

- Physical risks may arise from dramatic extreme weather events or subtle changes in weather patterns;
- Regulatory risks arise from current and/or expected city, state, regional, national or global governmental policy related to deforestation, e.g., legislation, commitments, trade relationships;
- Reputational risks include changing consumer behavior, negative media coverage, and consumer market campaigns;
- Technological changes aiming to reduce deforestation risks may cause an impact on the value of a service or product.

Primary risk driver (column 5)

• Select the option that best describes your primary risk driver, i.e., the main factor responsible for your potential impact.
• If none of the available options are suitable, please select ‘Other, please specify’.
• If you select “Other, please specify”, provide a label for the primary risk driver. If you need more than 40 characters, please use the comment box by clicking on the “speech bubble” icon.

Company-specific description (column 7)

• Provide further contextual information on the risk driver selected in column 5 (Primary risk driver), including more detail on its nature and location.
• Include a company-specific description of how the risk driver will impact your organization, including the nature of any secondary impacts.

Timeframe (column 8)

• Select the timeframe in which the inherent risks would be most likely to materialize. It is acknowledged that there is likely to be a higher degree of uncertainty associated with long-term risks.

Magnitude of potential impact (column 9)

• This refers to the extent to which the impact, if it occurred, would affect your business. You should consider the business as a whole. The potential magnitude of the impact can be a combination of the scale of the damage and also your organization’s exposure to being damaged.
• Magnitude of impact will vary from company to company. As it is not possible for CDP to accurately define terms for magnitude of impact, companies are asked to determine and report magnitude using a qualitative 5 point scale from High to Low.
• Factors to consider when classifying the magnitude of the impact on your organization include:

- The proportion of business units affected;
- The size of the impact on those business units;
- The dependency of the company on those units;
- The potential for shareholder or customer concern; and
- An impact could have a relatively high magnitude for the company as a whole because of a large effect in one of the aspects above or small effects in all four combining to create a larger impact.

• If the financial impact has not been assessed by your organization, please select ‘Unknown’.

Likelihood (column 10)

• Likelihood refers to the probability of the inherent impact occurring within the timeframe reported in column 8 (Timeframe).
• In the case of an inherent risk, the probability of the impact might be similar to the probability of the risk event (the risk driver) itself.
• The terms used to describe likelihood are taken from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 2013 report and are consistent across all CDP information requests. As a guide to quantifying likelihood on a % basis, we suggest:

- Virtually certain (greater than 99% probability);
- Very likely (greater than 90% probability);
- Likely (greater than 66% probability);
- More likely than not (greater than 50% probability);
- About as likely as not (between 33% and 66% probability);
- Unlikely (less than 33% probability);
- Very unlikely (less than 10%);
- Exceptionally unlikely (less than 1% probability);
- Unknown.

• For example, you may consider your organization to be potentially exposed to a risk of ‘forest fires’ in the next ‘4-6 years’ which would cause an impact of high magnitude - but the risk is not considered very likely to materialize. In this case, you would select ‘unlikely’. Alternatively, if the risk is related to a piece of new legislation which has already been drafted, the likelihood of the impact associated with that risk occurring will be relatively high and you would select ‘very likely’.

Potential financial impact (column 11)

• Please enter a figure that represents your quantitative estimate of the potential impact. This is the cost of the impact to the business, i.e., a sum of the financial implications of the impact itself only. Note that this figure should not include the cost of the response to deal with the impact. If an estimate is not available, provide an explanation in the “Explanation of financial impact” column.
• The currency you selected in F0.3 must apply.
• If you estimate that there will be no financial impact to your business from this risk, enter zero.
• If your estimate is a range, please provide the mid-point of that range and use column 12 (Explanation of …) to provide the range. Do not leave this field blank unless you are not disclosing any information.

Explanation of financial impact (column 12)

• If your estimate of potential financial impact (column 11) consists of a range, please state the range here.
• Explain the figure (or range) provided in 'Potential financial impact' (column 11), by describing how you arrived at this figure, including:

- What approach was taken;
- what methodology was employed to calculate the figure (or range);
- any assumptions the figure (or range) is dependent on; and
- the likely timescale for the financial impact.

• In case no figure (or range) is provided in column 11, provide a description of the financial impact in relative terms (for example as a percentage relative to a stated or publicly available figure) or give a qualitative estimate of the financial impact. Otherwise, if you have no information about the financial impact, please write ‘Impact not quantified financially’.

Primary response to risk (column 13)

• Select the option that best describes your primary response to risk, i.e., the main action taken to mitigate, avoid or control the inherent risk.
• If none of the available options are suitable, please select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.

Description of the response (column 14)

• Please provide additional details of your organization’s response to mitigate, control, transfer or accept the risk reported in this row.
• Include the timeframe expected for the response strategy to be implemented. Is the response underway, not yet implemented, or completed? What is the projected progress for lowering residual risk? Note that the residual risk refers to the remaining risk after you implement the response.
• Describe the difference the response has made/is likely to make; including:

- How effective the response has been/is expected to be in preventing the inherent risk driver reoccurring; and
- How effective the response has been/is expected to be improving your organization’s resilience at the asset or corporate level, so preventing future financial, operational or strategic impacts.

Cost of the response (column 15)

• Please enter the quantitative figure or estimated figure that represents the cost of your response. This is the cost of the actions to mitigate, control, transfer or accept the impact. If an estimate is not available, provide an explanation in the “Explanation of the cost of the response” column.
• The currency you selected in F0.3 must apply.

Explanation of the cost of the response (column 16)

• Use this field to explain the figure provided in column 15 (Cost of the response). Please describe how you arrived at this figure, including:

- What approach was taken to consider the cost of your response strategy;
- what methodology was employed to calculate the figure, and if it is an estimate;
- any assumptions the figure is dependent on; and
- the likely timescale for the cost of response.

• In case no figure is provided in column 15, provide a description of the cost in relative terms or give a qualitative estimate of the cost of the response. Otherwise, if you have no information about the cost of the response, please write “cost of response not quantified at corporate level”.

Note for SMEs

• As an SME, it is possible to be impacted by a range of different types of risks that can be more broadly categorized into two types of drivers; physical and non-physical.
• The identification of these risks can help your company’s management to evaluate potentially damaging developments before they emerge and realize opportunities before competitors.
• The key components to consider in this question are:

-What are your key risks?
-Is this risk associated with your direct supplier or other parts of the value chain?
-How can your business respond to these risks?

• A comprehensive list of the risk drivers and impacts caused by the risks can be found in column 5 and 6. If you do not know the specific impact deriving from a risk, then select ‘Other, please specify’ and explain in column 7 (Company-specific description).
• Column 14 (Description of the response) allows for an explanation. This gives you the opportunity to describe your efforts and activities so far to mitigate the risk, and any future plans to undertake this response.

Explanation of terms

• Afforestation: establishment of forest through planting and/or deliberate seeding on land that, until then, was not classified as forest, what implies a transformation of land use from non-forest to forest. (Source: FAO Forest Resources Assessment, Working Paper 180, 2015).
• Ecosystem services: the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well-being. The concept ‘ecosystem goods and services’ is synonymous with ecosystem services (Source: TEEB, 2010).
• Forests-related impact: the effects on an organization of a physical, regulatory, reputational or technological challenge, event or action related directly or indirectly to forests.
• High-deforestation risk jurisdictions: this includes the following 25 countries and sub-national level jurisdictions within these countries: Angola, Argentina, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Colombia, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Gabon, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Liberia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), and Zambia (Source: GCP, 2016).
• Inherent risk: the risk that exists in the absence of controls, i.e., not taking into account any potential mitigation or management measures that could be implemented.
• Landscape level approach: refers to actions taken over a large spatial scale for allocating and managing land, under conflicting use (e.g., agriculture, mining, urban, forests), to efficiently addressing social, economic and environmental issues. (Source: DEFRA, 2011; Sayer et al. 2013).
• Multi-stakeholder initiative: initiative that is governed by different stakeholder groups, including private sector companies and their associations, civil society organizations (e.g., environmental and social NGOs) and possibly farmer organizations, government organizations and knowledge providers. (Source: SAI Platform, 2015).
• Reforestation: re-establishment of forest through planting and/or deliberate seeding on land classified as forest. (Source: FAO Forest Resources Assessment, Working Paper 180, 2015).
• Residual risk: the risk remaining after a specific action has been taken to manage the risk.
• Restoration: forest restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed (Source: SER, 2002).
• Sustainable forest management: the process of managing a forest for achieving the continuous production of desired forest products and services without reducing its inherent values and future productivity, avoiding undesirable social-environmental effects. (Source: modified from ITTO website).
• Traceability: the ability to identify and trace the history, distribution, location and application of products, parts and materials, to ensure the reliability of sustainability claims, in the areas of human rights, labor (including health and safety), the environment and anti-corruption. (Source: UN Global Compact, 2014).

(F3.1c) Why does your organization not consider itself to be exposed to forests-related risks with the potential to have a substantive financial or strategic impact?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select 'No' in response to F3.1.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F3.2, F3.3, F3.4)

Rationale

A risk assessment may identify no substantive forests-related risks. This conclusion is important to disclose and explain. Knowing why your organization has concluded that it is not exposed to risks is crucial for investors and other data users to understand your business.

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Requested content

Primary reason (column 2)

• Select the reason that best describes why you consider your organization to not be exposed to forests-related risks with the potential to have a substantive financial or strategic impact on your business, given your own definition of substantive impact as reported in F3.1a.
• If none of the reasons listed are applicable, select "Other, please specify" and fill in the text box with the appropriate reason. If you need more than 40 characters, please use column 3 (Please explain).

Please explain (column 3)

• Your explanation should include company-specific details such as:

- Your evaluation process, in line with the risk identification and assessment process described in your answer to question F2.1a-c (if applicable);
- why there are no forests-related risks that may cause a substantive impact to your organization; and
- specific reasons why you have not yet conducted a risk assessment or indicate when the evaluation will be complete.

Note for SMEs

• If the options in column 2 (Primary reason) do not exactly match your situation, then select ‘Other, please specify' and explain why in column 3 (Please explain).

Opportunities

(F3.2) Have you identified any forests-related opportunities with the potential to have a substantive financial or strategic impact on your business?

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F4.1)

Rationale

Changes in the quality and availability of forest risk commodities, as well as changes in physical, market or regulatory developments related to forests may pose commercial or other opportunities to some organizations. CDP investors and other data users are interested in understanding how companies are approaching and capitalizing on potential forests-related opportunities, especially those with market significance and financial value.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• Select "Yes" if:

- you have identified opportunities related to forests issues that could have a substantive financial/strategic impact on your business; and
- are already taking action to pursue them.

• Note that opportunities can relate to those that are:

- Currently being experienced or expected to arise in the future;
- Being managed or newly identified;
- Well understood or with high levels of uncertainty with regard to the likelihood of the opportunity materializing and the extent to which it will impact the business.

• You will be given the opportunity to provide more detail on these opportunities in subsequent questions.

Note for SMEs

• By selecting ’Yes’ you have an opportunity to describe these in subsequent questions. By specifically selecting ‘Yes, we have identified opportunities but are unable to realize them’ or ‘No’ allows you to indicate your main reasons for not realizing or identifying any opportunity in a subsequent question, e.g. a lack of finance or a lack of resource control hindering you realizing the opportunity.

Explanation of terms

• Forests-related impact: the effects on an organization of a physical, regulatory, reputational or technological challenge, event or action related directly or indirectly to forests.
• Forests-related opportunity: refers to the potential positive impacts related to the sustainable production/consumption of the forest risk commodities on an organization, e.g. cost savings and access to new markets.

(F3.2a) For your selected forest risk commodity(ies), provide details of the identified opportunities with the potential to have a substantive financial or strategic impact on your business.

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select 'Yes' in response to F3.2.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F4.1a)

Rationale

Changes in the quality and availability of forest risk commodities, as well as changes in physical, market or regulation related to forests may pose commercial or other opportunities to some organizations. CDP investors and other data users are interested in understanding how companies are approaching and capitalizing on potential forests-related opportunities, especially those with market significance and financial value.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table. The table is displayed over several rows for readability. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Primary forests-related opportunity (column 4)

Financial incentives (column 5)*

* Column only appears depending on drop-down selection in C4 (Primary forests-related opportunity)

** Only appears for companies from the paper & forestry sector

*** Only appears if an organization selects “Brazil” in C5 of F1.1

Requested content

General

• For the purposes of this response, the opportunities identified should only be those which may potentially bring substantive benefits for your business operations, revenue, or expenditure.

Type of opportunity (column 2)

• The type of opportunity selected here determines the options shown in column 4 (Primary forests…).
• If none of the options are suitable, select ‘Other’. In this case, then select ‘Other, please specify’ in column 4 and a text box will open for you to name your opportunity.

Primary forests-related opportunity (column 4)

• Provide any opportunity arising from the sustainable production/procurement of forest risk commodities that has brought or might bring a substantive net benefit to your organization.
• Please report details for the commodities that are of relevance for your business. You may provide more than one opportunity per commodity.

Financial incentives (column 5)

• Select the main financial instrument listed in the column that could provide incentives for the sustainable production/procurement of your disclosed commodity(ies). If you have more than one financial incentive per commodity, please add another row.
• If none of the listed financial incentives are suitable, then select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will open for you to add a label.

