CDP is a questionnaire, not a standard

This distinction matters more in practice than it sounds.

A standard sets how to calculate. A questionnaire sets what has to be answered. And a box left unanswered shows up in the score.

The problem CDP stated itself

CDP published a technical note mapping which Scope 3 categories are relevant by sector. Its introduction is honest about why the map is needed.

The criteria GHG Protocol offers for judging Scope 3 relevance are qualitative, so interpretations diverge. The result is written like this:

companies may end up measuring and reporting on categories that are easy to calculate (e.g. business travel) rather than the categories where most of their emissions occur but that are harder to calculate.

How easy is what is being measured

The same document puts a number on it. Category 6, "business travel", and category 7, "employee commuting", are described as negligible across all high-impact sectors, at an average of 0.10% and 0.20% of total Scope 3 emissions respectively.

If business travel emissions are being compiled with care, that care is going into 0.1% of the total.

Where the rest of it is, is in the next article.

※ This article cites CDP's technical note "Relevance of Scope 3 Categories by Sector", version 3.0 (revised 28 June 2024), as checked on 8 August 2026.

This article expands one section of LCS international standards analysis 2, Where CDP Puts Transport. The full report works from the CDP technical note itself (v3.0, 2024-06-28) as its primary source with page numbers given, and does not fill in figures the document does not contain.