CDP, the leading global platform for corporate environmental disclosures, is reducing its workforce by 20% as part of a broader strategic shift toward technological upgrades and operational efficiency. The layoffs, which will occur across departments and regions throughout 2024, come in response to rising costs and a push to streamline the organisation’s data services.
As of March 2024, CDP employed 541 staff across 15 countries. The organisation collects environmental data from over 23,000 companies annually. However, it faced operational difficulties last year following the introduction of a consolidated questionnaire covering climate, forests, and water, and the launch of a new data submission portal. These changes proved burdensome for companies and delayed CDP’s annual scoring release to February, rather than the traditional year-end timeline.
According to Shannon Joly, CDP’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, the layoffs are necessary to address a gap between rising operating costs and revenue. The organisation will redirect resources toward technological improvements, aiming to reduce the time required for companies to complete disclosures by up to 70%.
The overhaul is being led by new CEO Sherry Madera, appointed in October 2023. She has since recruited Ian Brocklehurst, formerly of the London Stock Exchange, to lead product development, and Kari Stoever as Chief Growth Officer. The team plans to introduce a more tailored approach to disclosures, allowing companies to respond to questions aligned with their regulatory or investor obligations, such as those under the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
As part of its modernisation efforts, CDP also plans to restore public access to its disclosure platform, which has been offline in recent months. Brocklehurst will focus on improving how third parties, including financial data providers like Bloomberg, access CDP’s environmental data.
CDP says these changes are necessary to maintain its role as a global standard-setter in environmental disclosure, particularly amid increasing regulatory divergence worldwide.