Company-specific description & strategy to realize opportunity (column 6)

• Include details of the opportunity:

- a description of the actual or anticipated positive benefit to your organization, for example, a description of the strategic or financial impact;
- where in the organization the opportunity originates, e.g. company-wide, to a certain location, geographic scale, business line, or with a particular product or service.

• Describe how you have defined ‘substantive’ impact in the context of an opportunity and reference the definition of substantive impact you gave in F3.1a, if applicable.
• Describe the strategy your organization has in place, or has planned, to take advantage of this opportunity as it relates to your company specifically. Specify whether the action is being implemented currently, or it is being developed. Include a case study or example of the strategy in action if possible.
• If you selected ‘Financial incentives’ in column 4, please provide details here.

Estimated timeframe for realization (column 7)

• This refers to the timeframe within which the opportunities are likely to materialize. In addition, it may be possible that your organization is already doing work to realize opportunities identified in the past.
• Select the period(s) that best describe when your organization has realized or will realize any opportunities associated with the production, sourcing and/or trade of forest risk commodities.

Magnitude of potential impact (column 8)

• The magnitude describes the extent to which the financial impact would benefit your business. This will consider the entire business; therefore, the magnitude will reflect both the opportunity and the extent to which it applies throughout the organization.
• This is an estimate of the inherent potential financial benefit of the opportunities i.e. before taking into consideration any processes you may have in place to capitalize on the opportunity.
• An assessment of the ‘magnitude’ of the potential financial benefit arising from an absolute value will vary in scale and metric from company to company so it is not possible for CDP to accurately define the terms for magnitude. For example, two companies may report a potential financial impact figure of $500,000. For company A this could represent a 1% increase in profits, but a 15% increase in revenue for company B. Therefore, companies are asked to determine magnitude on a qualitative 5-point scale from High to Low, and give more details in column 11 (Explanation of financial…).
• Factors to consider include:

- The proportion of business units affected;
- the size of the impact on those business units; and
- the potential for shareholder or customer response.

• If the financial impact has not been assessed by your organization, please select ‘Unknown’.

Likelihood (column 9)

• The likelihood refers to the probability of the opportunity to be realized within the timeframe provided in column 7 (Estimate timeframe…). See the description of each likelihood option in the ‘Explanation of terms’.
• This could also be linked to the probability of the source of the opportunity occurring. For example, if the opportunity relates to a type of financial incentive that has already been approved by a national government, the likelihood of that opportunity occurring will be relatively high.

Potential financial impact (column 10)

• Provide a quantitative estimate of the financial benefit of the opportunity to your business. If an estimate is not available, provide an explanation in the “Explanation of financial impact” column.
• If you estimate that there will be no financial benefit to your business from this opportunity, enter zero.
• This figure should be in the currency reported in F0.3.
• If your estimate is a range, please provide the mid-point of that range and use column 11 (Explanation of …) to provide the range. Do not leave this field blank unless you are not disclosing any information.

Explanation of financial impact (column 11)

• If your estimate of potential financial impact (column 10) consists of a range, please state the range here.
• Explain the assumptions made in calculating the financial figure (or range) reported in column 10.
• If applicable, explain why you could not calculate a quantitative figure (or range), or why you do not anticipate any financial benefit on your business associated with the reported opportunity in column 4 (Primary forests-related opportunity).

Note for SMEs

• Traditionally, SMEs have had trouble accessing markets and finance. However, SMEs flexibility and capability to rapidly change can be used to their advantage. Through the sustainable production/procurement of the forest risk commodities businesses can:

-Reduce operating costs;
-Improve engagement and management with stakeholders;
-Increase the efficiency of production;
-Recruit and retain employees;
-Improve their reputation and brand; and
-Stimulate innovation.

• You can disclose in this question how these opportunities have been realized or have the potential to benefit your business.
• It is important to identify the opportunities with the potential to have the greatest benefit to your company.

Explanation of terms

• Climate change adaption: adjustment to climate change's current or expected effects so the consequences to the business and environment are alleviated and beneficial opportunities are realized (Source: modified from IPCC, 2007).
• Community-based REDD+: a partnership to deliver grants directly to indigenous peoples and local communities to empower them to fully engage in the design, implementation and monitoring of REDD+ (Source: UN-REDD, 2015).
• Environmental Reserve Quotas or CRA (Brazil only): a Brazilian offsetting mechanism that allows landowners with deficit of the minimum forest cover requirement to purchase surplus compliance obligations from other landowners, according to the Brazilian Forest Code. Each CRA relates to one hectare of surplus vegetation (Source: WWF, 2015).
• Forestry fund: general term used for financial mechanisms designed to support the conservation and sustainable use of forests, by investing in sustainable forestry practices.
• Green bonds: it is a bond whereby the proceeds are allocated to environmental projects.
• Jurisdictional REDD+: government-led REDD+ implementation at jurisdictional level.
• Letters of Credit (LCs): under documentary trade finance, a Letter of Credit (LC) is provided for each individual shipment. At the request of the buyer, a bank issues an LC to the assure the suppliers of payment for their shipment (Source: CPSL, 2014).
• Low Carbon Agriculture: actions to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.
• Private REDD+: private sector involvement in REDD+, through various mechanisms, e.g. financing, capacity building or carbon trading.
• REDD+: extends REDD by including the sustainable management of forests, conservation of forests, and the enhancement of carbon stocks (Source: UN-REDD website).
• UN-REDD: the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) was launched in 2008, it is a climate change mitigation tool which is designed to incentivize developing countries through results-based payments to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (Source: UN-REDD website).

Additional Information

For further information on REDD, please consult The Little REDD Book.

(F3.2b) Why does your organization not consider itself to have forests-related opportunities?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select 'No' or 'Yes, we have identified opportunities but are unable to realize them' in response to F3.2.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F4.2, F4.3)

Rationale

Investors and other data users are interested to know whether you are aware of forests-related opportunities. An explanation of why your organization has concluded that it is not exposed to opportunities is crucial for understanding your business strategy.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• Provide a primary reason and an explanation for those forest risk commodities for which you have not identified any opportunities or are unable to realize them.

Primary reason (column 2)

• Select the reason that best describes why you consider your organization/this commodity to not have forests-related opportunities with the potential to have a substantive financial or strategic impact on your business.
• If none of the reasons listed are applicable, select ‘Other, please specify’ and fill in the text box with the label for the appropriate reason. If you need more than 40 characters, please use column 3 (Please explain).

Please explain (column 3)

• Your explanation should include company-specific details such as your evaluation process, including methods and tools, timeframe or specific reasons why you have not yet conducted an assessment or why there are no forests-related opportunities to your organization associated with a specific commodity.
• If opportunities have been identified, you should report those and explain why they are not considered to have the potential to generate a substantive impact to your business.
• If you have identified opportunities and are unable to report them, provide a reason for that here.

F4 Governance

Module Overview

This module captures the governance structure of your organization and its governance mechanisms with regards to forests-related issues. It provides data users with an understanding of the organization’s approach to forests-related issues at the board level and below board-level.

A public forests policy, board-level oversight of forests-related issues, and management responsibility to implement decisions taken by the board are considered good practice and an indication of the importance of forests-related issues to the organization. This module also presents a question on the use of performance incentives for senior employees linked to forests-related issues.

Key changes

• Policy questions now ask for more high-level details on the policies content and coverage.
• New questions ask for details on board-level oversight of forests-related issues, management responsibility of these issues and incentives provided for achieving targets and goals associated with forests matters.

Pathway diagram - questions

This diagram shows the general questions contained in module F4. To access question-level guidance, use the menu on the left to navigate to the question.

Pathway diagram - questions for minimum version questionnaire

This diagram shows the questions contained in module F4 that are included in the minimum version of the questionnaire. To access question-level guidance, use the menu on the left to navigate to the question.

Policy

(F4.1) Does your organization have a policy that includes forests-related issues?

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

Setting a corporate policy for forests-related issues indicates that the organization recognizes its responsibility in reducing deforestation and forest degradation caused by the production, procurement and/or marketing of forest-risk commodities. CDP investors and other data users want to know that companies have articulated and documented a policy that recognizes the importance of forests-related issues to their business and sets clear goals and guidelines for action. If forests-related issues are not yet covered by your policy, you should see an opportunity to consider including them in the near future.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Select one of the following options:

• Yes, we have a documented forest policy that is publicly available
• Yes, we have a documented forest policy, but it is not publicly available
• No, but we plan to develop one within the next two years
• No

Requested content

General

• This question asks if your organization has a policy in place that considers forests-related issues. It may be a stand-alone forest policy document, no matter what the title is, or another equivalent document that includes the company-wide forest policy such as a ‘sustainability policy’.
• CDP understands that the policy is publicly available if it is accessible to all relevant stakeholders (e.g., those available on the organization’s website or at any other unrestricted site). If that’s the case of your policy, select ‘Yes, we have a documented forest policy that is publicly available’.
• Organizations may additionally or otherwise integrate forests matters to some extent into numerous other corporate policy and procedural documents, e.g. supplier codes, agricultural policies, environmental standards and procurement policies. We are not asking for information about those here.

Note for SMEs

• A forests-related policy does not have to be a lengthy document and, for smaller organizations, likely it is part of a wider environmental or corporate policy.
• This policy document includes details on how your organization, at a minimum, comply with legal requirements as well as other guidelines to reduce its impact on forests. Select ‘Yes’ if this is the case for you. The scope of the policy is then detailed in question F4.1a.

Explanation of terms

• Forests-related issues: for the purposes of the forests questionnaire, this refers to deforestation and forest degradation as well as clearance and destruction of other natural vegetation.

(F4.1a) Select the options to describe the scope and content of your policy.

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select 'Yes' in response to F4.1.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

This question gathers data on the aspects that are covered by your policy. This informs investors and other data users about the principles adopted by your business regarding forests-related issues, and provides an insight into your organization’s level of awareness of those issues, as well as the robustness of your policy.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• You should provide information on the general aspects and main goals covered by your organization’s forest policy or equivalent. Note that you should not disclose specific details on your commitments as you will be able to do this in Module 6 (Implementation).
• If you have no stand-alone forest-policy, you should provide details on your equivalent document that includes the company-wide principles and goals regarding forests-related issues, e.g. ‘sustainability policy’.
• If your organization has no overall forest policy, but rather commodity-specific policies only (e.g. palm oil policy), you should disclose in this question the options that are common to all your commodity-specific policies only. In question 4.1b, you will be able to disclose details on each of your commodity-specific policies.

Scope (column 1)

• Select the option that best describes the coverage of this policy (i.e. how broadly does the policy apply?).

Content (column 2)

• Select all the options that describe the content of your forest policy.
• If you would like to add an option, select ‘Other please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.

Please explain (column 3)

• Please provide further details on your forest policy, including:

- details on the content, explaining why the selected options were included in the policy;
- coverage (parts of the business, and stages of value-chain covered by the policy);
- how regularly it is reviewed or updated.

• Please mention and provide an explanation if there are any exclusions.
• Specify which biomes or ecoregions are covered by your policy, e.g. Cerrado biome.

Note:

• You may attach a copy of your policy document, this is optional but will help data-users to better understand your goals and principles.
• Please click “File upload” button (paperclip icon) to drag and drop a file.
• Alternatively, you may include a web-link to your policy with your response to column 3.

Explanation of terms

• Deforestation: conversion of forest to non-forest land use, or the long-term reduction of tree cover below the thresholds that define a forest. (Source: FAO Forest Resources Assessment, Working Paper 180, 2015).
• Forest degradation: changes that negatively affect the species composition, structure and/or function and reduce the forest’s capacity to support biodiversity, supply products and/or deliver ecosystem services. (Adapted from: Accountability Framework Initiative, 2017, The core document – draft for public consultation).
• SDGs: the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 goals for 2030 that look to balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental (Source: Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, 2015).
• Standard: level of quality or achievement used as a measure, norm, model. Usually corporate standards are a document that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods that are understood by the company as the minimum accepted requirements.

Additional information

• Many organizations have adopted a No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation policy (NDPE), committing to avoid deforestation and forest degradation of critical habitats and peatlands and to respect social rights. If you have a NDPE policy, you should indicate so in your response.

(F4.1b) Do you have commodity specific sustainability policy(ies)? If yes, select the options that best describe their scope and content.

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select 'Yes' in response to F4.1.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F8.4)

Rationale

Organizations might develop policies focusing on specific forest risk commodities. This may reflect the fact that some commodities are more relevant than others to their business, that each commodity requires a distinct approach, or that organizations have progressed differently on their sustainability approach regarding their forest risk commodities. This question gathers information on what principles and goals are covered by your commodity specific policies. This will inform investors and other data users on the content of your policies and provide insight on whether your policies are consistent with your business dependency on each forest risk commodity.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Content (column 4)

Requested content

General

• By commodity specific policy, CDP means a policy that clearly specifies the commodity to which the set of principles and goals are applicable to. If you have a policy that follows this principle, please disclose its details here.
• Note that if your forest policy covers all commodities relevant to your business but it does not specify clear principles and guidelines for each commodity, this does not constitute a commodity specific policy. Therefore, you should select ‘No’ in column 2 (Do you have a commodity...) for all commodities.

Scope (column 3)

• Select the option that best describes the coverage of this policy (i.e. how broadly does the policy apply?).

Content (column 4)

• Select all the options that describe the content of your forest policy.
• If you would like to add an option, select ‘Other please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.

Please explain (column 5)

• Please provide further details on your forest policy, including:

- details on the content, explaining why the selected options were included in the policy;
- coverage (parts of the business, and stages of value-chain covered by the policy);
- how regularly it is reviewed or updated.

• Please mention and provide an explanation if there are any exclusions.
• Specify which biomes or ecoregions are covered by your policy, e.g. Cerrado biome.

Note:

• You may attach a copy of your policy document, this is optional but will help data users to understand better your goals and principles.
• Please click “File upload” button (paperclip icon) to drag and drop a file.
• Alternatively, you may include a web-link to your policy with your response to column 5 (Please explain).

Note for SMEs

• If you do not have a policy that establishes specific principles and guidelines for a commodity, e.g. a palm oil policy, you should select ‘No’ in column 2.

Explanation of terms

• Deforestation: conversion of forest to non-forest land use, or the long-term reduction of tree cover below the thresholds that define a forest. (Source: FAO Forest Resources Assessment, Working Paper 180, 2015).
• Forest degradation: changes that negatively affect the species composition, structure and/or function and reduce the forest’s capacity to support biodiversity, supply products and/or deliver ecosystem services. (Adapted from: Accountability Framework Initiative, 2017, The core document – draft for public consultation).
• SDGs: the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 goals for 2030 that look to balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental (Source: Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, 2015).
• Standard: level of quality or achievement used as a measure, norm, model. Usually corporate standards are a document that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods that are understood by the company as the minimum accepted requirements.

Additional information

• Many organizations have adopted a No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation policy (NDPE), committing to avoid deforestation and forest degradation of critical habitats and peatlands and to respect social rights. If you have a NDPE policy, you should indicate so in your response.
• The Sustainable Development Goal 15 (Life on land) focus on protection, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, to halt deforestation/land degradation and biodiversity loss. For further information on this or other goals, please refer to: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Board oversight

(F4.2) Is there board-level oversight of forests-related issues within your organization?

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

Organizations are encouraged to incorporate forests-related issues into their governance procedures. This question will provide information to investors and other data users about the level of commitment of an organization to addressing its forests-related issues. By disclosing information on the responsibilities at the board level, organizations will demonstrate that forests-related issues are given the strategic importance it deserves at this senior level. If forests-related issues do not yet have a board-level oversight, organizations may take this as an opportunity to consider implementing them in the near future.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Select one of the following options:

• Yes
• No

Requested content

General

• In answering this question consider whether the board and/or board committees consider forests-related issues when reviewing and guiding their business strategy, major plans of action, risk management policies, annual budgets, and future financial planning as well as, setting the organization’s performance objectives, monitoring implementation and performance, and overseeing major capital expenditures, acquisitions, and divestitures. If the response to any of these options is true, please select ‘yes’.
• If your organization has board-level oversight for an integrated environmental risk assessment that considers any forests-related risks among other environmental aspects, please select ‘yes’. You’ll be able to provide details in subsequent questions.

Note for SMEs

• Board structures may vary, there may not be a unitary board where the board delegates day-to-day business to the CEO, management, or executive team. It could be an informal board with an operations board and a separate advisory board addressing forests-related issues. Select ‘Yes’ if you have either a more structured board or an informal board responsible to assess forests-related issues reported to them.

Explanation of terms

• Board (or “Board of Directors”): refers to a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Some countries use a two-tiered system where “board” refers to the “supervisory board” while “key executives” refers to the “management board” (Source: TCFD, 2017).
• Forests-related issues: for the purposes of the forests questionnaire, this refers to deforestation and forest degradation as well as clearance and destruction of other natural vegetation.

(F4.2a) Identify the position(s) of the individual(s) on the board with responsibility for forests-related issues.

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select 'Yes' in response to F4.2.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

This question will provide information to investors and other data users about the level of commitment of an organization to addressing its forests-related issues. By disclosing information on the responsibilities at the board level, organizations will demonstrate that forests-related issues are given the strategic importance it deserves at this senior level.

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Requested content

Position of individual (column 1)

• Select the position of the individual on the board responsible for forests-related issues.
• If the position is not listed here or the responsibility lies with a board level committee, you should select "Other, please specify" and a text box will appear for you to add the position or the name of the committee.
• Note that this question asks about the position and not about the names of the staff holding these positions. Do not include the name of any individual or any other personal data in your response.
• If there is more than one position/committee responsible for forests issues, add a new row.

Please explain (column 2)

• Provide a description of the position(s)/committee(s) in the corporate structure and the level of responsibility they have towards forests-related issues.
• Note that this question asks about the position and not about the names of the staff holding these positions. Do not include the name of any individual or any other personal data in your response.
• Provide a rationale for the assignment of responsibilities for forests-related issues to the position(s)/committee(s), e.g. subject matter expertise, or a particular strategy goal.

(F4.2b) Provide further details on the board’s oversight of forests-related issues.

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select 'Yes' in response to F4.2.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

This question will provide information to investors and other data users about the level of commitment of an organization to addressing its forests-related issues. By disclosing information on the responsibilities at the board level, organizations will demonstrate that forests-related issues are given the strategic importance it deserves at this senior level.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• Provide information on the frequency and nature of board-level oversight of forests-related issues.

Governance mechanisms into which forests-related issues are integrated (column 2)

• Select from the drop-down all of the governance mechanisms in which forests-related issues are included as a scheduled agenda item and presented to the board.
• If you need to add a new mechanism, select ‘Other, please specify’ and fill in the text box with a label it. If you need more than 40 characters, please use column 3 (Please explain).

Please explain (column 3)

• Describe the governance mechanisms selected in column 2 (Governance..) and how, given the frequency reported in column 1 (Frequency…), these mechanisms contribute to the board's overall oversight of forests-related issues.
• You may also include such details as who briefs the board, and on which matters (e.g. "a report from each Business Head regarding performance against forests targets is reviewed quarterly.") As much as possible, please give examples from the reporting year.
• Note that your response to this question may refer to the position of employees relevant to board oversight mechanisms. In this case, do not include the name of any individual or any other personal data in your response.

Explanation of terms

• Governance: a system whereby an organization is influenced and controlled based on the interests of shareholders and stakeholders. This involves relationships and communication between management, the board, the shareholders and stakeholders. Governance provides a framework for an organization to set objectives, monitor performance, and evaluate results (Source: TCFD, 2017). 

(F4.2c) Why is there no board-level oversight of forests-related issues and what are your plans to change this in the future?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select 'No' in response to F4.2.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

As CDP investors and other data users are interested in understanding an organization’s awareness and management of forests-related risks at the board-level, this question allows companies to explain why there is no board level oversight and plans to potentially address this gap.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

Primary reason (column 1)

• Provide your organization's rationale for not currently having board-level oversight of forests-related issues. While there may be may be multiple reasons for this, please describe the overarching primary justification.

Please explain (column 3)

• Provide an explanation for why you do not currently have board oversight for forests-related issues or a description of any future plans to implement it in the next two years.

Management responsibility

(F4.3) Below board level, provide the highest-level management position(s) or committee(s) with responsibility for forests-related issues.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

Organizations are encouraged to incorporate forests-related issues into their governance procedures. This question will provide information to investors and other data users about the level of commitment of an organization to addressing its forests-related issues. By disclosing information on the responsibilities at management level, organizations will demonstrate that forests-related issues are given the strategic importance it deserves at a senior level – both at, and below the board.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Requested content

General

• Please provide details of the highest-level individual or committee below board level with a responsibility for forests-related issues and implementing aspects of the organization’s forest policy and strategy.
• This may be immediately below the board or lower down the organization.
• The responsibility may be for assessing and/or managing forests-related risks and opportunities, among others.

Name of the position(s) and/or committee(s) (column 1)

• Select the best match for the position/committee in your organization, or select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.
• Note that this question asks about the position and not about the names of the staff holding these positions. Do not include the name of any individual or any other personal data in your response.
• Note that positions already listed in F4.2a are also listed here, select one of those only if the individual in the position has effective management responsibility for forests-related issues.
• If there is more than one individual/committee below the board with high level responsibility and you would like to describe this, you may use the Add row button. This is optional.

Responsibility (column 2)

• Select the best match for the responsibility of the position/committee reported in column 1 (Name of the position(s)...), or select ‘Other, please specify’ and add a label for the main responsibility. If you need more than 40 characters, please use column 4 (Please explain).

Please explain (column 4)

• Describe the individual’s/committee’s position in the corporate structure, providing a rationale for having the responsibility for forest related issues at the position or the committee selected.
• Note that this question asks about the position and not about the names of the staff holding these positions. Do not include the name of any individual or any other personal data in your response.
• Describe the nature of the report to the board referred to in column 3 (Frequency of reporting...).
• Provide rationale for the frequency of reporting to the board selected in column 3.
• Provide further context for the specific responsibilities, duties and actions of this individual/committee.
• If you selected ‘Not reported to board’ in column 3, explain your reasons here.

Note for SMEs

• If you have someone or a committee responsible for managing and implementing decisions about forests-related issues, provide this information here and other details about individual/committee responsibilities. If you have no employee or committee responsible for forests-related issues, select ‘There is no management-level responsibility for forests-related issues’ in column 1 (Name of the…).
  

Explanation of terms

• Forests-related issues: for the purposes of the forests questionnaire, this refers to deforestation and forest degradation as well as clearance and destruction of other natural vegetation.
• Highest-level management: the most senior individual or committee that holds specific executive power over the management of day-to-day tasks. Highest-level managers would hold ultimate responsibility over the implementation of the decisions taken at the board level.

Employee incentives

(F4.4) Do you provide incentives to C-suite employees or board members for the management of forests-related issues?

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

Data users wish to understand the degree to which organizations encourage their employees to address forests-related issues and impacts of the business, as well as the mechanisms by which organizations are incentivizing certain behaviors and performances. Providing insight into the nature of these incentives and the specific forests-related aspects that they address will inform investors and other data users about how these incentives are aligned with your organization’s identified risks and opportunities, forest policy and business strategy.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Select from the following options:

• Yes
• No, not currently but we do plan to introduce them in the next two years
• No, and we do not plan to introduce them in the next two years

Requested content

General

• If your organization has a formal procedure/scheme that provides any type of incentive to C-suite employees or members of the Board related to the attainment of your organization’s forests-related policies, commitments and targets, please select ‘Yes’. You’ll be able to provide details on these incentives later on.

Explanation of terms

• C-suite: a term used to collectively refer to the most senior executive team.

(F4.4a) What incentives are provided to C-Suite employees or board members for the management of forests-related issues?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ' Yes' in response to F4.4.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

Data users wish to understand the degree to which organizations encourage their employees to address forests-related issues and impacts of the business, as well as the mechanisms by which organizations are incentivizing certain behaviors and performances. Providing insight into the nature of these incentives and the specific forests-related aspects that they address will inform investors and other data users about how these incentives are aligned with your organization’s identified risks and opportunities, forest policy and business strategy.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

Type of incentives (column 1)

• See the description of each type of incentives in the ‘Explanation of terms’.

Who is entitled to benefit from these incentives? (column 2)

• Select ‘No one is entitled to these incentives’ if your organization does not have a specific type of incentive.
• If none of the options are appropriate, select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.
• Note that this question asks about the position of senior employees receiving incentives. Do not include the name of any individual or any other personal data in your response.

Indicator for incentivized performance (column 3)

• Select all the options that are relevant for the incentive you are describing.
• Incentives performance indicators may include, among others, those demonstrating progress towards your organization’s:

- specific commitments and targets;
- supplier engagement processes and projects;
- reputation in the market;
- behavioral change policies and projects, internally and/or externally.

• Select ‘No indicator for incentivized performance’ as a drop-down if your organization has already selected ‘No one is entitled to these incentives’ in column 2 (Who is entitled…?).
• If none of the options are appropriate, select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete. If you need more than 40 characters, please use column 4 (Please explain).

Please explain (column 4)

• Provide details on your incentive indicator, explaining how this aims to contribute to your organizations forests-related goals, which is threshold of success, and how is it measured.
• Provide company-specific examples of how this incentive has impacted your organization so far, and what is expected as future benefits.
• Provide an explanation for why your organization does not have a specific type of incentive, if that is applicable.
• Note that this question asks about the position of senior employees receiving incentives. Do not include the name of any individual or any other personal data in your response.

Explanation of terms

• Monetary incentive: a bonus or some form of financial remuneration.
• Recognition (non-monetary): employee award (e.g. employee of the year) or career progression scheme, but not tied directly to any form of financial remuneration.
• Other non-monetary reward: includes increased holiday allowances, special assignment, parking allocations etc.

F5 Business strategy

Pathway diagram - questions

This diagram shows the general questions contained in module F5. To access question-level guidance, use the menu on the left to navigate to the question.

Strategic plan

(F5.1) Are forests-related issues integrated into any aspects of your long-term strategic business plan, and if so how?

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

This question allows companies to explain if and how they have considered and acted upon forests-related issues at a high level. This question is not asking simply about your organization's response to forests-related issues. Investors and other data users are interested in forward-looking strategic innovations and financial decisions that have been driven by market opportunities, public policy objectives, and corporate responsibility commitments related to forests issues.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• When responding to this question, companies should consider if, what and how forests-related issues have affected the 3 aspects of their business planning at the corporate level for a time horizon beyond 5 years. Primarily, consider if the following issues have affected your long term strategic business plan:

- removing or reducing deforestation and forest degradation from your direct operations;
- increasing the sustainable production and/or consumption of forest risk commodities.

• This could be in response to existing risks or future risks, but could also include other considerations, inside and outside of the company, related to forests issues and commodities, such as current and future market opportunities, public policy agendas, and corporate responsibility commitments.

Are forests-related issues integrated? (column 2)

• You should answer 'yes, forests-related issues are integrated' if they have been included in your organizations' long-term objectives, strategy to realize these objectives and its long-term financial planning.

Long-term time horizon (column 3)

• Select the option that best describes how far into the future your organization considers forests-related issues in each aspect of its business strategy.

Please explain (column 4)

• Provide further details on how forests-related issues are integrated into each aspect of the strategy, using company-specific examples.
• Explain why you have chosen the time horizon indicated in column 3 (Long-term time horizon).
• Specify whether these plans apply to all of your disclosed commodities or to only a selection of them. If your plans do not apply to all your commodities, please provide your reasons here.
• If you indicated in column 2 (Are forests-related issues...) that you have plans to review forests-related issues in the next two years, provide details of your plans.
• If you have not integrated these issues in any aspect(s) of your business plans, indicate your primary reason for not doing so and provide an explanation.

Note for SMEs

• Forests-related issues can be integrated into a long-term business strategy. A long-term business plan usually has the business vision, mission, long-term objectives and financial planning. In the context of this questionnaire, such a strategy may cover:

-Recognition of wider long-term impacts on your business and on the environment, related to forests and use of forest risk commodities, e.g. impacts from forest management, forest degradation and deforestation;
-Strategies to improving/developing sustainable business operations, e.g. sourcing practices, production investments and training on sustainable practices; or
-Business growth strategy aligned to sustainable production/sourcing and customer requirements.

• If you have integrated forests-related issues in any of the aspects of your long-term plan shown in column 1, select ‘Yes, forests-related issues are integrated' and provide further details on the subsequent columns. If you have not integrated forests issues in one or any of the aspects, select ‘No’ and provide and explanation in column 4 (Please explain).

Explanation of terms

• Business objectives: these describe what the organization expects to accomplish over a specified time period, and typically include a statement of purpose and anticipated future state for the organization.
• Financial planning: includes outlining the actions, assets, and resources necessary to meet an organization’s objectives and strategic goals. It is not limited to just creating a “financial plan”, but also includes long-term capital allocations that will go beyond the typical 3-5 year financial plan (e.g., investment, research and development, manufacturing, and markets) (Source: TCFD, 2017).
• Forests-related issues: for the purposes of the forests questionnaire, this refers to deforestation and forest degradation as well as clearance and destruction of other natural vegetation.
• Strategy: refers to an organization’s anticipated future state. The strategy creates a benchmark against which the organization can monitor and measure its progress in reaching that desired state. The strategy design can involve reviewing the motive and scope behind the organization’s activities and the nature of its businesses, considering the risks and opportunities it faces and the environment in which it operates (Source: TCFD, 2017).

F6 Implementation

Module Overview

This module is critical as it requests information on how organizations plan to implement, or are already implementing, their policies and commitments associated with forests-related issues.

Questions in this module ask details on:

• public corporate commitments and any endorsement of multi-stakeholder initiatives to reduce deforestation and forest degradation;
• specific targets for improving sustainability;
• traceability systems in place;
• certification schemes; and
• engagement across the value chain.

Key changes

• Modified question now explicitly asks about public commitments.
• New questions asking companies to report if they have endorsed critical initiatives to reducing deforestation and forest degradation.
• Companies can report if they have monitoring systems to tracking the compliance of their sustainability standards.
• Lists of commitment criteria, third-party certification schemes, and multi-stakeholder initiatives have been revised.

Sector modifications

• Paper & forestry: a new section asking details on any biodiversity restoration projects implemented by your organization.

Commitments

(F6.1) Has your organization made a public commitment to reduce or remove deforestation and/or forest degradation from its direct operations and/or supply chain?

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F8.2)

Rationale

This question elicits data on any forests-related commitment that have been made public by companies. An organization that commits publicly to implement a forest policy shows investors and other data users a strong signal of its progress towards sustainable forests stewardship. Companies benefit from disclosing this information by benchmarking their commitments against their peers and driving change within their industries.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Select one of the following options:

• Yes
• No

Requested content

General

• A commitment is public when it is accessible to all relevant stakeholders (e.g., those available on the organization’s website or on any other unrestricted site).
• Your commitments should reflect actions taken to implement your forest policy described in F4.1a and F4.1b, if applicable.
• Please select ‘Yes’ if your organization has made any public commitment to reduce or remove deforestation and/or forest degradation from its direct operations and/or supply chain.
• Internal or private commitments should not be disclosed here.
• You will have the opportunity to provide details on your commitments in the following questions.

Note:

• You may attach a copy of your commitment(s) document, this is optional but will help data-users to understand better the nature of your commitment(s).
• Please click the “File upload” button (paperclip icon) to drag and drop a file. If your report is in a format that cannot be attached (such as a web page) you may attach a screen shot.

(F6.1a) Has your organization endorsed any of the following initiatives as part of its public commitment to reduce or remove deforestation and/or forest degradation?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Yes’ in response to F6.1.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

This question elicits data on deforestation-free commitments that are made public by collective agreements and global initiatives. Endorsing widely known public initiatives reflects best practices of forest stewardship and meets data users demand for forests-related corporate action. Companies benefit from disclosing this information by benchmarking themselves against their peers.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Select all that apply:

• New York Declaration on Forests
• Tropical Forest Alliance 2020
• We Mean Business
• Other, please specify

Requested content

General

• CDP has listed leading global initiatives that promote adoption of corporate commitments to eliminate commodity-driven deforestation from supply chains. Initiatives disclosed here should be voluntary and clearly related to public commitments on reducing commodity-driven deforestation and/or forest degradation.
• Only select ‘New York Declaration on Forests’ if your organization is listed as an endorser on the New York Declaration on Forests Global Platform website.
• Only select ‘Tropical Forest Alliance 2020’ if your organization is listed as a partner on the initiative’s website.
• Only select ‘We Mean Business’ if your organization has committed to “remove commodity-driven deforestation from all supply chains by 2020” and is listed under this specific target on the initiative’s website.
• If you select “Other, please specify”, provide a label for the initiative. If you need more than 40 characters, please use the comment box by clicking on the “speech bubble” icon.

Note for SMEs

• This question refers to major international commitments aimed at corporates, however there are many other initiatives that are more appropriate for smaller organizations such as national government schemes, trade associations or NGO programmes e.g. WWF’s Global Forest and Trade Programme. If this is the case, select ‘Other, please specify’ and identify these initiatives.

Additional information

• The ‘New York Declaration on Forests’ (NYDF), launched in 2014, brings together governments, companies and other stakeholders committed to its ten goals, which include “eliminating deforestation from the production of agricultural commodities such as palm oil, soy, paper and beef products by no later than 2020”. More information at: nydfglobalplatform.org
• The ‘Tropical Forest Alliance 2020’ (TFA2020) is global public-private initiative in which partners are committed “to reduce tropical deforestation associated with the sourcing of commodities such as palm oil, soy, beef, and paper and pulp”. More information at: www.tfa2020.org
• We Mean Business’ is a global non-profit coalition that is mobilizing businesses to take action on climate change. Amongst other objectives, We Mean Business aims to “Remove commodity-driven deforestation from all supply chains by 2020”. More information at: www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org.

(F6.1b) Provide details on your public commitment(s), including the description of specific criteria, coverage, and actions.

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Yes’ in response to F6.1.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F8.2a)

Rationale

This question gathers details on your public forests-related commitment(s).

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

* Not shown for companies from the paper & forestry sector

Criteria (column 2)

Requested content

General

• This question asks for details on your public commitments related to the production, use and/or trade of forest-risk commodities.

Commodity coverage (column 1)

• If the commitments cover more than one commodity, you should add one row per commodity and indicate the applicable commitments for each commodity.

Criteria (column 2)

• The criteria listed in this column represent elements of your public commitment to reduce or remove deforestation and/or forest degradation. Only options that were part of your public commitment in the reporting year should be selected. To ensure your response is accurate, see guidance on specific dropdowns below and refer to the ‘Explanation of terms’ section.

- ‘No conversion of natural habitats’ should be selected if the organization has a no conversion commitment that covers all natural habitats, including natural forests. This criterion encompasses and goes beyond ‘Zero gross deforestation and forest degradation’.
- ‘Zero gross deforestation and forest degradation’ and ‘Zero net deforestation and forest degradation’ differ substantially one from another, representing different levels of ambition. If your organization has a zero-deforestation commitment that does not specifies if it is ‘gross’ or ‘net’, refer to the definitions and select the one that best represents your organization’s commitment.
- An example that fits ‘Forest landscape restoration’ criterion would be a commitment made in the context of the Bonn Challenge or other similar initiative.
- Selecting ‘No conversion of High Conservation Value areas’ means that the company is able to confirm that the High Conservation Values (HCV) approach was applied in the origin of the forest risk commodity being disclosed. Provide details in the ‘Please explain’ column. If your commitment is linked to another framework/approach for recognizing the biological importance of a geographically delimited area (e.g., Key Biodiversity Areas - KBAs), select “Other, please specify” and specify the framework/approach. In this case, provide an explanation in the ‘Please explain’ column.
- Selecting ‘No conversion of High Carbon Stock forests’ means that the company is able to confirm that the High Carbon Stock (HCS) approach was applied in the origin of the forest risk commodity being disclosed. Provide details in the ‘Please explain’ column. If your commitment is linked to another framework/approach for identifying and avoiding conversion of areas with relevant carbon stock, select “Other, please specify” and provide an explanation in the ‘Please explain’ column.
- Select ‘Other, please specify’ if your forests-related public commitments are not covered by the options presented and provide a label for the public commitment. If you need more than 40 characters, please use the comment box by clicking on the “speech bubble” icon.

Operational coverage (column 3)

• If you select ‘Selected facilities, business and geographies’, please provide further information in the ‘Please explain’ column.

% of total production/consumption covered by commitment (column 4)

• Indicate what percentage of your total production and/or consumption of your selected commodity(ies) is covered by your commitment.

Commitment timeframe (column 5)

• Select the year your organization specified for realizing its commitments.
• If different commitments have different timeframes, indicate the timeframe for your main forest-related commitment and provide further information in the ‘Please explain’ column.
• If your organization’s commitment has no established timeframe, select ‘No timeframe’ and explain why in the ‘Please explain’ column.

Please explain (column 6)

• Provide any additional information related to your commitments, providing examples, and explain exclusions.
• Organizations disclosing zero gross deforestation and no conversion commitments should indicate here the cut-off date after which deforestation/conversion is not be accepted, as this is crucial for the implementation of these commitments.
• You should provide details on which biomes or ecoregions are covered by your commitments, e.g. Cerrado biome.

Explanation of terms

• CITES species: species listed in any of the annexes of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
• Controversial sources: sources involving forest risk commodities produced/harvested illegally, in violation of traditional and civil rights, threatening high conservation value forests, or from areas where natural forests are being converted to other uses.
• Forest: tree-covered land - spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10% - that is not predominantly under agricultural or urban land use (Source: FAO Forest Resources Assessment, Working Paper 180, 2015).*
• Forest degradation: changes that negatively affect the species composition, structure and/or function and reduce the forest’s capacity to support biodiversity, supply products and/or deliver ecosystem services. (Adapted from: Accountability Framework Initiative, 2017, The core document – draft for public consultation)*.
• Forest landscape restoration:process of regaining ecological functionality and enhancing human well-being across deforested or degraded forest landscapes. (Source: IUCN – Forest Landscape Restoration).
• Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC): a community right to give or withhold its consent to proposed projects that may affect the lands they customarily own, occupy or otherwise use, as recognized by several international instruments including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), ILO Convention 169, and Convention on Biological Diversity.
• High Carbon Stock forests: this is the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) classification of forested areas that should be protected based on high carbon stock, importance to local communities or high biodiversity value. The HCSA distinguishes high carbon stock forests from degraded lands that may be developed.
• High Conservation Value: biological, ecological, social or cultural values which are considered outstandingly significant or critically important, at the national, regional or global level, as defined by the High Conservation Values (HCV) Resource Network.
• Natural habitat: areas composed of viable assemblages of plant and/or animal species of largely native origin, and/or where human activity has not essentially modified an area’s primary ecological functions and species composition. This includes all types of natural habitats, e.g. natural forests, savannahs, natural scrublands, peatlands, wetlands, and natural grasslands. (Source: International Finance Corporation – IFC, Performance Standard 6, 2012).
• Peatland: an area with or without vegetation with a naturally accumulated peat layer at the surface, while peat is defined as accumulated material consisting of at least 30% (dry mass) of dead organic material (Source: Joosten, H. and D. Clarke. 2002. Wise Use of Mires and Peatlands - Background Principles including a Framework for Decision-Making).
• Threatened and protected habitats: all habitats considered threatened or otherwise protected by national or subnational laws and regulation, as well as international multilateral agreements, including protected areas, World Natural Heritage Sites, Natura 2000 sites and other similar areas.
• Threatened and protected species: all species listed on IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, as well as other species considered threatened or otherwise protected by national or subnational laws and regulation.
• Zero gross deforestation: absolute no conversion of forest to non-forest land use, and therefore, does not allow compensatory gains in forest cover made elsewhere (Source: FAO, 2017. Zero deforestation initiatives and their impacts on commodity supply chains)*.
• Zero net deforestation: no net forest loss means that some forest conversion is possible, but the total quantity, quality and carbon density of forests is maintained (Source: WWF, 2016. Living Planet Report 2016. Risk and resilience in a new era)*.

*CDP recognizes that Zero gross/net deforestation, and Forest degradation and Forest definitions are still under debate. For the purpose of this request, please use the definitions given in this document.

Additional information

• For further information on Commitments types and guidelines, please refer to: Weber, K., Walther-Thoß, J., & Fleckenstein, M. (2016). Deforestation-free supply chains. Concepts and implications. WWF Deutschland. Berlin.
• Many organizations have adopted a No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation policy (NDPE), committing to avoid deforestation and forest degradation of critical habitats and peatlands and to respect social rights. If you have commitments from a NDPE policy, you should indicate so in your response.

Targets

(F6.2) Did you have any quantified targets for increasing sustainable production and/or consumption of your disclosed commodity(ies) that were active during the reporting year?

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F9.5, F9.6)

Rationale

This question gathers data on specific targets on sustainable production and/or consumption of forest risk commodities. Effective implementation of policies and commitments requires specific targets to be set. Ambitious targets reflect how urgent forest issues are being addressed by organizations. Information disclosed about your targets provides CDP data-users with a way of tracking progress towards sustainability. Organizations also benefit from setting targets by having clear indicators of their progress towards better forest stewardship.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Select one of the following options:

• Yes
• No

Requested content

General

• Select ‘Yes’ if targets for increasing sustainable production and/or consumption were active during the reporting year, including targets that have been reached during this period.
• Note that these targets should be in line with your policy and commitments and refer to specific, measurable, achievable and timebound actions that you may adopt for improving sustainable production and/or consumption within your organization. For example, you may have targets for adopting certain standards by a certain date or to increase the traceability level for a certain commodity.

Explanation of terms

• Target: a specific measurable output set by your company to be achieved within a specific timeframe. Targets are usually small steps towards a wider and long-term corporate goal.

(F6.2a) Provide details of your target(s) for increasing sustainable production and/or consumption of the disclosed commodity(ies), and progress made.

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Yes’ in response to F6.2.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F9.5, F9.6)

Rationale

This question gathers details your specific targets on sustainable production and/or consumption of forest risk commodities.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table. The table is displayed over several rows for readability. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

* Drop-down list for traceability point is only shown if `Traceability' is selected in the `Type of Target' column

Form of commodity covered (column 3)

** Not shown for companies from the paper & forestry sector

Third-party certification scheme (column 7)***

** Not shown for companies from the paper & forestry sector

*** Column is only shown if `Third-party certification scheme' is selected in the previous `Type of Target' column

Requested content

General

• Please disclose all targets for increasing sustainable production and/or consumption that were active during the reporting year. Targets that have been achieved during the reporting year should also be disclosed.

Target reference number (column 1)

• Please select a single unique reference number for each target.
• You can provide a maximum of 20 different targets (Target 1- Target 20).
• Each reference number shall be used to track progress on the specific target in the following years.

Forest risk commodity (column 2)

• If you have specified targets for different commodities, ensure that you respond to this question by adding new rows for each commodity.

Form of commodity covered (column 3)

• If your target covers all forms of the commodity, please select ‘All forms of …” in this column.
• If only certain forms are covered by your target, select all options that apply.
• If there are different targets for different forms of commodity, each target should be disclosed separately by adding rows to the table.

Type of target (column 4)

• If your target is linked to a ‘Third-party certification scheme’, you will be asked to provide further details on which schemes are accepted.
• Production and procurement standards are understood in a broad sense, referring to any sustainability policies and/or requirements, other than third-party certification, adopted by your organization for production, trade, marketing and uses of forest risk commodities. Therefore, these include publicly available standards set by a third party, e.g., ISO 20400, as well as internal standards set by the company, e.g. sustainable procurement policies. If you select one of the two options, please provide details on the standard in the ‘Please explain’ column.
• If your target is related to `Traceability`, you will have to provide further details on the level of traceability across your supply chain.
• If none of the available options are appropriate to describe your target, please select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete. Details on the type of target should be provided in column 13 (Please explain).

Third-party certification scheme (column 7)

• If you have a target that involves more than one certification scheme per commodity, you may select all that apply. If more than one certification scheme is selected, please inform in the ‘Please explain’ column if there are specific targets for each certification scheme.
• Targets for increasing recycled material content should be disclosed as a sustainable production/procurement standard target.
• If none of the available options describe the scheme adopted by your organization, or if you would like to add a relevant scheme, select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete. If you need more than 40 characters, please use column 13 (Please explain).

Start year (column 8)

• This date is a reference point in the past for which your organization is able to provide reliable data regarding a specific target. For example, if you have data showing that in 2015, 15% of the refined palm oil acquired by your organization was traceable to country level, 2015 can be used as the start year for a traceability target aiming at 100% of refined palm oil, traceable to country level, by a given year.

Start figure (column 9)

• Indicate the percentage of production/use of the forest risk commodity that fulfilled target requirements in the start year.

Target year (column 10)

• This date represents when you expect to achieve your target for increasing sustainable production/consumption.

Target (column 11)

• Indicate the percentage of your total production and/or consumption of the specified form of commodity that should be complying with the requirements of your target in the target year.

% achieved (column 12)

• Indicate how much progress your organization has made so far towards achieving the target.

Please explain (column 13)

• Use this column to provide additional information on your targets, including why the targets have been chosen and how the company is planning to meet them.
• If you have a target on third-party certification and selected multiple certification schemes for the commodity, please provide a breakdown here.

Note for SMEs

• To help manage and increase the sustainable production and/or consumption of the disclosed commodity(ies) it is advisable that organizations set quantifiable and measurable targets
• SMEs are encouraged to set targets that:

-Include all parts of your organization which you own or control;
-Include an increase in sustainable production/consumption;
-Are comparable over time;
-Are achievable in 5-10 years; and
-Are realistic for your business context.

Explanation of terms

• Sustainable procurement standard: set of rules and guidelines that define a process whereby organizations meet their needs for goods and services in a positive cost-benefit way generating benefits not only to the organization, but also to society and the economy, whilst minimizing damage to the environment.
• Sustainable production standard: set of rules and guidelines that define the minimum requirements for producing raw materials, goods or delivering services sustainably, i.e., minimizing social-environmental impacts and maximizing gains to the company.
• Target: a specific measurable output set by your company to be achieved within a specific timeframe. Targets are usually small steps towards a wider and long-term corporate goal.
• Third-party certification: when a certification process is carried out by an independent organization.
• Traceability: the ability to identify and trace the history, distribution, location and application of products, parts and materials, to ensure the reliability of sustainability claims, in the areas of human rights, labor (including health and safety), the environment and anti-corruption. (Source: UN Global Compact, 2014).

Example responses

(F6.2b) Why do you not have target(s) for increasing sustainable production and/or consumption of your disclosed commodity(ies) and what are your plans to develop these in the future?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘No’ in response to F6.2.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

This question gathers information on the primary reasons for why organizations did not have any quantified targets for increasing sustainable production and/or consumption in the reporting year. It also provides a space for disclosers to explain any short-term plan for setting targets. This information meets the demand for corporate transparency from investors and other data users. Organizations benefit from disclosing this information by having a platform for reporting challenges or future projects for target-setting.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

Primary reason (column 2)

• Select the option that best describes the primary reason for why your organization has no targets for increasing sustainable production and/or consumption of the forest risk commodity shown in column 1, or indicate if you have plans for implementing targets in the next two years.

Please explain (column 3)

• If you select ‘We are planning to introduce a target in the next two years’, specify, whenever possible, the type of target, indicators, whether it applies to produced or sourced materials, the target coverage (e.g., company-wide, or selected facilities), and the expected date for implementing the target.
• For any other primary reason selected, provide further information to clarify why you do not have target(s) for increasing sustainable production and/or consumption of your disclosed commodity(ies).

Traceability

(F6.3) Do you have traceability system(s) in place to track and monitor the origin of your disclosed commodity(ies)?

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F6.1)

Rationale

It is critical for companies to have a system in place to track and monitor the origin of raw materials derived from forest risk commodities, if they want to understand their exposure to forests-related risks. This question elicits data on the traceability system(s) and on the level of traceability used by organizations to ensure that their sourced/traded forest risk commodity(ies) meets the specified sustainability requirements. This information helps investors and other data users to assess whether organizations are tracking the origin of their forest risk commodities, and if they can monitor forests-related risks across their supply chains.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• This question focusses on whether the company is able track the forest risk commodity back to its original source. Note that the question is not about consumption/production of certified products. It is also not about chain of custody certification, which ensures that the product is in line with the standard along the supply-chain, but not necessarily indicates its origin.
• If your organization has a traceability system in place, select 'Yes'.

Note for SMEs

• For SMEs that only source from their own facilities, traceability should be a straightforward process.
• For those that also source from growers and smallholders, tracing back to the source is not as simple, but companies are encouraged to work towards achieving it. You will be able to disclose more about your traceability process in the subsequent questions.

Explanation of terms

• Traceability: the ability to identify and trace the history, distribution, location and application of products, parts and materials, to ensure the reliability of sustainability claims, in the areas of human rights, labor (including health and safety), the environment and anti-corruption. (Source: UN Global Compact, 2014).
• Traceability system: system that tracks by documentation the trail of products and/or raw materials along the value chain.

(F6.3a) Provide details on the level of traceability your organization has for your disclosed commodity(ies).

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Yes’ in response to F6.3.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F6.3)

Rationale

This question gathers details on the traceability system(s) and on the level of traceability used by organizations to ensure that their sourced/traded forest risk commodity(ies) meets the specified sustainability requirements. This information helps investors and other data users to assess whether organizations are tracking the origin of their forest risk commodities, and if they can monitor forests-related risks across their supply chains.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table:

* Not shown for Timber

** Not shown for Cattle Products

*** Shown for Timber only

**** Shown for Palm Oil and Soy only

***** Shown for Cattle Products only

Requested content

General

• A traceability system records and follows the trail of products, parts and materials from the original production/extraction of raw materials, along the supply chain, to their ultimate distribution as final products to the customer. Note that chain of custody certification is not a traceability system, since its main objective is to ensure the identity of certified products along the supply chain, rather than to the point of origin.

% of total production/consumption volume traceable (column 2)

• Indicate the percentage of your total production and/or consumption volume of the disclosed forest risk commodity you can trace back to, at least, country level.
• The percentage should represent the total volume that is traceable, regardless of the level indicated in column 3 (Point to which commodity is traceable). For example, if 40% of your timber consumption is traceable to country level and 15% is traceable to plantation level, please select the option that represents the total percentage, in this case 51-60%.

Point to which commodity is traceable (column 3)

• The ‘origin’ or ‘point of origin’ could be a farm (for cattle), a paper or pulp mill (for paper products including packaging), a plantation or forest (for timber, palm oil and soy) that is identified as the original source of a product and its natural components. Note that this is different to the point of manufacture. For paper or paper packaging, a named paper or pulp mill is an acceptable point of origin. For retailers, a country, region, or province is an acceptable point of origin, as long as a company-specific explanation is provided in column 4 (Description of traceability system).
• Select the option that best represents the level to which your organization can track the origin of your selected commodity(ies). If more than one option applies to a single commodity, select the one that represents the greatest volume of commodity produced/sourced. For example, if 60% of your timber consumption is traceable to country level and other 10% is traceable to plantation level, select ‘Country’. If that is the case, provide a breakdown of the percentages for each relevant point of origin in column 4.

Description of traceability system (column 4)

• Describe the system that allows your company to indicate the point of origin of the forest risk commodities consumed and/or produced, including information on whether it allows your company to identify the biome of origin (e.g., Cerrado biome).
• Provide one or more examples of how the system has allowed the company to trace forest risk commodities back to the origin.

Exclusions (column 5)

• Select all the options that apply. If none of the available options are suitable, please select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.
• If you indicated that you do not have 100% traceability, select the option(s) which best represent the element(s) that is not traceable to the point specified in column 3. You will be able to provide details on your exclusions in column 6 (Description of exclusion)

Description of exclusion (column 6)

• Describe the exclusion(s) selected in the previous column and provide an explanation.
• If a specific biome or ecoregion is excluded (under ‘geographical region’), specify which and why it was excluded.

(F6.3b) Why do you not have system(s) in place to track and monitor the origin of your disclosed commodity(ies) and what are your plans to develop these in the future?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘No’ in response to F6.3.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F6.2)

Rationale

This question gathers information on the primary reasons for why organizations do not have any system(s) in place to track and monitor the origin of their forest risk commodity(ies). It also provides a space for disclosers to explain any short-term plan for adopting systems. This information meets the demand from CDP data users for improved traceability across supply chains.

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Requested content

Please explain (column 3)

• Select the option that best describes the primary reason why your organization has no traceability system(s) in place or indicate if you have plans for implementing a traceability system in the next two years.
• If you select ‘We are planning to introduce a target in the next two years’, specify, whenever possible, the type of traceability system(s), whether it applies to produced or sourced materials, the percentage of your production/consumption volume covered, and the expected date for implementation.

Certification and sustainability standards

(F6.4) Do you specify any third-party certification schemes for your disclosed commodity(ies)? Indicate the volume and percentage of your production and/or consumption covered.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F9.4)

Rationale

This question gathers information on standards of production/consumption certified by a third party. Credible third-party certification processes can provide a valuable method of demonstrating to investors and other data users that your organization adopts responsible practices. And while it is acknowledged that standards can be subject to controversy and that there are compromises involved in setting any global growing standards, they can be opportunities for collaboration that could benefit your organization through the improvement of your risk management strategy and practice.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Third-party certification scheme (column 3)

*Not shown for companies from the paper & forestry sector

Form of commodity covered (column 5)

* Not shown for companies from the paper & forestry sector

Requested content

Forest risk commodity (column 1)

• Ensure that you respond to this question for all your disclosed forest risk commodity(ies) by adding one row per commodity.
• If your organization specifies third-party certification schemes for both production and consumption for the same commodity, please add one row for each.

Do you specify any certification scheme? (column 2)

• If you do not specify certification schemes for one or more of your disclosed commodities, you should still add a new row for each commodity in column 1 and select ‘No’ in this column. Provide an explanation for that in column 8 (Please explain).

Third-party certification scheme (column 3)

• If you comply with more than one kind of certification scheme for the selected commodity, select all that apply.
• If none of the available options are suitable, or you would like to add another scheme, please select ‘Other, please specify’ and specify your scheme. If you need more than 40 characters, use column 8. If that is the case, provide a brief description of your scheme in column 8.

% of total production/ consumption certified (column 4)

• This refers to the total volume of commodity that is either produced or consumed by your organization.
• If your organization is both a producer and consumer of the selected commodity, provide the percentage associated with production and consumption in separate rows.
• Indicate the percentage of your total production or consumption of the selected commodity that is currently certified by the certification scheme(s) selected in column 3 (Third-party...).

Form of commodity (column 5)

• Select all forms of commodity covered by the certification scheme(s) selected in column 3.

Volume of production/consumption certified (column 6)

• Indicate the volume of your production or consumption of the selected commodity that is currently certified to the scheme(s) selected in column 3. If the figure is an estimation, please state that in column 8 (Please explain).
• If the forms of commodity you selected in column 5 (Form of commodity) are expressed in different metrics (e.g., square meters and cubic meters), provide here the figure for the form that represents the largest percentage of your production/consumption volume.

Metric (column 7)

• For the figure provided in column 6 (Volume...), select the corresponding metric.
• Ensure to select a metric that is suitable to the form(s) of commodity you are disclosing
• If none of the available options are suitable, please select “Other, please specify” and a text box will appear for you to complete.

Please explain (column 8)

• Provide further details/explanation if applicable, according to the guidance for any of the previous columns. Provide one or more examples or case studies related to the adoption of third-party certification.

Note for SMEs

• Certification is a tool that can allow an organization to gain access to markets.
• Access to markets is a major challenge to SMEs and smallholders in the commodities sector. If you do not have the production, processing or packing capability to meet the certification standards then please disclose ‘No’ in column 2 and provide a further explanation in column 8 (Please explain).
• Certain certification schemes are designed for SMEs and smallholders, if you cannot find the relevant certification scheme in column 3 then please select ‘Other, please specify’.
• If you are offered any support in obtaining certification in the form of training and capacity building, please disclose this in column 8.

Explanation of terms

• Certification: the action or process of providing a product with an official document attesting to a status or level of achievement against a certain standard.
• Third-party certification: when a certification process is carried out by an independent organization.

Example response

(F6.5) Do you specify any sustainable production/procurement standards for your disclosed commodity(ies), other than third-party certification? Indicate the percentage of production/consumption covered and if you monitor supplier compliance with these standards.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F9.1, F9.2)

Rationale

The standards set by your organization send market signals to your suppliers, partners and buyers, which have an indirect impact on the production standards on the ground and on the demand from downstream in the value chain. For some commodities, locations or products, there might be a limitation to adopt third-party certification schemes, which leads companies to adopt other standards or develop their own. Organizations should clearly outline the environmental principles and rules they follow for producing and/or consuming forest risk commodities, if these are not already embedded in a third-party certification scheme. This information provides further context to data users on how production and/or sourcing of forest risk commodities is performed by your organization.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table. The table is displayed over several rows for readability. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

* Only shown if you select ‘Production‘ in question F0.4.

** Only shown if you select ‘Processing‘, ‘Trading‘, ‘Manufacturing‘ or ‘Retailing’ in question F0.4.

*** Only shown if you select ‘Procurement‘ in column C3 (Type of standard).

Requested content

General

• Provide information on any standards adopted by your organization that are not already included in a third-party certification scheme you mentioned in F6.4.

Forest risk commodity (column 1)

• Ensure that you respond to this question for all your disclosed forest risk commodity(ies) by adding at least one row for each commodity.

Do you specify any sustainability standards? (column 2)

• Production and procurement sustainability standards would include publicly available standards set by a third party, e.g., ISO 20400, as well as internal standards set by the company, e.g. sustainable procurement policies.
• Only standards directly related to the sustainability of the disclosed forest risk commodities are relevant in the context of this disclosure.
• If you specify one or more standards, select “Yes”. If not, select “No” and provide an explanation in column 9 (Please explain).
• If you specify any production and/or procurement standards that are based on third-party certification schemes already disclosed in F6.4, select “No standard other than third-party certification” and explain that in the “Please explain” column.

Type of standard (column 3)

• If your organization specifies sustainability standards for both production and procurement, please add one row for each.

Description of standard (column 4)

• Describe the standard specified by your organization, explaining how it relates to its policies and commitments and whether this applies to your direct operations, supply chain or both. Indicate any exclusions.
• If your organization has adopted a standard developed by a third party, please specify this here.
• Provide one or more examples related to the adoption of sustainability standards by your company, if applicable.

% of total commodity volume covered by standard (column 5)

• Indicate the percentage of your total production or consumption of the selected commodity that is currently covered by the standard. This refers to the total volume of commodity that is either produced or sourced by your organization.

Do you have a system in place to monitor compliance with this standard? (column 6)

• Indicate if you have a system or procedure in place to monitor whether your suppliers are in compliance with your procurement standards. Compliance monitoring can be undertaken through regular audits or on an ad hoc basis and may involve site visits or supplier questionnaires, among other strategies. It may also be that compliance with your procurement standards is a requirement in the supplier selection process. If this is the case, please select ‘Yes’.

Type of monitoring system (column 7)

• Select the type(s) of monitoring system you have in place and provide a description in column 9 (Please explain).
• If none of the available options are suitable, select ‘Other, please specify’ and text box will appear for you to complete.

% of suppliers in compliance with standards (column 8)

• Please indicate the percentage of your total suppliers covered by the sustainable procurement standard.

Please explain (column 9)

• Provide additional information on your standards, including a description of your organization’s monitoring system, if applicable, and indicate any exclusions
• Provide one or more examples related to the use of monitoring system(s), if applicable.

Explanation of terms

• Sustainable procurement standard: set of rules and guidelines that define a process whereby organizations meet their needs for goods and services in a positive cost-benefit way generating benefits not only to the organization, but also to society and the economy, whilst minimizing damage to the environment.
• Sustainable production standard: set of rules and guidelines that define the minimum requirements for producing raw materials, goods or delivering services sustainably, i.e., minimizing social-environmental impacts and maximizing gains to the company.
• Standard: level of quality or achievement used as a measure, norm, model. Usually corporate standards are a document that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods that are understood by the company as the minimum accepted requirements.
• Sustainability standard: standard that addresses social, environmental or economic practices of a defined entity (Source: ISEAL Alliance, 2014 ).

Engagement

(F6.6) Are you working with smallholders to encourage and support best practices that aim to reduce or remove deforestation/forest degradation?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Production‘, ‘Processing’ and/or ‘Trading’ in response to F0.4.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F10.2)

Rationale

The production of forest risk commodities may offer an opportunity for engaging with local stakeholders to drive local economic development. It may also be the case the situation on the ground in many countries calls for work with smallholders to source raw materials sustainably. This question captures data on the extent of company engagement with smallholder farmers. CDP data users evaluate this information to understand whether companies are progressing towards increased awareness of their supply chains. Through engaging with smallholders, an organization can increase the quantity and quality of its supply, improve its level of traceability, as well as reducing its procurement costs.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• Properties under the control of smallholders would include woodlots, plantations, and agricultural land under management of local communities, indigenous peoples, families, growers, and/or ranchers. Typically, these properties will be managed for low-intensity harvesting of the forest risk commodities.
• If your organization works with smallholders, please disclose information on any engagement your company performs.

Are you working with smallholders? (column 2)

• Indicate if you engage with smallholders for each of your selected commodities.
• If you source from smallholders but do not engage with them, please select ‘No, not working with smallholders’.
• If you do not source from smallholders, select ‘Not applicable’.

Please explain (column 3)

• Provide details on your engagement strategy, any specific projects, and impacts of this work.
• A company-specific definition of a ‘smallholder’ can also be described in this column.
• If in column "Are you working with smallholders?" the option "No, not working with smallholders" is selected, provide an explanation of why there is no engagement with smallholders.
• If in column "Are you working with smallholders?" the option "Not applicable" is selected, provide an explanation of why smallholders are not relevant for the company's business model and supply chain.

Explanation of terms

• Smallholder: a producer who primarily relies on family or household labor, or reciprocal workforce exchange with other members of the community (Source: Accountability Framework Initiative, 2017, The core document – draft for public consultation ).

(F6.7) Are you working with your direct suppliers to support and improve their capacity to supply sustainable raw materials?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Processing’, ‘Trading’, ‘Manufacturing’ and/or ‘Retailing’ in response to F0.4.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F10.3)

Rationale

This question elicits data on engagement with your direct suppliers. With companies continuing to establish and pursue pledges on deforestation-free supply chains, this question addresses the first steps of a company’s engagement with its supply chain. This information allows investors and other CDP data users to assess corporate supply chain awareness. Organizations can benefit from disclosing this information by understanding the immediate risks and opportunities within their supply chains.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• This question refers to efforts to build the capacity of your suppliers to provide you with sustainable materials/products. Processors, traders, manufacturers and retailers are encouraged to engage with their direct suppliers to ensure that the raw materials sourced by them are produced sustainably, and to support the implementation of practices on the ground if suppliers are found to be noncompliant with policies, production or procurement standards.

Are you working with direct suppliers? (column 2)

• Indicate if you are working with your direct suppliers to build their capacity to meet your demand for sustainable materials. If you do not have any suppliers, then select the ‘Not applicable’ option.

Supplier engagement approach (column 3)

• If you are employing several approaches for engaging with your suppliers for each selected commodity, select all that apply.
• If none of the available options are suitable, or you would like to add another approach, select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.
• Note that if you selected ‘Not applicable’ in column 2 (Are you working with direct suppliers?), you will be unable to select any option in this column, for this specific row.

Please explain (column 4)

• Provide additional information on your supplier engagement approach, including details on the engagement strategy adopted, the number of suppliers working with the company and one or more examples of supplier engagement.
• If in column 2. the option "Not applicable" was selected, provide an explanation of why suppliers are not relevant for the company's business model and supply chain.
• If you are not working with your direct suppliers, explain the lack of a supplier engagement approach in your organization.

(F6.8) Are you working beyond your first-tier supplier(s) to manage and mitigate forests-related risks?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select 'Manufacturing' and/or ‘Retailing’ in response to F0.4.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F10.4)

Rationale

This question elicits data on supplier engagement at a deeper level down the supply chain. This information demonstrates to investors and other CDP data-users that organizations are working towards understanding and addressing any forests-related issues beyond only direct suppliers. Organizations can benefit from having a more comprehensive awareness of the risks and opportunities within their supply chain, and thus, being able to manage forests-related issues more holistically.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• Many companies have multi-tier supply chains, therefore, ‘beyond the first-tier’ refers to indirect suppliers (i.e. the suppliers of your suppliers). If your organization is engaging with indirect suppliers, please select 'Yes, working beyond first tier'.

Please explain (column 3)

• Describe what you are doing to engage indirect suppliers and reduce risk, by providing details on the type of project(s), type of engagement, any outcomes to date and any plans. Include information on the engagement strategy adopted, the number of indirect suppliers engaged and one or more examples of indirect supplier engagement.
• Examples might include: supplier conferences, undertaking factory or farm audits, and demonstrating that sourcing agreements or supplier improvement plans are in place.
• If in column 2 (Are you working beyond first tier?), "Not applicable" was selected, provide an explanation of why suppliers beyond the first tier are not relevant for the company's business model and supply chain.
• If you are not working with indirect suppliers, explain the reasons why this is not considered relevant by your company.

Explanation of terms

• First-tier supplier: in a multi-tiered supply chain, usually comprised of manufacturers and retailers value chains, the first-tier supplier is the company that provides goods or services directly to the purchasing organization. Therefore, first-tier suppliers are those at the first stage in a company’s upstream supply chain.

(F6.9) Do you participate in external initiatives or activities to further the implementation of your policies concerning the sustainability of your disclosed commodity(ies)?

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F9.3, F10.5)

Rationale

Getting involved in activities to influence the market of sustainable raw materials derived from forest risk commodities is important to drive an increase in supply and demand for these materials. Likewise, engaging in multi-stakeholder initiatives can offer opportunities for collaboration that could help your organization to improve its risk management strategy and production/sourcing practices. There may also be opportunities for driving innovation in the market, as well as for finding solutions to the challenges associated with the production and/or sourcing of sustainable raw materials.

This information provides insights to CDP investors and other data users on how pro-active your organization is in the forests public arena regarding the production and/or sourcing of sustainable raw materials.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

* Only shown if ‘Involved in multi-partnership or stakeholder initiatives' is selected in previous column.

Initiatives (column 4)

** Not shown for companies from the paper & forestry sector

Requested content

General

• Ensure that you respond to this question for all your disclosed forest risk commodity(ies) by adding at least one row for each selected commodity.

Forest risk commodity (column 1)

• You can add more than one row per commodity.

Do you participate in activities/initiatives? (column 2)

• If you participate in either an external activity or initiative that support the implementation of your policies/commitments concerning the sustainable production or consumption of your disclosed commodity(ies), select “Yes”.

Activities (column 3)

• If you participate in several activities or initiatives, add a new row for each.
• If none of the available options are suitable, select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete. If you need more than 40 characters, use column 5 (Please explain).

Initiatives (column 4)

• This column refers to the option “Involved in multi-partnership or stakeholder initiatives” in column 3.
• A list of major multi-stakeholder initiatives is provided for you to indicate which one(s) your organization is actively participating in. Note that some initiatives listed represent standard-setting organizations and you are only expected to select options in which your company is actively engaged, and not if you buy or produce certified products based on the standard.
• If you are involved in a multi-stakeholder initiative that is not listed, select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete. If you need more than 40 characters, use column 5 (Please explain).

Please explain (column 5)

• Provide additional information on your organization’s role on each of the selected activities/initiatives, e.g. in developing the scheme or finding solutions for the provision of a sustainable supply of the commodities. Provide examples, if applicable.
• If you selected ‘Other, please specify’ in column 3 or column 4, please describe the specified activity and/or initiative here.

Explanation of terms

• Multi-stakeholder initiative: initiative that is governed by different stakeholder groups, including private sector companies and their associations, civil society organizations (e.g., environmental and social NGOs) and possibly farmer organizations, government organizations and knowledge providers. (Source: SAI Platform, 2015).

Example response

Biodiversity restoration projects

(F-PF6.10) Does your organization have any project(s) focused on reforestation, habitat restoration, or habitat protection that are not part of your production cycle?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears for companies from the paper & forestry sector.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

Biodiversity restoration projects are key to achieve some forests-related commitments and have been strongly embraced by recent initiatives and forums as important actions to restore or preserve forests and/or other critical natural ecosystems. Organizations in the Paper & forestry sector are in an ideal position to implement these types of projects given their direct use of forests products. Therefore, many organizations in this sector have progressed with these types of actions.

This question gathers data on any projects organizations have implemented, or plan to implement in two years, that are related to restoration, reforestation and/or conservation of forests and other ecosystems. This information demonstrates to CDP’s investors and other data users that your organization is strongly committed and proactive towards sustainable forests stewardship.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Select one of the following options:

• Yes
• No, but we plan to implement a project(s) in two years
• No

Requested content

General

• This question is about projects your organization has in place for conserving or restoring natural habitats.
• Please note that projects related to planted or natural forests used for commercial purposes, i.e., forests that will be eventually harvested after a regeneration period, should not be included here.
• If your organization has no projects in place, but has concrete plans to implement a project in the next 2 years, select “No, but we plan to implement a project(s) in two years”. You can provide a brief description of your project in the comment box if you wish to do so by clicking on the “speech bubble” icon. This is optional.

Explanation of terms

• Reforestation: re-establishment of forest through planting and/or deliberate seeding on land classified as forest. (Source: FAO Forest Resources Assessment, Working Paper 180, 2015).
• Restoration: forest restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed (Source: SER, 2002).

(F-PF6.10a) Provide details on your project(s), including the extent, duration, and monitoring frequency. Please specify any measured outcome(s).

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Yes’ in response to F-PF6.10.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

This question gathers data on the projects your organization has implemented, or plan to implement in two years, that are related to restoration, reforestation and/or conservation of forests and other ecosystems. This information demonstrates to CDP’s investors and other data users that your organization is strongly committed and proactive towards sustainable forests stewardship.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table. The table is displayed over several rows for readability. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Requested content

Project reference (column 1)

• Please select a unique reference number for each project.
• You can provide a maximum of 10 different projects (Project 1 - Project 10). This reference number shall be used to track progress on your specific project in the following years.

Project type (column 2)

• The project can be focused on increasing the area of a protected habitat or on actions to improving the quality of the biological attributes of on a site impacted by your organization or within land owned/managed by your organization. See ‘Explanation of terms’ if further clarification is needed to define the project type.
• Only select “Biodiversity offsetting” if the project aims at compensating for impacts caused by your organization elsewhere.
• If none of the available options are appropriate to describe your project type, please select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to inform the project type. If you need more than 40 characters, please use column 4 (Description of project).

Primary motivation (column 3)

• Provide the primary reason for why your organization is implementing the disclosed project.
• In all cases, please provide details on the primary motivation in the “Description of project’ column.
• If none of the available options are appropriate to describe your motivation, please select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.

Description of project (column 4)

• Describe your project, including:

- If it is a regulatory requirement, indicate the reason why it was required and the legal basis;
- if it is related to certification, please specify the scheme and further information on criteria; or
- if voluntary, indicate reasons that have driven your company to take voluntary actions (e.g., financial incentives related to REDD+).

Start year (column 5)

• Inform here the start year of the project, e.g., the year an area was designated as set aside land or the year when the restoration of the area has started.

Target year (column 6)

• Indicate the year when you plan to achieve your target outcome(s).
• If the project involves long term and open-ended conservation of an area, select “Indefinitely”.
• If none of the available options are appropriate to describe your target year, please select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.

Project area to date (Hectares) (column 7)

• Indicate the area, in hectares, of the project in the reporting year.

Project area in the target year (Hectares) (column 8)

• If the project aims to increase the total area to be restored/afforested/reforested and/or under protection, please indicate the total area by the target year in hectares.
• If the project does not involve an increment of the total area, repeat here the same area already disclosed in column 7 (“Project area to date…”) and provide an explanation in column 13 (Please explain).

Latitude and Longitude (columns 9 and 10)

• Provide geographical coordinates of the project in decimal degrees (WGS84). The coordinates can be of any point within the area of the project.

Monitoring frequency (column 11)

• If the organization does not monitor the outcomes of the project, select “Never” and provide an explanation in column 13.

Measured outcomes to date (column 12)

• Select the types of indicators being monitored in your project..
• If none of the available options are appropriate to describe your indicators, please select ‘Other, please specify’ and a text box will appear for you to complete.

Please explain (column 13)

• Provide further details on the project, including explanation on monitoring frequency, monitoring methods, indicators measured and details on measured outcomes.
• If you selected ‘Never’ in column 11 (Monitoring frequency), provide your explanation here.
• If available, provide here the baseline date against which progress on measured outcomes of the project is tracked. This would be a point in the past you are able to provide reliable data on aspects covered by the measured outcomes informed in column 12 (Measured outcomes to date), e.g., biodiversity indicators and carbon sequestration.

Explanation of terms

• Afforestation: establishment of forest through planting and/or deliberate seeding on land that, until then, was not classified as forest, what implies a transformation of land use from non-forest to forest. (Source: FAO Forest Resources Assessment, Working Paper 180, 2015).
• Biodiversity offsetting: measures taken to compensate for any residual significant, adverse impacts that cannot be avoided, minimized and/or rehabilitated or restored, in order to achieve no net loss or a net gain of biodiversity. Offsets can take the form of positive management interventions such as restoration of degraded habitat, arrested degradation or averted risk, protecting areas where there is imminent or projected loss of biodiversity. (Source: Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme (BBOP). 2012).
• Latitude and longitude: Geographic coordinates that respectively specify the north-south and east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. These coordinates are expressed as angular measures: latitude can vary from 0 to +/-90; longitude can vary from 0 to +/-180.
• Reforestation: re-establishment of forest through planting and/or deliberate seeding on land classified as forest. (Source: FAO Forest Resources Assessment, Working Paper 180, 2015).
• Restoration: forest restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed (Source: SER, 2002).
• Set aside land: land owned/managed by the company that is not used for production or planned development and is set-aside for conservation purposes.

F7 Linkages and trade-offs

Pathway diagram - questions

This diagram shows the general questions contained in module F7. To access question-level guidance, use the menu on the left to navigate to the question.

Linkages and trade-offs

(F7.1) Has your organization identified any linkages or trade-offs between forests and other environmental issues in its direct operations and/or other parts of its value chain?

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

Organizations are encouraged to take a holistic approach to their response to impacts, risks, and opportunities due to the complex interrelationships between forests, climate, and water issues. Knowledge of the implications of your organization’s business activities and management actions on other environmental aspects besides forests, as well as the understanding of linkages and trade-offs between forests and other environmental issues, demonstrates a mature environmental stewardship approach.

Response options

Select one of the following options:

• Yes
• No

Requested content

General

• This question concerns linkages and trade-offs identified and/or considered when taking actions to manage impacts and risks or pursue opportunities related to forests.
• Linkages and trade-offs can occur in your direct operations and other parts of your value chain at local, national and regional levels.
• Select ‘Yes’ if you have identified either a linkage or a trade-off. You’ll be able to specify and provide details later.

Explanation of terms

• Linkage: a relationship where your management of forests has a positive impact on another environmental issue. For example, forests role in regulating the water cycle (which impacts local, regional, and continental climates), moderating flooding, and improving water security.
• Tradeoff: a relationship where your management of forests has a negative impact on another environmental issue. For example, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation may promote an increase in greenhouse gas emissions because of the loss of vegetation cover and unbalance of ecosystems functioning.

Additional information

• For more information on the linkages between forests, water security and climate change please see the below brief by WeForest:

https://www.weforest.org/newsroom/managing-forests-water-and-climate-cooling

• For a recent example of a forests tradeoff please see the below:

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/28/sao-paulo-water-amazon-deforestation

(F7.1a) Describe the linkages or trade-offs and the related management policy or action.

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Yes’ in response to F7.1.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

This question gathers details on your identified linkage/trade-offs.

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 13: Climate action

Goal 15: Life on land

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Type of linkage/tradeoff (column 2)

Requested content

General

• Select the linkages and/or tradeoffs, with other environmental issues besides forests, that have resulted from your organization’s management of forests.
• Note that this does not include linkages and/or tradeoffs with forests issues resulting from your organization’s management of other environmental issues.

Linkage/tradeoff and Type of linkage/tradeoff (columns 1 and 2)

• Your selection in column 1 determines the options shown in column 2.
• If none of the options are suitable, select ‘Other linkage (or tradeoff), please specify’ and enter a label for your linkage/trade-off in the text box.

Description of linkage/tradeoff (column 3)

• Describe how your organization’s approach to management of forests-related issues has revealed linkages or exposed trade-offs with other environmental issues
• Include in your description the observed and/or potential impacts of this linkage/trade-off to your business.
• State where in your value chain this linkage/trade-off was identified.

Policy or action (column 4)

• Please describe the management policy/action when facing the opportunity of the linkage or the challenge of the tradeoff between forests and other environmental issue, including specific details of how your policy/management action is integrated into your corporate strategy.

Explanation of terms

• Linkage: a relationship where your management of forests has a positive impact on another environmental issue. For example, forests role in regulating the water cycle (which impacts local, regional, and continental climates), moderating flooding, and improving water security.
• Soil conservation: preventing of soil loss from erosion or reduced fertility caused by over usage, acidification, salinization or other chemical soil contamination, caused by unsustainable agricultural methods, e.g., slash-and-burn.
• Soil degradation: a change in the soil health status resulting in a diminished capacity of the ecosystem to provide goods and services for its beneficiaries. Degraded soils have a health status such, that they do not provide the normal goods and services of the particular soil in its ecosystem (Source: FAO SOILS PORTAL).
• Tradeoff: a relationship where your management of forests has a negative impact on another environmental issue. For example, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation may promote an increase in greenhouse gas emissions because of the loss of vegetation cover and unbalance of ecosystems functioning.
• Water flow regulation: an increased retention of rainfall in porous forest soil and debris, and a reduction in stormwater runoff (Source: WRI, 2011).

(F7.1b) Why has your organization not identified any linkages or trade-offs between forests and other environmental issues?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘No' in response to F7.1.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

Knowledge of the implications of your organization’s business activities and management actions on other environmental aspects besides forests, as well as the understanding of linkages and trade-offs between forests and other environmental issues, demonstrates a mature environmental stewardship approach. Investors and other data users wish to understand the primary reason why you have not identified any linkage/trade-off as well as to learn about any plans to assess this in the near future.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• Select the overarching reason for why your organization has not identified any linkage/tradeoff or indicate if you have plans to evaluate this in the next two years.
• Only select ‘Not considered – but have plans to do so in the next two years’ if your company has already a drafted plan proposal under consideration or approved.

Comment (column 2)

• If your organization has plans to consider and address any potential linkages or tradeoffs in the future, you can include any information detailing your future plans.
• If your organization has not considered and has no plans to do so, you can provide your reasoning.

F8 Verification

Pathway diagram - questions

This diagram shows the general questions contained in module F8. To access question-level guidance, use the menu on the left to navigate to the question.

Verification

(F8.1) Do you verify any forests information reported in your CDP disclosure?

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

This question gathers data on whether your organization currently verifies the data and/or other information disclosed in this response. This provides assurance to the credibility/quality of the information provided and meets the expectations of data users. CDP supports third-party verification and assurance as good practice in environmental reporting since it ensures the accuracy of the data and processes disclosed. Therefore, this question allows companies that are already verifying data disclosed to CDP to report their efforts on this, and consequently highlights trends that CDP data users might anticipate being good practice among companies in the future. CDP recognizes the lack of universally applied verification standards in the forests space and therefore requests that you disclose the extent of any verification practices and the standards currently used. This information will guide future development of questions on verification.

Response options

Select one of the following options:

• Yes
• In progress
• No, but we are actively considering verifying in the next two years
• No, we are waiting for more mature verification standards/processes
• No, we do not verify any forests-related information reported in our CDP disclosure, and there are no plans to do so

Requested content

General

• CDP is asking about verification and/or assurance of data/procedures that is:

- undertaken by a third party (i.e., an independent body) and not by your own or partner organization;
- not performed due to requirements from a certification body. Information about certification should be disclosed in the ‘Certification and Sustainability standards’ section (F6.4).

• Please select the option that best describes your approach to verifying forests-related data contained within this disclosure.
• Select ‘Yes’ if you currently verify any data/information disclosed in this request. You’ll be able to provide further details later on.

Explanation of terms

• Third-party verification: verification procedure carried out by an independent organization that has no contractual obligation or direct economic interest with the contractor company.
• Verification: procedure used for checking that a product, process, service or system meets the requirements specified by a recognized and relevant standard.

(F8.1a) Which data points within your CDP disclosure have been verified, and which standards were used?

Question Dependencies

This question only appears if you select ‘Yes’ in response to F8.1.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

This question gathers data on the information disclosed to CDP that your organization currently verifies, and on the standards used.

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Requested content

General

• Add a new row for each type of data/process/system that is verified by your organization.

Disclosure module/Data points verified (columns 1 and 2)

• In column 1, add a new row for each module where the information reported is verified.
• If none of the options are suitable, select ‘Other, please specify’ and indicate your module in the text box.
• For each module selected, indicate the information and the question number(s) where the information was disclosed. For example, if you verify the disclosed data for percentage of total production volume certified, mention this data point in column 2 (Data points verified) and indicate it refers to question F6.4.

Verification standard (column 3)

• Describe the standard used to verify your information, including the verification body that provides the standard and explain why you have chosen this standard.

Please explain (column 4)

• Explain why your organization has chosen to verify the selected data/process/system with each given standard.
• Specify how often you perform this verification and the scope it encompasses, i.e., whether it applies to your direct operations only or to other parts of your value chain; or to only selected regions, facilities, products.

Additional information

• The CDP’s guidance for a credible verification standard establishes the following criteria:

- Relevance: The standard should specify that it relates to a third party audit or verification process; for a program related standard, third party verification should be specified as part of the program compliance.
- Competency: The standard should include a statement regarding competency of verifiers; where it is a program and verification parties are stipulated, competency is assumed to be determined by the second party and therefore need not be explicit in the standard.
- Independence: The standard should contain a requirement that ensures that impartiality is maintained in cases where the same external organization compiles and verifies a responding company’s inventory.
- Terminology: The standard should specify the meaning of any terms used for the level of the finding (e.g. limited assurance; reasonable assurance).
- Methodology: The standard should describe a methodology for the verification that includes the verification of the process and/or system controls and the data.
- Availability: The standard should be available for scrutiny.

F9 Barriers and challenges

Module Overview

This module provides the opportunity for organizations to report the key difficulties they experience in the process of removing deforestation/forest degradation from their value chains, as well the key actions to overcome these difficulties.

Discloser note

• The information requested in this module differs from that requested in Module 3 (Risks and opportunities). Here you should specify the challenges your organization currently experiences and not inherent risks that are likely to occur in the future associated with forests-related issues.

Key changes

• New structure to questions: open text to table

Pathway diagram - questions

This diagram shows the general questions contained in module F9. To access question-level guidance, use the menu on the left to navigate to the question.

Barriers and challenges

(F9.1) Describe the key barriers or challenges to avoiding forests-related risks in your direct operations or in other parts of your value chain.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F11.1)

Rationale

Improving the sustainability of forest risk commodity value chains is not an easy task. This question collects information about the obstacles or problems your organization is facing to remove or reduce deforestation/forest degradation from both its direct operations and other parts of its value chain. This will inform investors and other data users about the critical issues to be addressed in this field.

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Requested content

General

• Note that the information requested here differs from that asked in the risks question (F3.1b). Here you should specify the barriers/challenges you currently experience to removing or reducing deforestation/forest degradation from your value chain and not inherent risks that are likely to occur in the future.
• Barriers or challenges may be different for each commodity and in different parts of the value chain.
• You should disclose at least one barrier/challenge per commodity, having in mind all your disclosed commodities reported in F0.5. If your barrier/challenge is the same for more than one commodity, you should add one row per relevant commodity and explain that in column 4 (Comment).

Forest risk commodity (column 1)

• Select the forest risk commodity associated with your identified key barrier or challenge. It is possible to disclose more than one barrier/challenge per commodity, as far as you consider them to be critical.

Primary barrier/challenge type (column 3)

• Select the option that best describes the key barrier/challenge to removing deforestation/forest degradation from any part of your value chain. Note that this question does not refer to your risks identified from a forests-related risk assessment, but rather to issues that you experience and have been unable to overcome, neither have a response in place to address it.
• If you none of the options are suitable, select ‘Other, please specify’ and provide a label for your barrier/challenge. You’ll be able to provide further details in the Comment column (column 4).

Comment (column 4)

• Use this column to provide further information, if needed. You may include a description of the barrier/challenge and provide a company-specific example of how this barrier has affected your business, by indicating:

- specify which regions, facilities or products are affected
- indicate how long you have been facing this problem
- indicate how much of your production/consumption is affected

Note for SMEs

• Your barriers/challenges might differ from the options offered in column 3 as SME challenges can be different to larger producers, if this is the case, select ‘Other, please specify’ and specify your barrier/challenge in the text box.
• Provide further details in column 4 about your barrier/challenges if you wish so.

(F9.2) Describe the main measures that would improve your organization’s ability to manage forests-related risks.

Change from 2017

Modified question (2017 F11.2)

Rationale

This question gathers information on the main measures identified by your organization that could resolve the main challenges it is facing to remove or reduce deforestation/forest degradation from both its direct operations and other parts of its value chain. This will inform investors and other data users about what can be done to solve those matters and could underpin future decisions to support your organization in overcoming these challenges.

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Requested content

General

• Measures employed to overcome barriers or challenges to removing or reducing deforestation/forest degradation risks may be different for each commodity and in different parts of the value chain.
• You should disclose at least one measure per commodity, having in mind all your disclosed commodities reported in F0.5. If your measure is the same for more than one commodity, you should add one row per relevant commodity, repeat the measure, and state in column 4 (Comment) that this is the case.

Forest risk commodity (column 1)

• Select the forest risk commodity associated with your identified measure. It is possible to disclose more than one measure per commodity, as far as you consider them to be critical.

Main measure (column 3)

• Select the option that best describes your measure used to remove deforestation/forest degradation from any part of your value chain.
• If you none of the options are suitable, select ‘Other, please specify’ and provide a label for your measure. You’ll be able to provide further details in column 4 (Comment).

Comment (column 4)

• Use this column to provide further information, if needed. You may:

- provide details on how this measure would assist your business to manage forests-related risks;
- indicate your role in undertaking this measure;
- if you are unable to undertake this measure by yourself, indicate which stakeholders are more likely to support you in this process.

F10 Signoff

Pathway diagram - questions

This diagram shows the general questions contained in module F10. To access question-level guidance, use the menu on the left to navigate to the question.

Signoff

(F10.1) Provide the following information for the person that has signed off (approved) your CDP forests response.

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 F12.1)

Rationale

CDP asks companies to identify the job title and corresponding job category of the person signing off (approving) the CDP response.

This information signals to investors where in the corporate structure direct responsibility is being taken for the response and the information contained therein.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• Enter the job title for the person who has approved this disclosure to CDP.
• If you select “Other, please specify”, provide a label for the corresponding job category. If you need more than 40 characters, please use the comment box by clicking on the “speech bubble” icon.
• Note that this question asks about the position and not about the name of the individual holding this position. Do not include the name of any individual or any other personal data in your response.

SF Supply chain

Module Overview

The SF module is for companies responding to the CDP forests questionnaire at the request of one or more customers, who are members of CDP's supply chain program. This module has been developed following consultation with both suppliers and the member companies that are their customers. Its purpose is to facilitate improved understanding for customers of their supplier’s management of forests-related issues through a set of supplier-specific questions.

This module allows companies to report information to their customers, including details regarding the percentage of certified volume sold and projects for collaboration.The information disclosed here builds on information that CDP supply chain members are particularly interested in elsewhere in the forests questionnaire.

Please note that your response to the SF module is not scored.

Key changes

• New question on the percentage of commodity sold to customer that is certified by a third party.
• New question on ISIN code will facilitate data analysis and the organization’s identification in the system.
• New question on the outcomes of collaboration with supply chain members.

Pathway diagram - questions

This diagram shows the supply chain questions contained in module SF. To access question-level guidance, use the menu on the left to navigate to the question.

Supply chain introduction

(SF0.1) What is your organization's annual revenue for the reporting period?

Change from 2017

Minor change (2017 SF0.4)

Rationale

Annual revenue for the reporting period provides contextual information for requesting CDP supply chain members.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

General

• Enter a numerical value for the revenue, in the same currency specified in F0.3 and consistent with the reporting period that was disclosed in F0.2.

(SF0.2) Do you have an ISIN for your organization that you are willing to share with CDP?

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

If available, responding companies should disclose their ISIN. ISIN codes are used globally in the identification of securities such as bonds, futures, and stocks. This unique identifier is critical for tracking your response through CDP's data system and this facilitates data analysis.

Response options

Select one of the following options:

• Yes
• No

Requested content

General

• Select ‘Yes’ if you have been issued an ISIN code for a security by a National Numbering Agency (NNA).

Explanation of terms

• ISIN: The International Securities Identification Number is a 12-character alphanumeric code used to identify a security, such as a stock or bond. It is structured with the first two digits referencing the country of origin for the security. The second grouping consists of nine characters and is the unique identifying code for the security, in the U.S. and Canada this is known as the CUSIP number. The final digit is the check digit, which ensures the authenticity of the code. (Adapted from www.isin.org)

(SF0.2a) Please share your ISIN in the table below.

Question dependencies

This question only appears if you select 'Yes' in response to SF0.2.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

This question gathers details on your ISIN code.

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Requested content

ISIN country code (column 1)

• Input the two-letter code as issued in accordance with ISO 3166 based on the country of origin of the issuer of the security.

ISIN numeric identifier (column 2)

• Disclose the nine characters made up of digits and letters that are the identifier code, or CUSIP code in U.S. & Canada, plus the check digit which ensures the authenticity of the code.

Explanation of terms

• ISIN: or International Securities Identification Number is a 12-character alphanumeric code used to identify a security, such as a stock or bond. It is structured with the first two digits referencing the country of origin for the security. The second grouping consists of nine characters and is the unique identifying code for the security, in the U.S. and Canada this is known as the CUSIP number. The final digit is the check digit, which ensures the authenticity of the code. (Source: ISIN)

Example response

Certified volume sold

(SF1.1) On F6.4 you were asked “Do you specify any third-party certification schemes for your disclosed commodity(ies)? Indicate the volume and percentage of your production and/or consumption covered”. Can you also indicate, for each of your disclosed commodity(ies), the percentage of certified volume sold to each requesting CDP supply chain member?

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

This information will provide clarity to CDP supply chain members on the percentage of the total commodity volume bought from your organization that is certified by a third-party. This meets the transparency expectations from requesting members, and allows companies to disclose their progress on securing a supply of sustainable raw materials and/or products.

Response options

Select one of the following options:

• Yes
• Partially
• Don’t know
• No
• No requesting members purchase goods and services from my company that contain forest risk commodities

Requested content

General

• This question refers to third-party certified raw materials and/or products that your company sells to each CDP supply chain requesting member.
• You should select ‘Yes’ if you can specify the percentage of all volume sold to a member that is certified by a third party, as follows:

• You should select ‘Partially’ if you can provide the percentage of certified volume sold for only a selection of requesting members and/or disclosed commodity(ies).
• Select ‘Don’t know’ only if you are unaware of the percentage that is certified.
• Select ‘No’ if you are unable to disclose publicly this information or if none of your raw materials/products are certified by a third party.
• You will be able to provide more information with regards to the certified volume sold in subsequent questions.
• You should select ‘No requesting members purchase goods and services from my company that contain forest risk commodities’ only if you do not sell any raw materials/products containing the forest risk commodities disclosed in F0.5 to any requesting member.

Explanation of terms

• Certification: the action or process of providing a product with an official document attesting to a status or level of achievement against a certain standard.
• Third-party certification: when a certification process is carried out by an independent organization.

(SF1.1a) For each of your requesting CDP supply chain members, indicate the percentage of certified volume sold per disclosed commodity(ies).

Question dependencies

This question only appears if you select 'Yes' or 'Partially' in response to SF1.1.

Change from 2017

New question

Rationale

This question gathers details on the percentage of the total commodity volume bought from your organization that is certified by a third party, on the certification schemes used and forms of commodities that are certified,

Response options

Please complete the following table. You can add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

[Add Row]

Form of commodity (column 3)

Third-party certification scheme (column 4)